Addendum

Addendum to Last:

The Geek with a .45 notices a little tampering with a review of the new Superman:

Quote:
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In "Superman Returns" (written by Michael Dougherty and Dan Harris from a story they cooked up with Singer), the caped crusader for truth, justice, etc. (Brandon Routh) returns to crime-ridden Earth after a five-year detour...
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Truth, justice, etc?

Commenter Rick C notes that the trailer contains a similar formula:

Perry White demands to see if he still stands for "truth, justice--all that stuff."

I'm guessing that devotion to The American Way would be one of those 'ancient and archaic' views I keep reading about. The movie company, of course, intends to sell the film overseas -- indeed, I have heard that overseas profits are now at least as important as domestic take to some films. They don't want to go to the trouble of making an "international cut" of the film that drops the American rhetoric, and Hollywood has been out of the business of trying to sell the world on "the American way" for a long time. So, rather than make two editions of the film, they simply write the script to avoid any references to anything as 'ancient and archaic' as patriotism.

Shall I bother to get angry about that? What would be the point? The producers are money-chasers in the extreme, and the actors are mostly anti-patriots by sentiment. The latter can't be convinced by any argument of the rightness of pro-American movies, and the former have already been convinced by the only argument that matters to them -- profit margins. Nor is it worthwhile to get angry at them for caring only about the profit margins, as it is clear that Hollywood is dying. As it becomes easier to make independent films of a similar quality (this one was done years ago now, and is at least as good conceptually, and almost as good actually, as anything Lucas produced), independents will arise to produce the domestic, patriotic content that Hollywood can't afford. It is bound to the mass-market model, and that model is dying. Just as Americans will soon be making films for Americans again (so, why see a billion-dollar Hollywood job that insults us?), so shall every nation have films appropriate to it (so, why see a Hollywood job that doesn't really care about us Basques/Hindus/Whatever?). Their days are numbered, their span is dwindling, and their light is going out of the world.

So be it. Once great men lived there, kings, gods -- once, but long ago.