Censorship or Patriotism? Jane Fonda in the new movie "The Butler"?

His theater, his rules. Does he want you telling him to “get over” Hanoi Jane? I’m guessing no. It’s really two sides of the same coin.
I’m Jewish, but pretty young. I’ve decided that I won’t buy German automobiles as long a Holocaust survivor still lives not because “I’ll never buy German, the swine!”, but because I really might hurt someone who sees me driving it into the synagogue parking lot.

@drhat77 – my grandfather said that as well (never buy german) after he got out of Dachau and moved to the States.

My father (who was expelled from Germany in 1938) took the opposite view – he bought (and still buys) German stuff on the premise that the seriously bad guys all died during and after the war.

But that’s not the point. This guy can have all the fervent views on Fonda he wants, but since he is running a public accommodation (i.e. goods or services to the public) I question his moral right to decide what I can’t see.

He can do whatever he wants, it’s his theatre. At my wedding I didn’t play the wedding march by Wagner because many survivors of the holocaust associate it with Hitler and the camps, and even if no survivors were present many Jews just feel it is inappropriate. It’s kind of the same. We do it out of respect for those around us. He may not still hate Jane for what she did, I have no idea, he may just be showing solidarity with veterans from that war.

My grandmother would not be happy we have German cars in our garage, I would never feel comfortable showing up in a German car to take her somewhere and she isn’t even from Germany or western Europe, her family is from Russia and Latvia. None of my family suffered at the hands of Hitler, but we identify with it just the same.

Oh, how funny, I just looked up at the answers above me (I had been writing) and all talk about the holocaust.

@elbanditoroso It’s public and private. I don’t think a theatre owner has any obligation to show a particular film. When I lived in TN I could not for the life of me find the movie that outs the hypocrisy about gay people in politics. I also couldn’t find the movie on education Waiting for Superman. It frustrated me, so I share your frustration, but I can’t see any legal way to insist they carry any particular movie. Since the theatre is public in the sense that it is open to the public, the only thing they have to abide by is allowing all people equally into their establishment.

He is not a manager of a municipal service. He runs a theater that he owns and operates himself. Its presence in a community is expected but hardly necessary. That people there are being deprived of what might indeed be a fine film is not really a human rights violation.

At least now in these times we can watch movies at home. I used to have to wait all year to see Mary Poppins come back to the Cinema.

I think the old goat should move on with his life, bitterness lingers apparently.

I’d call it stupidity. It’s not censorship. Governments have the power to censor. Private media outlet owners have every right to pick and choose what they will distribute, and what they will not.

It’s not patriotism either, because the movie celebrates things any patriotic American ought to want on display, regardless of who the actors playing the roles might be.

Would all of Southeast Asia have fallen like dominoes before the invading Commie threat if we had not indicated we’d draw the line there, then failed to draw it? It is impossible to say. Who knows what was at the end of the road they never traveled? The Vet might be right, and so might Ms. Fonda. What we can say with certainty is that the Vietnam War has been over now for long enough that it is time to move on

And we can definitively say that the public this theater owner serves also have the right to vote with their wallets if they disapprove of the his decision.

I’ll believe the other servicemen who were actually there and said the story is all lies.

http://www.snopes.com/military/fonda.asp

If she indeed had done the thing’s she’s accused of doing, I’d say he had every right to bar her from his theatre, and as a supporter of our servicepeople, I’d not pay anything to encourage her career.

Not censorship, the guy is free to show the movies he wants to show. I wouldn’t call him a patriot, either.

By the way, The Butler is the most popular movie in the US right now. I feel a little better about my fellow Americans knowing that a film without explosions and nudity can draw like that in the summer.

If that gives an erection to that old murderer, he can ban movies all he wants. It only makes him more of a contemptible creature.

@ragingloli Because he fought for the US in Vietnam he’s a murderer?
I respect the men and women who sacrifice for our country, even if they don’t agree with our government’s decisions, don’t you agree?

I do not.

@ragingloli Okay, I guess you don’t want to talk about it but that intrigues me. I have one uncle who went to the Marine’s and has never been the same, he never should have gone, just a gentle soul, so I understand that.

First, let’s get past this mistaken notion that theater owners can do whatever they like. This is false. Anyone who opens their business to the public must abide by certain rules. Theater owners cannot prohibit people from wearing crosses on their property or force everyone to take a bite of pork before buying a ticket. They cannot ban people based on their race or political views. So while he certainly has every right to refrain from showing The Butler, it’s not because he has some sort of all-encompassing right to set whatever rules he chooses.

In any case, I would not say that this counts as censorship. Censorship involves some sort of authority with an official policy of suppressing certain kinds of material. It’s not just any old guy saying “I don’t think you should see this, so I’m not going to show it to you.” As for whether or not it is patriotism, I suppose that depends on who you ask. If one agrees with Emma Goldman that “conceit, arrogance, and egotism are the essentials of patriotism,” then I suppose this man’s actions fit quite neatly. If you think that patriotism is about love of country and willingness to defend it, however, it is unclear how refusing to show a film serves either of those goals in a country based in part on the free exchange of ideas.

The theatre owner trained pilots during the Vietnam war many of whom were shot down so I can see where he’s coming from but after all these years it seems a bit pointless. It isn’t patriotism or censorship so much as bloody mindedness.

It’s only censorship when the government does it.

He doesn’t like Jane Fonda. So be it. If he doesn’t want to show the movie in his theatre, knowing those are also tickets he won’t sell, then that is his choice.

Hey if I open a restaurant and decide I don’t want to sell fish or diet food, than that is my business. Customers would be more than welcome to go somewhere else. His movie theater, his business. Veterans after the war were treated no better than the shit you scrape off your shoe.
Jane Fonda was one to lead the way in this treatment of vets. So if he feels like treating her movie like shit stuck to his shoe, then turn around is fair play. But really. She did a lot worse to them than him simply not showing a movie. It seems the only time she felt the need to apologize was whenever money was at stake.