Director/Actor Kevin Smith To Attack Christians/Republicans in New 'Horror' Movie


Is the Clerks and Dogma creator next going to attack middle America, Conservatives, Republicans and Christians in an upcoming movie? It certainly seems so with a recent interview he gave that appears on the moviefan website called Rottentomatoes.com.

Smith, known for his irreverent skewering of conventional mores, seems to be in the midst of production on a horror movie based on a "Fred Phelps" styled character.

UK audiences recently saw documentary journalist Louis Theroux spend time with members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas, a controversial church group made largely of members of the Phelps family and run by preacher Fred Phelps. Infamous in America for taking a supremely homophobic stance and for picketing the funerals of soldiers killed in Iraq, the group see media interviews as a platform for airing their views and the word of their founder, Fred Phelps.

"That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on," Smith told us, "The movie's called 'Red State' and it's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Phelps himself but it's very much inspired by a Phelps figure."

Red State, huh? Can you just guess what that means? "Red" as in Republican, "horror" as in the horror of Conservative ideals? Along with another Smith attack on religion, I can imagine how badly he is going to treat the average American in "flyover" country with this one.

Think I am reading too much into it. Well, read more of director Smith's interview.

But while Smith is convinced that "horror" is the right definition for the film, he's not so sure audiences will agree. "To me there's all kinds of horror, and killing someone's not the absolute worst thing you could do to another human being," he said, "The death in a horror movie has always been the money shot in a very exploitative manner. Stabbing somebody and splashing blood all over them is the equivalent to some dude exploding over some broad's face.

All kinds of "horror" like voting for George W. Bush, I'd lay odds.

Still think I am reaching or over reacting?

Try this...

"And to me, too, the notion of using a Phelps-like character as a villain, as horrifying and scary as that guy can be, there's even something more insidious than him that lurks out there in as much as a public or a government that allows it and that's the other thing that I'm trying to examine in a big, big way."

It seems pretty obvious he is planning on attacking Republicans and Conservative America. That would be you and me, folks.

And the worst part about this is that Smith seems to equate a hatemonger like Fred Phelps to “red state” America as if all conservatives, Republicans or middle class Americans support that brand of debauchery and stupidity!

Finally, here is his last jab...

"We're going to shoot it somewhere in the middle of the country, in a true red state."

I find Hollyweird amusing. Smith, like many of his like-minded fellows, imagines himself to be a satirist of American life, haunting the human condition and mining pop culture. Yet, somehow, he never seems to find room in his supposed commentary of "things as they are" for a jab at leftist ideas or liberal icons.

Are Liberals not funny? Do they not have over the top or obscene aspects of their beliefs fit to be satirized by the likes of a Kevin Smith? Far from it, there is plenty. To make you laugh out loud all I have to do is mention the names Cindy Sheehan or Teddy Kennedy and you'd realize how ripe the left is for satire.

But, for all their claims of being equal opportunity offenders, people like Smith never attack that rich field of material that is the left. Because, to them, it's fine to ridicule religion, Republicans, the right, middle America, in fact MOST of what makes America great, because that is someone else’s beliefs… it is the beliefs of the “them”. But to attack the shibboleths of the left, well, THAT would be a step toward THEIR religion and that would be a step too close to home.

Folks like Smith are nothing if not hypocrites in their assumption of their own anti-establishmentism because they stand foursquare behind the established leftism of Hollyweird. Their oxen would never be gored because they fear the attempt would reveal the emptiness of their own world.


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"Is the Clerks and Dogma

"Is the Clerks and Dogma creator next going to attack middle America, Conservatives, Republicans and Christians in an upcoming movie? It certainly seems so....."

Attacking middle Americans, Conservatives, Christians, Conservatives and Republicans ---

How bold,  how brave,  how daring,  how downright original!

.. no kidding! He IS a brave

.. no kidding! He IS a brave one, eh? Why his pals in Hollywierd will be SHOCKED at his bravery and iconoclast nature! It's SO unexpected!

Yep. Al Gore and his tubby 

Yep. Al Gore and his tubby commrade Michael Moore set the new trend in Hollywood--- go after conservatives and Republicans and receive awards and accolades from the liberal film industry. Should we really be surpised with Kevin Smith?

That was my first thought, to

That was my first thought, too.   What would really be chic is a movie depicting horrors of Liberalism. 

Some movie topics could include: 

How pacifism leads to wars which are much more devastating than they otherwise might have been (i.e. WWII).

How unrestricted abortion has caused the devaluing of human life.

How phony environmentalism has doomed the 3rd world to continued poverty and deprivation.

How the so-called "sexual revolution" has destroyed families, ruined lives, and spread diseases which have debilitated and/or killed millions.

Talk about horror!

I wouldn't worry too much abo

I wouldn't worry too much about this one.

I used to be a huge Smith fan until I converted, which in fact was right before he started filming Dogma.

Smith not only draws a very select niche-demographic, but his fanbase is made up of the male "slacker generation," who are swiftly approaching their 30s.  

Thankfully, many of them are in fact moving on, like me. =) 

-PJ

I am John Doe!

"Clerks"

Having watched "Clerks" I'll have to say it MUST be niche-demographic. It maybe had one or two moments, but overall it really sucked!!! Obviously low budget aimed a stoners. Good thing I only borrowed the DVD to watch it, because I would not have allowed someone to pay ME to watch it. I'd have rather watched paint dry. ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz......

"Eventually, Socialists run out of other peoples' money...." MARGARET THATCHER

I saw Clerks way back when i

I saw Clerks way back when it was first released on video. I totally identified with it. I was about the same age, I had the same kind of jobs/hobbies, and it was overall like the characters were living my life.

Clerks was huge. It became a sleeper hit and made Smith alot of money. I also liked Mallrats and Chasing Amy because I was going through relationships that were just like it (including the crazy bi-girl. . .sigh).

But like I said. People change. When Smith made Clerks 2, he hyped it to death. There was a banner ad on almost every remotely related pop-culture forum on the internet. But it tanked. In fact, it bombed hard. Why? No one related to the characters anymore, and it didn't have the low-budget charm of the first.

I watched the last few minutes of Dogma while trying to find something to rent at a video store, and realized Smith doesn't know a single thing about Jesus or the Bible ("beep!" Oh my Alanis, how deep; how profound).

For example, there were in fact FOURTEEN Apostles in the Bible, counting Matthias and Paul. This causes anyone who have read even the Cliff's notes to the book of Acts see Chris Rock's little two-dimensional joke character fall with a thud.  

-PJ 

I am John Doe!

Chasing Amy

Oh, I forgot...Chasing Amy sucked too. God that was an awful movie. Silent Bob better not quit his day job....if he even has one. If those two movies were some of his best work......geez.

"Eventually, Socialists run out of other peoples' money...." MARGARET THATCHER

Smith is representative of on

Smith is representative of one of the biggest things wrong with our society today. A stunted growth, a sense of perpetual adolescence. He has never grown up. He has the brain of an 18 year-old. He thinks poopy jokes and curse words directed at "the man" is the height of intellectual achievement.

He is the permanent teenager ensconced in comic books and beer bashes.

It's kind of sad, really.

No wonder so many young women don't see a reason to get married. The "men" out there that are their age are useless.

And every time I see him on

And every time I see him on TV or wherever, he's dressed like a teenager too. I'm not worried about this so much, only immature people are going to have to see it. And since it is a horror movie which he will also try to make humorous, it will quickly and easily be forgotten...it won't stand the test of time compared to the horror film greats.

"There is a time to take counsel of your fears, and there is a time to never listen to any fear." --General George S. Patton, Jr.

I like the Kevin Smith flicks

I like the Kevin Smith flicks.  I've seen Clerks, Dogma, and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, and found them to be quite hilarious (and in the case of Dogma, extremely irreverent).  That is especially the case with Clerks, which was very much dialogue-driven in much the same way Pulp Fiction is. 

But you bring up a good point.  I first saw Clerks ten years ago, and I did identify with the characters.  But people change.  I didn't even bother watching Clerks 2, just instinctively thinking it wouldn't be nearly as good as the first. 

If Smith were truly thinking about it, he wouldn't make anything blatantly political like this, because he is throwing half his audience out the window.  Clerks cut across such lines and reached those of us who identified with the characters, and permitted us to escape (gasp!) the real world for an hour or two.  Injecting politics into your work is a sure-fire way NOT to allow for any escapist element and is a sure-fire way to doom your work in terms of entertainment value. 

For the record, the only thing that truly, deeply offended me about Dogma was that screechy, no-talent Alanis Morrisette playing the role of God.  Can there be a bigger embarrassment to the otherwise beautiful city of Ottawa?

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

unsane -- yeah, Jay and Sil

unsane -- yeah, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back was very funny. As was Clerks. Dogma had its moments.

And Smith did a very funny in-joke cameo as a slimey store clerk in an episode of Veronica Mars.

A lib***l is a deluded person who thinks that what he believes is true simply because he wants it to be true.
Therefore reality must be shifted left to fit his odd perceptions.

Unsane

Uns,

Well, I'm glad to see someone take the other side here. At the risk of getting myself in trouble, I too like Kevin Smith. When "Clerks" was first released, I found it quite refreshing and extraordinary. The first time I saw it, I was having a hard time not laughing myself out of my chair.

Granted, watching it now, it seems a bit dated and somewhat sophomoric. However, is it possibly because we've aged? Who knows?

That said, I think "Chasing Amy" is an extraordinary film that has held up quite well. I've seen it recently, and found the content and the dialogue to be quite exceptional. I'm not a Ben Affleck fan at all, but I felt he was tremendous in this film. And, since most movies and books these days have terrible endings, I found the conclusion and the denouement to be brilliant.

Ditto for "Dogma," which I still see as one of the funniest films in many years. I watched it with my son again in December, and felt it was marvelous.

Are these vulgar films, maybe to the point of the profanity being gratuitous? Sure. Do I prefer more family-oriented fare at this stage of my life? Certainly. But, there is so little interesting dialogue in movies today which instead now rely on special effects and violence to shock and compel. As a result, I think stories and dialogue have waned in the past couple of decades.

With that in mind, I can get passed the vulgarity and the sometimes offensive content of Smith's films and just appreciate the discussions that ensue between the clearly bizarre characters.   JMHO.   ns

Noel, I have to admit my tast

Noel, I have to admit my tastes in humor are not exactly mainstream.  My sense of humor tends to be quite dark; however, I leave plenty of room for items that can only be described as utterly sophomoric and immature.  There was a time when my life came to a complete stop whenever Mystery Science Theater 3000 or Beavis & Butt-head were on.  If I find them on TV, I absolutely stop and watch them.

But like I said before, Clerks is extremely dialogue driven.  If you ask me, the scene where they are discussing the Star Wars movies is a classic!

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

"Clerks" - lame as can be

I have never seen it, but went and watched a clip. It's all in black and white- LAME.

The clip was the teenager coming up to buy a pack of cigs at the convenience counter. The ethnic weirdo standing on the same side tells him not to, then whips out a 17 year old smoking lung and a trachea ring from his gugglebag.

He gives the required "lib education" lines, and tells the kid to buy this pack of gum instead that slaps in his hand, because he's cool, see. The kid buys the gum. Then butthead behind the counter tells the gugglebagger he should drink his coffee outside, and at that point I had to shut it off, since mr lung health is sucking down caffiene.

 Now, that was a great liberal fantasy. Poor jhonny be uneducated to dumb for words comes in for his smokes, and luckily mr educated no black lung lib propaganda bagman convinced him to chew gum instead. What a great way to save lives - the liberal impetus of course...

 In reality, any a**hole who hassles someone buying a pack of smokes at a convenience counter would likely end up with a bloody nose, and be told that being a cigarette nazi is dangerous to one's health. That would have been funny.

 I'm sure the libs will just legislate from the ivory towers, feeling quite justified, then pull their driveby - literally, blasting more smoke into the air in 2 minutes of driving than a 3 pack a day camel jockey does in their lifetime.

 I dream of the day some lib whines about a smoker, so I can find them at their vehicle, and after they start it up - haul them out of the front seat and attach their lips to the tailpipe, and ask them when they are going to stop making their second hand smoke such a nuisance to society. See, now all of that would make a great scene.

Your post is so funny as it s

Your post is so funny as it shows the way Smith's films work.  You think that the gum guy was a liberal trying to denounce the evils of smoking.  Had you kept watching for a few minutes more, you would have found out that the guy was actually a salesman for the gum company and his only interests in denouncing smoking and promoting gum was to boost his sales.  He ends up getting tossed out of the store.  Too bad you didn't stick around to see someone trying to hype a situation get theirs in the end.

Sometimes I'm ashamed to sh

Sometimes I'm ashamed to share the same name of some Kevin's.

That fat bastard

Great. Fred Phelps is the representative of the "red states"?

That's about as fair as having Harry Belafonte represent all the blue states. I don't want to know any more about this movie.

-----

"Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will
find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the
sword the faith he preached."

Furthermore, Phelps grossly m

Furthermore, Phelps grossly misrepresents both Baptists and Calvanists in general. True servants of the gospel do not become grossly obsessed with any one sin in particular. Mr. Phelps demonstrates his own ignorance of the entire book of Ephesians and 1Cor 6:11 in particular.

It is an arrogant presumption of God's sovereign grace* to write someone off as already condemned while they're still alive. They need to hear the gospel and be warned of the coming return of Christ as our judge.

But to take the seat of Christ as judge in His place? I say to Phelps, "The Lord rebuke thee."

*Another staple belief of strict Southern Baptists and 5 pt. Calvinists alike.

-PJ

I am John Doe!

.. but remember. To leftists

.. but remember. To leftists like Smith, Phelps IS middle America.

Exactly.This is why I see it

Exactly.

This is why I see it as all the more important to make the clarifications to the unsaved as needed whenever possible. We need to preach the whole gospel, not just a watered-down consumer friendly "Jesus is your buddy" -type message, or the skewed POV that Phelps asserts.

-PJ

I am John Doe!

First of all, I think Fred Ph

First of all, I think Fred Phelps is a major t#rd. I don't like anybody that disrespects soldiers, whether they are homosexual or not. However, I think Hollywood is even a more disrespectable group of t#rd's for generalizing Conservatives, Christians or Red States. Fred Phelps does not represent most of the Christians or conservatives I know.

Hollywood needs to get back to making good movies and stay out of politics. They really suck at it.

Let me get on the record as s

Let me get on the record as saying that the large majority of liberals understand that Westboro is not representative of Christian groups. They are a cult with a charismatic leader reminiscent of that Jones guy. When they came to Colorado and tried that crap here, the contra-protesters were equally mixed, right and left, and overwhelmingly Christian. It also re-defined what a "biker gang" is about- God bless them. The outrage was palpable and there were enough cops to keep it from being a bloodbath. Those bastards are nothing but a bunch of inbred loonies and fortunately don't get traction from either end of the political spectrum.

You don't need to worry that impressionable and thinking lefties will take this to heart. As a Catholic, I could watch Dogma and get a laugh out of it, without going ballistic. My mother can still recite the entire mass in Latin and she thought it was funny enough as well, though too crude. The guy sells movies, he raises questions about social, political and religious issues and that's it. The question he is raising in this film is about the fringe- same as with Clerks and Dogma.

And let me say that Christians and liberals are not mutually exclusive. Some of us live in the same skin- like me. And I hope you all have a great Easter today!

Happy Easter to You Too!!

Happy Easter to You Too!!

Ha, ha. I just noticed that o

Ha, ha. I just noticed that one of the blog ads on the side of the main page is a DVD seller and one of the DVDs that they are advertising is Clerks II, one of Kevin Smith's last flops. Bad timing on the ad vs. op ed, there!

Most remarks here, and mine c

Most remarks here, and mine can be summed up by "So what?". He has a liberal perspective, but he's no Roman Polanski. If this guy makes big money making niche-y movies, he's a true capitalist, and so be it. He might even be a Republican in drag.

BTW, did you know GE is a major producer of pornography? Let's see some remarks on that, or maybe an analysis on why risky is worse than risque'.

MS well aren't most all of th

MS well aren't most all of the corporations so linked with many others that you can almost always find a skeleton?  Like politicians.

As for Kev he's making movies.  Phelps is a wacko and reasonable people understand this.  Unreasonable people well don't waste your time.

On capitalism and alienation

A true capitalist wouldn't go out of the way to alienate half of his potential audience.

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

A true capitalist understands

A true capitalist understands his market and sells to that. One half of a "potential audience" means nothing if you design your product to sell to the other half. If you would like to buy something from me you don't want, give me a call. Or watch my movie and bitch about it while I charge you for the privilege. 

 You don't sell to Everyone. What a dumb ass way of thinking about it.

An explanation is required

You have a great deal of work to do in order to understand capitalism.

If trying to appeal to everyone is such a "dumb ass" idea, then maybe you can explain why G-rated movies consistently sell so well? 

"HAV3 TH3 BRIDG3S OF INSANITY B33N CROSS3D AND FOR3V3R R3TRACT3D???."  - Meshuggah, "3ntrapm3nt", from Catch Thirty Thr33 (2005)

Pardon me, Mobi, while I snicker

"He's a true capitalist."  A quasi-socialist like Mobi, instructing the board about who is a "true capitalist?"   Pardon me while I snicker at Mobi...again.

He works. He makes money. He

He works. He makes money. He sells his stuff to the public, who buys it. He then re-invests his CAPITAL to make more stuff to sell to make more money. Now, what part of that do you not understand? Are you a commie?

Find yourself a dictionary, RJ, and snicker all you want.

It's the concept that deserves snickering, Mobi

Well, thanks for the permission to snicker, Mobi.  I often do that where you're concerned.  Clearly, it hasn't penetrated your leftist mindset, but as I suggested, I'm snickering at the idea of a quasi-socialist trying to instruct the board on what a "true capitalist" might be.   ;^>

Phelps is a horrendous loon

Phelps is a horrendous loon who most conservatives either find offensive, or would do I'm sure, if they’d ever heard of him.

US audiences have never seen a documentary in which the maker spends time with members of East Coast Liberal Colleges, controversial institutions controlled largely by various extreme left wing “faiths”. Infamous in America for taking a supremely Marxist or socialist stance and for spitting on the military, both metaphorically and in actuality, the revolting group see media control as a platform for indoctrinating their extreme views and the word of their founder, Karl Marx.

"That dude has always fascinated me and he's really informed the horror movie that I'm working on," Alan Smithee told us, "The movie's called 'Left State' and it's very much about that subject matter, that point of view and that position taken to the absolute extreme. It's certainly not Marx himself but it's very much inspired by a Marx figure. Basically most Democrats actually believe this shit!"

I think. Therefore I am not a lib***l.

The Phelps have Democratic past tied to Al Gore

I'm sure the left wing MSM will be all over Gore's ties to the Phelps.  In Gore's defense I'm not so sure he was aware of how hateful Fred Phelps Sr., is but Fred Phelps Jr. and Gore have ties in the past and the Phelps are tied to the Democrats in the past, with Fred Phelps. Jr. running for governor as Kansas in the Democratic primaries.

http://www.logcabinwa.com/archive/200010251159.shtml

"Well I got nothing against the press, they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true"  'Sunday Papers'

I like all of Smith's movies

I like all of Smith's movies and thought Dogma was a fantastic send-up of the Catholics.  Let's be honest... if Jesus were to return tomorrow and appear on most any of your yards, you would have him arrested for being a nut case.  All Smith does is expose a lot of the silliness of some of the extreme beliefs that some people have by putting average people into situations where they have to deal with them.

I thought the best thing Smith did was before Dogma was released, the Catholics were up in arms about the film, and there was a protest outside of a cineplex in New Jersey where the movie was going to be shown.  Smith made up some anti-Smith/anti-movie protest signs and went and joined the protest.  He even got interviewed by a local news reporter, and after giving her a false name proceeded to denounce the movie!  Here were all these people protesting a movie they hadn't even seen, and had no idea that the guy protesting next to them was one of the stars and the creator of the movie.  Now that's funny!

Are there fringe people in Ch

Are there fringe people in Christianity?  Yes.  Is Fred Phelps in the fringe?  Yes  Will he (or the character based on him) be portrayed as on the fringe or will he be portrayed as the embodiment of "Christianity"?  My guess is the latter.

Are there fringe people in Islam?  Yes.  Would Kevin Smith make a movie about a person on the fringe of Islam in a negative light, and depict them as the embodiment of Islam?  I think we all know the answer to that one.

It's clear that he has an axe to grind with Christians, as anyone who has seen Dogma can attest to.  This is no different than Michael Stipe being behind the movie "Saved" where he equated fundamentalist Christians with zombies. 

The ironic part of all of this is that being on the cutting edge means that you make a movie with the tired old cliche of the "evil Christian" that has not nearly as much basis in reality as the "evil Muslim" terrorist.  But they won't touch a movie about reality like that.

Dutch