Hope is Not a Foreign Policy » Trace Adkins http://www.hopeisnotaforeignpolicy.org Conservative commentary on foreign policy, American politics, and current events Sun, 30 Oct 2011 16:57:53 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 An American Carol: Film Review http://www.hopeisnotaforeignpolicy.org/2008/10/10/an-american-carol-film-review/ http://www.hopeisnotaforeignpolicy.org/2008/10/10/an-american-carol-film-review/#comments Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:01:21 +0000 Christine Willett http://www.hopeisnotaforeignpolicy.org/?p=593 David Zucker’s “An American Carol” is a goofy, over the top and occasionally risqué comedy in the tradition of his previous film genre parodies “Airplane” and “Top Secret!” The plot revolves around the efforts of documentary film producer Michael Malone (read Michael Moore) to abolish Fourth of July as a holiday. Malone’s rationale being Americans should not celebrate the birthday of an oppressive, racist, sexist, warmongering nation. To convince Malone of the error of his PC pieties, the ghosts of Presidents John F. Kennedy and George Washington, General George Patton and the Angel of Death (played by country music artist Trace Adkins) visit him à la the spirits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

 David Zucker’s “An American Carol” is a goofy, over the top and occasionally risqué comedy in the tradition of his previous film genre parodies “Airplane” and “Top Secret!” The plot revolves around the efforts of documentary film producer Michael Malone (read Michael Moore) to abolish Fourth of July as a holiday. Malone’s rationale being Americans should not celebrate the birthday of an oppressive, racist, sexist, warmongering nation. To convince Malone of the error of his PC pieties, the ghosts of Presidents John F. Kennedy and George Washington, General George Patton and the Angel of Death (played by country music artist Trace Adkins) visit him à la the spirits in Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

The first specter, JFK, visits Malone while he is watching a TV documentary on JFK’s inaugural speech. Malone (Kevin Farley, uncanny resemblance to Moore) comments on how JFK was a man of peace. JFK (Chriss Anglin, playing the famous Kennedy/Boston accent to the hilt) climbs out of the TV set into Malone’s bedroom and tells Malone he obviously hadn’t listened to the entire speech. Malone apparently missed the parts about “pay any price, bear any burden … to assure the survival and success of liberty” and about asking what you can do for you country, not what your country can do for you. JFK is the Jacob Marley of the film mentioning to Malone he will be visited by other spirits. Sure enough, General Patton arrives (Kelsey Grammer, channeling the General in a deadpan style). Patton escorts Malone through various points in history and current events including the results of the folly of ACLU “Zombie Lawyers” (a funny courtroom scene with Dennis Hopper as “The Judge”) and Hitler’s duping of the credulous Neville Chamberlin at the 1938 Munich Conference. Patton also takes Malone to a college campus to show him how a PC education stifles, not opens, young people’s minds (a musical number sung by professors about being stuck in 1968, and proud of it! – is a hoot).

The mood of the film turns serious for a brief moment when Malone meets President Washington (Jon Voight, playing it straight) in St. Paul’s Chapel in New York City. Washington worshipped here when President and Responders used it as a base for World Trade Center rescue efforts. This scene alone is worth the price of admission. It simply and succinctly illustrates the point of the film – America is not perfect, but is undeserving of the invective heaped upon her.

During the various spectral visitations, the background plot about Taliban operatives in the US planning to bomb a “Trace Adkins Concert for the Troops” plays out and provides the dénouement when Malone meets Adkins/Angel of Death and, as did Scrooge, sees the error of his ways. If only Americans who disparage their country for not being perfect would do the same.

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