Review of Hail, Caesar! (2016) by Alex B — 03 Apr 2016

This is a movie about Hollywood, obviously. But what about Hollywood? It sort of introduces (or rather alludes to) the theme of Hollywood as an example of imperialism (that is to say, monopoly capitalism abroad), with Lockheed, the meetings in the Chinese restaurant, the photo of an H-bomb mushroom cloud at Bikini atoll (not to mention ancient Rome!).

But really it skirts the issue, just as the main character opts to stay in Hollywood. And likewise with its more developed or at least sustained or open look at Hollywood as capitalist exploitation in its own right.

Obviously it sides most of all with its main character, the executive manager of the studio, the (monopoly-)capitalist enterprise, Capital Pictures, who represents and enforces the will of the capitalist owner (the unseen and unheard--like Christ--Mr.

Skank), managing, controlling, disciplining, exploiting the workers. Although it makes a point of showing off the sordid or mundane behind-the-scenes working reality of Hollywood (and even though the protagonist sort of rejects becoming a capitalist himself when he turns down Lockheed), ultimately it expresses the belief in Hollywood as being above exploitation, above class struggle.

It believes in and wants to spread the belief in Hollywood as religion. And its communists are correspondingly not much more than the nihilists of The Big Lebowski (even including Channing Tatum's gay communist superman).