THE INTERVIEW: WHAT IF?

The movie ‘comedy’ about the fictional assassination of North Korea’s leader is trash that is in very bad taste

Kim Jong Un is not a likable guy. In fact, North Korea’s ‘Dear Leader’ is a despicable human being. And he is also a nuclear armed enemy of the United States.

The Interview is a Sony Pictures movie ‘comedy’ about a TV host and his producer who are recruited by the CIA to assassinate Kim Jong Un. At the end of the film, the Dear Leader’s head explodes. The movie is scheduled for release on December 25.

A hacker group calling itself the Guardians of Peace breached Sony’s company servers, thereby gaining access to emails between top executives and private information about Sony employees and the actors starring in its films. The group has threatened terrorist attacks on theaters showing The Interview.

The New York premiere planned for the Sunshine Cinema in Manhattan’s Lower East Side has been cancelled by Landmark Theaters. Carmike Cinemas, a theater chain with 278 theaters and 2,917 screens in 41 states, has announced it will not show the movie. ArcLight Cinemas, with five upscale movie theaters in Southern California and one in Bethesda, Maryland, also will not screen the movie. Other theater chains could follow.

The Guardians of Peace released emails by Sony executives which reveal that two high-ranking State Department officials, including ambassador Robert King, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korean Human Rights Issues, were shown a rough cut of the film and gave it their blessing, including the gruesome scene at the end.

The State Department’s approval of a film that ends with Kim Jong Un’s head exploding is just one more example of the Obama administration’s foreign policy failings. That anyone in the Obama administration would even consider giving their stamp of approval to this inflammatory farce befuddles a normal mind beyond the pale.

Now let me pose these questions: What if the movie had depicted the assassination of President Obama? Would that have been funny? Of course not … and it would have brought out Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton howling about a racist movie. What if the movie had depicted the assassination of German Chancellor Angela Merkel? Or of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia? Would those have been funny? Of course not. As a matter of fact, a movie depicting the comedic assassination of Abdullah would have led to bloody riots and attacks on Americans and U.S. government facilities throughout the Muslim world.

Some movies are truly funny. The Interview may get a lot of laughs, but funny it is not! It’s nothing more than Hollywood trash that is in very bad taste. That’s my opinion.

UPDATE: AMC, Cinemark, Cineplex and Regal all announced Wednesday that they would not show The Interview. Those four theater chains, along with Carmike, operate more than 90 percent of this country’s multiplex cinemas. Sony followed by announcing that for now it would not release the film.