TAXING MOVIES

 Nothing surprises me anymore. Not politics, history repeating itself, or that I'm not posting stuff as often as I used to. The latter is a combination of many things. An aging brain. No longer finding world events ripe for bringing on the funny.  And just how many obscure movies can one write about before people start asking Doesn't this guy do anything else? I believe you've figured out the answer by now.

Home Alone 2: And you thought Ronald Reagan
was the only president in the movies.

But lo and behold comes a story I can't pass up, courtesy of Donald J. Trump posting over the weekend:

“The Movie Industry in America is DYING a very fast death. Other Countries are offering all sorts of incentives to draw our filmmakers and studios away from the United States. Hollywood, and many other areas within the U.S.A., are being devastated. This is a concerted effort by other Nations and, therefore, a National Security threat. It is, in addition to everything else, messaging and propaganda! Therefore, I am authorizing the Department of Commerce, and the United States Trade Representative, to immediately begin the process of instituting a 100% Tariff on any and all Movies coming into our Country that are produced in Foreign Lands. WE WANT MOVIES MADE IN AMERICA, AGAIN!”

(Before we go on further, it's necessary to ask: did Trump skip school when the teacher taught that most words require capitalization only at the beginning of sentences?) 

Now I hate to say it, but Trump makes a valid point or two. More American productions than ever are shooting elsewhere even when they take place on their home turf. Television series like Matlock and the upcoming Blue Bloods spinoff Boston Bloods both film in Toronto. I guess the only reason the latter isn't titled Toronto Bloods is because it isn't alliterative.

The Boston Bloods cinematographer better not
 point the camera to the left side of Toronto.

As usual, greenbacks are the reason. It's cheaper to fly the cast to Canada or even Eastern Europe and pay for their lodging rather than filming where the studio is within driving distance to their own home. That's what happens when the leading actors for your American movie charge between $30-million (Leonardo di Caprio) to $156-million (Keanu Reeves for two Matrix sequels total). Hey, they've got gaffers in Hungary!

At least the right-wing nuts were better-dressed
back in the day.

But this is where the joke comes in. Trump has capitalized on his voters' hatred for the mythical, multi-headed ogre called show business. Not a week goes by when Trump complains mightily about George Clooney, Barbra Streisand, or Robert de Niro. Now suddenly the death of the movie industry is suddenly a national security threat. You'd think that's what his voters wanted in the first place -- to destroy Hollywood in order to save them. 

What is Trump's endgame? Does he think his celebrity fans like James Woods, Roseanne Barr, or Jim Caveizel will suddenly get hired if more productions are stamped MADE IN AMERICA? And while we're at it, how does one slap a tariff on a movie? Forcing theaters to charge $40 a ticket? Netflix adding a "foreign fee" to subscribers who watch low-budget romcoms with Budapest standing in for San Francisco?

Perhaps it's necessary to heed Steve Bannon's advice: Flood the zone with shit. It certainly stopped people from talking about three U.S. citizen children, including a four-year-old with cancer, being deported to Honduras. 

See, you forgot it, too! Hooray for Hollywood!

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