Thursday, August 23, 2007

Renowned Oscar-Winning Actress Comments Publicly On Matters She Doesn't Understand

I don't know what Jodie Foster could be thinking, unless maybe she's thinking that the Brady Bunch needs a popularity infusion in a hurry and this is a job for . . . a celebrity!

So Jodie Foster thinks we need gun control because, and I quote,
"I don’t really believe that a human being who feels [things] should have the option at their fingertips."
Uh, OK.

So, vulcans still have the right to keep and bear arms, though, right? Also robots. But not them touchy-feely Speilberg-style robots, mind you--just the real, honest, Asimov kind--the ones with three rules and zero feelings. And also:
"Hunting, I get that – let’s protect hunting. But . . . "
Now, class, when someone says such a stupid thing, it tells us three things about her. The first is that, obviously, she thinks the gun control debate is about hunters vs. educated people from cities. That in turn tells us that she doesn't understand the most basic principles of the debate and is therefore unqualified to comment. The third thing we learn, because a celebrity told us she "gets" something, is that she doesn't get it. I know it probably seems less than generous, but could we just stop and consider what Jodie Foster's qualification to judge these matters might be? What is her expertise when it comes to guns? Is she a shooter? Collector? Competitor? Police officer? Soldier?

Oh, there it is, right in the Brady press release:

"Ms. Foster started her career at the age of two. She received an Academy Award nomination in the "Best Supporting Actress" category in 1976 for Taxi Driver. In 1980, she graduated as the best of her class from the College Lycée Français and began to study English Literature at Yale University, from where she graduated magna cum laude in 1985. She received two Oscars before she was thirty, her first for her part as Sarah Tobias in The Accused (1988) and the second one for her performance as Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs (1991)."
You have to admit, if she'd expressed an opinion about acting, that would be damned impressive. Besides, that last bit was kind of funny--
Clarice Starling would eat her custom .45 with the skateboard tape if she knew who played her in the movie.*

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm up for the role of Lenny in Of Mice and Men and I think I'll head down to Birds 'n Brooks and see if ol' Dale has a box of .45 and some advice on finding myself in the moment and fully expressing the character. He doesn't have any training in acting, but he's got opinions (mostly revolving around John Wayne) and he's been selling guns longer than Jodie Foster's been acting, even though he didn't start at the age of two. Seriously, Brady Campaign, you used to be cool. It used to be trendy to hang with you. Have you been reduced to begging for scraps like this? What's next? Nicole Richie gonna write a white paper on assault weapons?



*It's been a long time. If I got the gun wrong, mock me in comments.

6 comments:

Matt G said...

She didn't get into 1911s, competitive shooting, etc, until after the arrest of Jame Gumb. She was a veteran shooter by the time Harris portrayed her in Hannibal.

In the climax scene of Silence Of The Lambs, she does a magnificently realistic panic reload of a K-frame revolver.

In the Hollywood version of Hannibal, they put an HK USP in her holster. Bah. Why not follow the book?

Don said...

"Renowned Illinois Schoolteacher Publicly Comments on Books and Movies He Doesn't Really Remember."

:)

BobG said...

"I don’t really believe that a human being who feels [things] should have the option at their fingertips."

You mean like this guy "?

What's next, people with feelings shouldn't have knives, hammers, or baseball bats?

SpeakerTweaker said...

Just further proof that folks (who don't know s__t from Shinola) who would prefer to have Big Brother do all the protectin' always have bigger mouths than brains.

Yes, when I feel* I get a little itch in my triggerfinger. So sue me.

*Feel, that is, that my life is in immediate jeopardy, and there's only me to protect me.



tweaker

Brass said...

Her new movie, The Brave One, is a revenge/vigilante flick. She may have been channeling the character she plays when she made those silly statements. Apparently, the character's boyfriend is beaten to death and she goes all Death Wishy, if her character could do this she would want to think that real people would do this, otherwise her character isn't valid and she feels a failure as an actor.

Don said...

I wondered about that, too, once I saw the trailer. My first thought, though, was "What vigilante?"

From the tone of the trailer she must go on a rampage eventually, and maybe they're just showing her first "victim," but in the trailer the guy she shoots is one of a pair who advance menacingly on a lone woman on the subway. The Future First Victim (FFV) pulls out a knife as the other comments "You make this too easy."
Then the FFV smiles at her and licks his knife blade while continuing to advance.

At that point, the lone woman on the subway with the knife-wielding maniacs shoots them.

This is a shoulder-shrugging moment. I'm sure he was Getting His Life Together, you know, about to go back to junior college and maybe planning on giving up some or all narcotics--but what he did instead gets you shot, and in the real world, nobody but your mama cares very much.

Maybe the idea was to get the viewer to pump a fist and shout "Yeah, sister!" before the trailer goes on to shock you with how far she goes, causing you to think back on how glibly you cheered her seemingly justifiable violence. Possibly you are also supposed to feel ashamed that you approved that this white woman killed, not only a young man in the flower of his youth, but a young black man.

However, I am just not that deep. I like it when people defend themselves, and I only grant permission to manipulate me emotionally when I feel like it. Otherwise, it ticks me off.