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Under discussion:

Xanadu  (1980)

Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold  (1978)

Outfoxed: Rupert Murdoch's War on Journalism  (2004)

Iraq for Sale: The War Profiteers  (2006)

Robert Greenwald, director of Iraq For Sale, Outfoxed and Xanadu, has launched a new campaign against FoxNews called Fox Attacks. A video associated with the campaign, available on its website and embedded via YouTube above, seeks to demonstrate that every single Fox News program is guilty of “pushing smut out on the airwaves.” Among other things, the video accuses Fox of adding “inappropriate sexual images to serious news stories,” exemplified by a clip of a story in which the hunt for a serial killer in Daytona Beach is illustrated with footage of a bikini contest, complete with numerous cleavage close-ups. Greenwald and friends want to inspire viewers to request “a la carte” cable packages excluding the network.

There’s a quote from Gloria Steinem on the Fox Attacks page, slamming the network for showing “more sexualized violence and humiliation than probably any other network — all in the name of condemning it.” I’m no Fox News fan, but obviously, Greenwald’s clip does the exact same thing. Their highlight reel of half-naked atrocities plays, in the context of YouTube, as straight-up softcore.

I don’t know if it helps his argument or hurts it, but Greenwald certainly knows a thing or two about gratuitous sexuality on TV; he got his start in the 70s directing made-for-TV exploitation flicks like Katie: Portrait of a Centerfold, which marked the leading lady debut of a young Kim Basinger. If you come across any clips of that on the web, do pass them along.

[via Digg]

Under discussion:

Steal a Pencil for Me  (2007)

Michele Ohayon’s Steal a Pencil For Me, like her previous documentary, Cowboy Del Amor, is a bittersweet paen to love born from startling circumstances. Whereas Cowboy delved into the surprisingly successful relationships arranged for a fee between American men and Mexican women, Pencil tells the story of two Dutch Jews from different social classes whose love blossomed in the most unlikely of places: a concentration camp

The poor, married Jaap meets young diamond heiress Ina at a dinner party; the two chat all night with the assumption that, due to Ina’s elevated social class and Jaap’s ball and chain, they’ll never meet again. Soon after, Jaap and badly matched wife Manja are deported to Westerbork, a detainment camp where Jews lived in relative comfort before being shipped off to the labor/death camps. Ina is sent to the same camp several months later. With his wife living in the same barracks, Jaap begins a tentative relationship with Ina, based on late night walks and furtive “necking.” When Manja finds out about the affair, she forbids it, and Ina and Jaap carry on by writing letters. Ina and Jaap are eventually sent to Bergen Belsen, the concentration camp where Anne Frank died, but are separated before the liberation. When they reunite in June of 1945, Jaap immediately moves to get a divorce so that they can marry. They’ve been together ever since.

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Under discussion:

Lions for Lambs  (2007)

As political polemic and as entertainment, Robert Redford’s Lions for Lambs is mostly unsuccessful, but as a statement of purpose on behalf of its co-star and executive producer, Tom Cruise, it’s mildly fascinating. Through sheer force of star power, Cruise manages to temporarily hijack this lumpy lecture, and turn it into a battle cry against the corporate media that both built and destroyed him.

You probably don???t need to be reminded that Cruise has had a rough couple of years, culminating in the announcement in November 2006 that he and long-time producing partner Paula Wagner had signed a deal to resurrect MGM???s dormant United Artists. Some saw this as a savvy move for both Cruise and MGM: disappointing box office on Mission Impossible: 3 aside, there???s still no one on the planet with Cruise???s international name-and-face recognition, and as he proved with War of the Worlds, which made $65 million in its first weekend just a scant month after the couch jumping incident, the guy can open the right project regardless of what???s going on in his personal life. But skeptics (myself included) wondered if MGM was just throwing Cruise a bone???if they weren???t doing anything with UA anyway, was handing the brand over really a sure sign of confidence?

The guy had???has–something to prove. With his career at the crossroads, the choice of Lions For Lambs as the vehicle to drive him over the hump is not an immediately logical one. It???s worth noting that Cruise didn???t go looking for politically relevant story to tell???Redford signed on to direct the script, and then called Cruise, looking to cast him. And I may get permanently disinvited from Sundance for saying this, but I???m not sure if Redford fully knew what he was getting into.

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