Only in America??

 
Don't mean to knock our country cousins, but how is this possible?

Charles Darwin film 'too controversial for religious America'
A British film about Charles Darwin has failed to find a US distributor because his theory of evolution is too controversial for American audiences, according to its producer.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/6173399/Charles-Darwin-film-too-controversial-for-religious-America.html

 

I'm guessing that it has to be advance publicity stuff, and in a week or so, all problems will be solved.

Otherwise...  too sad to think about.

I'm surprised about this one. They allow all kinds O' raunchy filth in this country. Why block a movie about Darwin? I can think of a lot more offensive movies than this. There must be more to the story. I agree with LE. Perhaps a publicity stunt?

I am NOT surprised.  We have several American teachers here from Missouri State.  I have been told emphatically that the earth is only 6000 years old.  That it was made with all the old stuff  here, but the old stuff is only 6000 years old too.

They definitely do not believe in evolution.

I'm surprised about this one. They allow all kinds O' raunchy filth in this country. Why block a movie about Darwin? I can think of a lot more offensive movies than this. There must be more to the story. I agree with LE. Perhaps a publicity stunt?

Yeah, I agree. Must be a publicity stunt, or else they just figured it wouldn't sell. All sorts of ridiculous stuff gets picked up for distribution in the States, and certainly movies have been made before which have upset the religious right. Bill Maher recently made "Religulous" which, if you've seen it, you'd agree, goes well beyond a Darwin story. In fact, it completely mocks organized religion, and yet somehow it was released in the oh-so-backwards USA, so I really doubt this is the full story.

As an aside, I'm an American and I definitely do believe in evolution. In fact, I don't think I personally know a single person who doesn't. 

I didn't really believe the figures in teh article, so checked.

And a brand-new Gallup poll tied to Darwin's birthday finds that just 39% of Americans believe in evolution.

As expected, Gallup notes, education plays a big role here: 74% of those with post-graduate degrees believe in evolution. That's compared with only 21% of high school grads (or those with less education) who believe in the theory.

Ditto religion: 55% who don't attend church believe in evolution, versus 24% of weekly churchgoers who believe in it.

So, if most people we know actually believe in evolution - what is the factor which makes them say they don't believe in it for a poll??  Is there some form of influence that says if you believe in evolution you are moving against the general belief of the USA - what sort of conditioning would make people say something like this in an anonymous poll. 

Look at all of the really dodgy stuff people admit to in the Kinsey research projects - but this one they run deep on?? 

A lot of those that don't believe  are also home schooled.  There are even Universities that take the students from home schooling.  The ultra Christian schools.

I am talking mid-west here but there are many many who do not believe in evolution in the USA.

I am Canadian and I do believe in evolution but I am saying many of the teachers from the USA at my University here in China do NOT believe.

I would tend to believe the poll, because unless they are about choices people make at a certain time (voting patterns) they can be pretty accurate.

This is scary!!

I don't know if the Gallup poll is accurate or not. I don't really think that people who believe in evolution would lie and say they don't, but I don't know how the poll was worded or what the choices were, was it a simple "evolution: yes or no?" And if you click on the poll itself, 36% have no opinion either way, with only 25% saying they actively don't believe in it. I think that's an important distinction, because if you add the number of people who just don't care to the number of people who believe, it is a clear and strong majority who do NOT have fundementalist religious views. The poll itself says that belief in evolution rises with education level, so that would sort of account for the discrepancy between our experiences and the results of the poll. My sample group is mostly people who have at the very least a college degree, so it makes sense that I know people who believe in evolution.

But even assuming the poll is accurate, I still don't think that's the reason why the film hasn't been picked up yet. I can think of loads of films that mock religion or that the religious right took issue with that did get distribution. Maybe its the economy, maybe the film is too cerebral and not commercial enough, or maybe it just isn't that great a movie, but there's really absolutely nothing to prove the claim that studios have caved to pressures of fundementalists. Since when have the studios done that?

A film about Darwin is not easily marketed in the US. Most moviegoers wouldn't be interested in seeing it in the theaters (TV miniseries or direct to DVD might work). I don't think it has that much to do with the religious nuts--if it did, a lot of other movies wouldn't be in theaters.

I would be happy to buy that, as a movie, it was too cerebral, not a great movie, or the economy - if other countries had not taken it up.  If we agree with those reasons then we are actually saying that Americans are not smart enough or unable to understand cerebral movies, that there is a very different taste in movies between the US and the rest of the world, including Canada, or that the economy in America is MUCH worse than in Europe and so the US is no longer the world financial powerhouse.

I don't think the USAnians among us would take too kindly to that analysis.

So - it comes back to - is it a publicity beat-up, or has the religious right increased its power to such an extent that anything contrary to those beliefs are now being given short shrift??

I don't see how claiming that the movie is being blocked by the religious right is any less insulting to Americans than saying that its would be hard to sell because it is a slow-paced intellectual biopic set in the 19th century? Movie studios are in it to make money, and perhaps the producer priced the movie out of the indy market but the bigger distributors weren't interested -- slow paced biopics are hard to sell. It doesn't mean Americans are stupid, it just means that this isn't the sort of film that American audiences flock to the theaters to see. Other countries picking it up is meaningless unless we know how much it was sold for and how much he was asking in America. I'm sure the price of distribution rights for say, Sweden, and those for the USA are not at all the same.

The only person claiming that this movie is not being picked up because it is too controversial is the producer, and that's hardly an objective source. There's no evidence backing up his claim, no American company saying "yes, we passed on this one because it would upset the masses."  This is a very clever PR stunt, because American studios actually love controversy, the more controversial the better, and the movie they couldn't sell before suddenly has an angle which makes it actually more marketable.

I'll say it again --  movies like Religulous, Saved!, Dogma and The Da Vinci Code, all of which were super controversial, have been released in the States. Religulous was released only last year and it openly ridiculed religion. Seriously, Bill Maher goes into churches and antagonizes religious people, mocks Mormons, provokes Creationists, and pretty much sets out to prove that being religious is akin to having some kind of mental disorder. There is absolutely no way that a movie like that could get picked up but the Darwin biopic is too controversial.

Sorry, this topic is sort of bugging me because I think the very idea that the religious right is somehow blocking a film is ridiculous, and this is the sort of thing that just reaffirms negative stereotyping of Americans as uneducated uncultured hicks, and it annoys me that the producer would go there. Sure, the extreme religious fundementalists are a powerful minority, and a force to be reckoned with in America for a number of reasons, but they don't have veto power over Hollywood movies. They don't have that much power.

It sure does stink of a beat up to me. Let's get us some publicity!

I know many good films are passed over because they are brilliant but indy/slow/edgy etc. but this one just doesn't wash with me. If it was a good film it would be picked up, if not - so be it.

Couple of quotes from the article.....

"Movieguide.org, an influential site which reviews films from a Christian perspective, described Darwin as the father of eugenics and denounced him as "a racist, a bigot and an 1800s naturalist whose legacy is mass murder". His "half-baked theory" directly influenced Adolf Hitler and led to "atrocities, crimes against humanity, cloning and genetic engineering", the site stated.

The film has sparked fierce debate on US Christian websites, with a typical comment dismissing evolution as "a silly theory with a serious lack of evidence to support it despite over a century of trying".

And.....

"Early reviews have raved about the film. The Hollywood Reporter said: "It would be a great shame if those with religious convictions spurned the film out of hand as they will find it even-handed and wise."

Some websites scorned it, so what? If Religulous can get out there this film can - presuming it is as good as the review there says. I'm not sure the so-called religious right have THAT much power over film releases.