Anti-teacher-union “Won’t Back Down” flunks at box office

[Starry Messenger]

sprinkled with Schadenfreude.

http://www.peoplesworld.org/anti-teacher-union-won-t-back-down-flunks-at-box-office/

"Won't Back Down," the Hollywood movie portraying teachers unions as pretty much the devil, has set the record for the worst opening since 1982 for films appearing in more than 2,500 theaters. For this dubious distinction it beat out a list of amazingly forgettable titles like "Punisher: War Zone" and "Josie and the Pussycats."

The film, pushed hard by anti-union advocate Michelle Rhee and her StudentsFirst group, opened Sept. 28 to poor reviews nationally. It got a low 33 percent approval rating on film site Rotten Tomatoes' survey of movie critics and an even worse 18 percent rating from the site's designated "top critics."

Kenneth Turan at the LA Times called the film "so shamelessly manipulative and hopelessly bogus it will make you bite your tongue in regret and despair."

<snip>

And the Philadelphia Inquirer's Steven Rea called it "a kind of 'Norma Rae' for the Paul Ryan set."

<snip>

[Iggy]

1. Mehh

this is no surprise.

the so called "progressives" who jumped on the teacher-bashing bandwagon during the recent
teachers strike in Chicago aren't going to go out of their way to go to/pay for a movie
regarding the subject

[Cirque du So-What]

2. A pox on the careers of all associated with this film

Everyone had to know they were making a RW propaganda film, after all.

[Starry Messenger]

4. I'm disappointed with Gyllanhall and Davis over this

They are both SAG-Aftra members, but they are doubling down in the face of criticism from educators.

Maggie Gyllenhaal and Viola Davis appear in the film and broadly support its message. Gyllenhaal stipulates that she's pro-union, but all is not well with the teachers unions. Davis said of the protesters, "There was not one person -- I guarantee you -- that was outside there protesting with a picket sign who had their child in a failing school."

http://articles.philly.com/2012-09-28/news/34149452_1_anti-union-bias-teachers-union-top-charter-school

"There's no world in which I would ever, EVER make an anti-union movie," she {Gyllanhall} said by phone. "My parents are left of Trotsky. That's just not my world, and neither is it Daniel's {Gladwyne-raised director Daniel Barnz}. I don't know Viola's politics actually, so I can't speak to that. But I think that's just such an oversimplified way of looking at the movie - that it's anti-union.

"But clearly - and I don't know anyone who'd disagree - there are huge problems with the teachers union. So you can be in support of a teachers union and unions in general, but if you don't take the time to look at things that are broken - even inside something you support - then it will fall apart completely. Can we not even take a look at ways that the teachers union isn't functioning without being called anti-union? That would be so destructive to creating continually functioning unions."

[roguevalley]

11. they're both full of shit. name the problems or go fuck yourself

ladies. I am sick of teacher bashing. they deserved this fail

[Smarmie Doofus]

12. 1. So Davis, who lives in California, knows for a fact that the NYC public school parents who were

picketing this... by all accounts .... moronic film, have their kids in.... well, what exactly? Private schools? Posh leafy-green suburban public schools? They were falsely portraying themselves as NYC PS parents? What, on earth, is she talking about? Private school parents are really going to picket a film that trashes the public schools they themselves have... rightly or wrongly... spurned? Well to do suburbanites are going to take the train in from Scarsdale, or wherever, at night, so they can annoy Viola Davis by pretending to be NYC PS parents?

2. Gyllenhaal... if she is to be taken literally... appears to think that all teachers are organized into one "teachers union". It's not an "anti-union" movie but "there are huge problems with the teachers union". She just spent what sounds like a number of months on the set with Davis yet has no idea what Davis' views are re. politics and unionism?

Sounds like they both gave a great deal of political and philosophical thought to the complexities of the issues facing public schools and the efforts of government and private corporations to "reform" them.

Sheeezz. Seems to me the only thing dumber than the movie was the cast itself.

[Starry Messenger]

15. Gyllenhaal's kid goes to private school in NYC too.

quote from page 2 of the story:

Gyllenhaal, who lives with husband Peter Sarsgaard in New York City, said she would be thrilled if her children could end up in a public school that was great and exciting, but "at the moment my daughter {Ramona} is in private school. The public school that we're zoned for doesn't seem good enough to me."

I'm pretty shocked. I gave her more credit for brains than the average. She's the very kind of parent that Viola Davis accused the protesters of being, ironically. (Brooklyn seemed pretty nice to me, anyway--)

[Smarmie Doofus]

3. Apparently Mencken was wrong. You CAN underestimate the intelligence of .....

... the American people.

A bitter but ( i hope) valuable life lesson for these effete, arrogant , insulated elitists.

Given the choice, I'd rather pay to see Josie and the Pussycats. At least that wasn't contemptibly dishonest and manipulative.

[Starry Messenger]

5. Coming out right on the heels of the successful CTU strike

is a nice double-whammy too. Can we hope that union-bashing is becoming less trendy?

[eppur_se_muova]

14. :golfclap:

[gopiscrap]

6. Excellent

Last edited Wed Oct 3, 2012, 08:46 PM - Edit history (2)

I hope those anti union fuckers choke on their puke! For 30 years now the repukes have been working to create a climate hostile to public education and teachers in general...what they've expoited is the fact that we have a lot of jealous people in this nation.. yes, teachers get 40K-70K a year, but they've earned it. 5+ years of education after college and managing a classroom and filling children full of knowledge. If you want their benefits, get off your ass, go to college and get a teaching degree...other wise shut your fucking uneducated trap. GO TEACHER UNIONS!!! and btw: I'm not a teacher!

[Starry Messenger]

7. Awesome!

Thank you!!

[Freedomofspeech]

8. Beautiful....

and thank you from a retired teacher.

[central scrutinizer]

9. corporations want to belly up to the education trough

if they can destroy public education then the road is open for their for-profit schools. Then only the rich kids will get a high quality education.

[lunasun]

10. +1

[bvar22]

13. Smiling in Solidarity!

UNIONS built the wealthiest and most upwardly mobile Working/Middle Class the WORLD has ever seen.
The decline of the Middle Class is directly connected to the crushing of Organized LABOR by the 1% of both Parties.

[Starry Messenger]

16. Nice to see you bvar22.

[harmonicon]

17. I can only imagine that Josie and the Pussycats didn't do well...

because most people would fail to get it. For those who haven't seen it, it's really a pretty biting critique of corporate branding and the big-label music industry.

[LWolf]

18. .

[Reader Rabbit]

19. Karma

I love it when I get to see it in action.