Controversial film The Hunt canceled in wake of mass shootings.

The Hunt movie poster. Universal. 

Universal Pictures has canceled the release of The Hunt, a controversial film that showed liberal elites hunting and killing President Trump supporters. The Hill. The film caused mass outrage after the politically motivated mass shootings in El Paso and Dayton last weekend. The film referenced hunting "deplorables" a nickname originally used to denigrate President Trump supporters but reclaimed by that group. It is unclear if the movie promotes the idea of attacking President Trump supporters or if it's just satire but the writer and director, Damon Lindelof, is himself anti-Trump. 

My Comment:

I'm not sure what to think about this case. Without anything to go on other than a trailer or two and the media reports on it, it's hard to judge the film's merits and flaws.  I'm generally opposed to film censorship and this sure feels like censorship. But if all the negative things about the movie are true then it's hard to not take it personally. But are they true?

The above trailer doesn't seem like it was super anti-"deplorable". It seems pretty clear that the elite people hunting down normal Americans are supposed to be the villains. If anything it's making fun of the elites, which is a group of people who probably should be made fun of more often. If that's the case then I think this whole think is misguided.

On the other hand, the writer and director is fairly anti-Trump. And I fear even if the movie wasn't incredibly biased, I fear that it might end up like Falling Down. That movie was supposed to be painting the main character as a villain but everyone related to him instead. I don't like the idea of a liberal walking out of the theater after seeing this movie and thinking "wow what a great idea, too bad the elites lost in the end" assuming that's how the movie goes.  

Of course I don't know if I buy the argument that media violence leads to real violence. I think the vast majority of people know the difference between reality and a movie. And the few that don't are so crazy that they probably couldn't pull off a mass shooting in the first place. I can't seriously think that someone would see this movie, think it's real and then try to do the same thing. 

That being said, I do think that the movie would do more to fan the flames of the culture war than do anything else. Conservatives were rightly offended at the idea of people hunting them down just because they voted for President Trump. Even if the movie is less biased than suspected, it's still a premise that is going to piss people off. I mean if there was a movie where a bunch of rich white people hunted down a bunch of poor black people it would make people furious. Pulling the movie might calm some people down as one of the reasons why these mass shootings happened is because people feel that the elites don't care about us. Pulling it might give people some hope that they are actually being listened too. 

Still, I'm deeply uncomfortable with censorship of any kind. I'm fully prepared to vote with my wallet but I don't like it when any viewpoints, even disgusting ones, are purged. Even if the movie was a 2 hour anti-deplorable circle jerk that celebrated the deaths of people like me with no artistic merit whatsoever, I don't think it should be censored. Delaying it's release? Sure. But banning forever? Not something I support. 

I do think that no matter what the film was like it wasn't likely to be a good one. It's very derivative or other films like it, most notably The Purge. The trailer wasn't impressive at all and it just seems like a movie that is shocking for the sake of it. Much like The Interview, which was also pulled after controversy, it seems that the only thing this movie will be remembered for is the controversy. If the movie was released five years ago when the culture war wasn't so hot, I think it would have rightly been forgotten as yet another dumb exploitation flick.

The movie may get a release eventually. I don't think it will be in the theaters, but like The Interview, it will eventually end up on a streaming service. It may take awhile for the culture war to cool off but once it does I expect it to show up eventually. If it does I will probably watch and review it and revisit whether or not it has any value as a film and if it was right to pull it or not. 

I would say that the worst thing about this film is that people will inevitably confuse it with The Hunt, a 2012 Danish film staring Mads Mikkelsen. That movie, which was about a man falsely accused of sexual abuse of a child, was excellent and should have gotten more attention in America. I give that movie my highest recommendation.