A Hollywood film glorifying eco-terrorism for kids?
Apparently so:
The movie, “Hoot,” opens Friday, May 5. It features environmentally conscious teenage characters vandalizing heavy machines by stealing parts off of them and flattening tires in order to hinder a development project.
The teens, who ultimately succeed in halting the project, spray paint a police car that is providing security, trespass, rip up surveyors’ stakes, place alligators in portable toilets, release poisonous Cottonmouth snakes at the construction site and evade the police. The teenagers also debate stealing the construction trailer and sinking it into a nearby canal to further delay the project.
The teenagers in the PG-rated movie face no repercussions for the illegal acts and instead are portrayed as heroically preventing the construction of a pancake house in South Florida to save the owls’ habitat. There are consequences, however, for the pancake company.
In addition to facing construction delays and cost overruns because of the kids’ actions, the company’s project manager is arrested at the end of Hoot for violating environmental protection laws.
The film’s trailer urges viewers to “break the rules” and features one of the lead characters saying, “You gotta start thinking like an outlaw.”
Considering Hollywood’s glorification of terrorists like Che Guevara, I don’t know why anyone would be surprised.
I’m a little confused about one thing, though. Do the people who take their kids to films like this actually want them to practice eco-terrorism, or is this analogous to watching the Three Stooges?
Comments
5 responses to “Wholesome terrorism for the kids?”
Reminds me of when I was a little kid (about 8 or 9). There was an abandoned farm behind the house that served as a playground for the neighborhood. There were fields, woods, an abandoned barn. We used a tractor to cut mazes through the tall grass of the fields, once or twice played doctor in the barn, all that Norman Rockwell stuff. Until…
One day, surveyors showed up and put in their stakes and builders came and started destroying our playground. We were outraged–this was ours and we were here first.
We didn’t do anything physically harmful to the builders, but we came out every night and did as much damage as we could. We thought if we made it inconvenient enough for them, they’d go away. We had no idea what we were up against.
I don’t recommend that behavior anymore, but some of the attitude has stuck with me. I feel no shame over what we did and can’t work up any outrage against the opponents of developers. Most of them do far more harm than good.
I’ve heard the recording of the book and it is an excellent children’s book. And that’s what we need to keep in mind.
Screw owls. Seriously.
Seriously or literally?
i dont understand all 🙁