David Codrea writes [via ammoland.com]
We didn’t want the film being adopted by one side or the other of the argument, because it isn’t a polemic. … I don’t think — the film is not political in its intent,” John Madden, the British director of “Miss Sloane” tells The Washington Post about his “gun control” lobbyist story. The film, which opened in limited release on Nov. 26, hopes to build on its $131,661 box office take (as of Dec. 6) as it expands to 1,600 theaters in wide release this weekend. It’s no surprise that other comments made by Madden to the media, as well as the messages in the film itself, contradict his assurances of neutrality.
“You just don’t really understand how it’s possible, one catastrophe after another,” Madden admitted out of the other side of his mouth. “The failure of any legislative response that had any meaning … it’s quite amazing; the stranglehold over that policy that one part of the argument has, one vested interest has.”
All the cliché deceptions offered by the citizen disarmament lobby make their way into the script as Miss Sloane (Jessica Chastain) takes on a seemingly all-powerful “gun lobby” with unlimited finances to push for a waiting period/background check bill. Not that those infringements will be “enough.”
And not that the true nature of that “gun lobby,” individual gun owners finding strength in unity, as opposed to the Bloomberg billionaire’s club funding Astroturf media campaigns, is a point of focus. That is, except to show a stereotype fat cat “conservative” make a threatening shooting gesture as he brags “There’s over five million of us, and we’re armed.”
“Any head case, felon or terrorist can buy an assault rifle from a gun show, the internet or his buddy at the Bowl-O-Rama without so much as an ID,” Social Justice Warrior Sloane lectures the boss she turns coat on. In other words, “mental health” and “no fly/no buy” due process suspensions are next, along with a semi-auto ban, because prior restraints, ending private sales and creating a de facto registry of who owns what just won’t do the trick. That dealers at gun shows do the paperwork and that you can’t complete a transfer over the internet are left conveniently unsaid, although the swipe at flyover America by a Beltway elitist comes through loud and clear.
Naturally, considering who he’s writing for, Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper positively gushes over the “big juicy treat,” and assures readers “Miss Sloane” is championing “a moderate gun control measure that wouldn’t infringe on basic Second Amendment rights but would merely install some common-sense vetting measures.”
Other reviews are more dispassionate, with some critics calling it “a mess.” Surprisingly, the most honest assessment of the film’s reason for being comes from a Bloomberg News headline: Can She Take Away America’s Guns? Miss Sloane Gives It a Try. So much for the often-parroted lie that no one is talking about doing that.
It looks like those behind the film, like everyone else in the “progressive” media bubble, were counting on a Hillary win, and on celebratory fervor for more citizen disarmament. Those they peg as Bowl-O-Rama patrons have shattered that illusion for the time being, but the denial among gun-grabbers is strong. Otherwise they’d have to admit all those red areas on the map reject their “superior sophistication” and see them for the control freaks they are.
“Miss Sloane” will be another test of receptivity to “progressive” ideology. How well it recoups production costs ought to be a bellwether for producer Harvey Weinstein, to see if he’ll ever pull the trigger on his threat to “make gun owners wish they’re not alive after I’m done with them.”
So far, going on three years after that boast, Harvey remains all talk. How “Miss Sloane” fares with movie-goers this weekend should indicate if his investors will make sure he stays that way.
———————
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating / defending the RKBA and a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. In addition to being a field editor/columnist at GUNS Magazine and associate editor for Oath Keepers, he blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.