Jodie Foster: Cheering in Her Payback Movie 'Shameful' and No One Should Own Guns

[Brian Damage]

In an Entertainment Weekly interview, Jodie Foster explained her views on guns, “I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being.”

She also said it is “shameful” that the “unsophisticated people who see a sophisticated movie” will cheer when she goes after the bad guys who kill her fiance in her new vigilante movie “The Brave One”

(emphasis mine throughout):

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There's a rallying moment in The Brave One when you stick a gun in a bad guy's face and say, ''I want my dog back.'' How are you going to feel about the audience cheering on your character as she starts hunting people down?
JODIE FOSTER: It's shameful, but that's human and that's who we are as human beings. There will be unsophisticated people who see a sophisticated movie. Just like there were in The Accused. And thank God I only went to one screening of that movie with an audience.


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She really equated the idiots cheering the rape in “The Accused” to the people who cheer a heroine getting revenge in a payback movie? Poor Jodie; all of those “unsophisticated people” sullying her movies. Maybe they should stay home until they learn to ignore those adrenaline-pumping, feel-good parts where the writer and director deliberately try to get the audience to react.

Foster, who was protected by bodyguards while would-be Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley harassed her and said in 2002 that she does not have security now, addressed the issue of guns:

EW: What do you think is the larger social commentary of The Brave One, which in some ways plays as a straight-up Dirty Harry revenge movie?
FOSTER: Here's my commentary: I don't believe that any gun should be in the hand of a thinking, feeling, breathing human being. Americans are by nature filled with rage-slash-fear. And guns are a huge part of our culture. I know I'm crazy because I'm only supposed to say that in Europe. But violence corrupts absolutely.*


One would think those tense years dealing with Hinckley would have opened her to the issue of personal protection, but instead she just voiced the unrealistic view that no one should ever have guns, which is easy to have when living in exclusive or gated communities with the option of hiring others for protection.

Do the "thinking, feeling, breathing" human beings exclude law enforcement, military, park rangers and the people who guard her and her children on red carpets and movie sets or are they too busy being corrupted by “rage-slash-fear” to think and feel?

Then she alienated even more potential moviegoers:

EW:Your performance in Taxi Driver kept coming up during the mini media frenzy over news that Dakota Fanning had a rape scene in the [yet-to-be released] movie Hounddog.
FOSTER: ...she is spectacular in [Hounddog]. The movie, ehh, but that's a brave, brave performance that she should be very, very proud of...I think it was a wonderful move for her and it's setting her up to not be a Disney bimbo. I think the [uproar] was just a bunch of Christians who didn't see the movie.


Industry media media like Premiere and Cinematical, gossips like Dlisted along with blogs and message boards weren't “just a bunch of Christians.” That's a disingenuous way to dismiss legitimate criticism.

It wasn't just the rape. The screenplay called for Fanning's character to appear “naked or clad only in 'underpants.' ” After the uproar over the original script, writer-producer-director Deborah Kampmeier edited and released a revised version (here), but even that was still “creepy,” wrote Cinematical.

Premiere described the final cut, which had Fanning's character “making a boy drop his jockeys by promising him kisses, sleeping beside (her) naked, brain-addled father...and forcing two children to strip at gunpoint and embrace as she wraps a snake around them.”

Kampmeier bragged her movie was about “the power of female sexuality.” For a 12-year-old.

Well, I guess I know what Foster's definition of “sophisticated” is now.


http://www.newsbusters.org/blogs/lyn...-should-own-gu

[TJL]

Jodie is way off the mark comparing some idiots who cheered her rape scene in the "Accused" to the ones who cheered during "The Brave One."

I didn't see "Brave One," but I know about the famous "I want my dog back" line.

Why? Because they featured the line in the TV ads for the movie, which means the studio decided at one point to try to market this movie as a female version of the revenge flick "Death Wish" complete with cool catchphrase instead of the serious though provoking film Foster was hoping it would be.

I didn't see her objecting to the commercials.

[Janice]

What a hypocrite. If Jodie feels so strongly about guns and vigilante justice, she shouldn't make a movie which glorifies it. Something tells me her character wins out in the end and she'll be the sympathetic one. Is this movie going to show the evils of guns and payback revenge? Doubt it.

So Jodie Foster makes a movie about vigilantism, where she avenges the death of her fiance, sticks a gun in the killer's face, and utters a powerful line (which was used to promote the movie). Now she's bitching that the audience is "unsophisticated" and it's "shameful" that they're on her character's side and cheer her on. The audience is led to feel a certain way. The writing, directing, acting, music, etc...these factors all evoke emotions in viewers, and it's no accident. It all by design. Evidently, Ms. Foster can put her principles aside, for a price. Fair enough, but don't attack your audience. I'm curious as to how Jodie would have liked the audience to react, so she wouldn't think they were shameful and unsophisticated. I think they got the reaction they were looking for, without a doubt. She's the heroine. Were we supposed to hate her?

I doubt that she watched, The Accused, and that the audience cheered over that gang rape scene. That was one of the most disturbing scenes ever put on film. Where did she watch the movie, in a men's prison? You gotta love these Strawman arguments. Put forth a BS scenario, and build your case around it.

Way to go Jodie. Make a movie about a vigilante seeking revenge with a gun, then insult your audience when they enjoy it. The movie got medicocre reviews and grosssed 36 million at the Box Office. Foster got paid 15 million for the movie, so my math tells me it flopped. I never even heard of the movie until now.


http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/brave_one/

Jodie hates guns.

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Brian Damage

She really equated the idiots cheering the rape in “The Accused” to the people who cheer a heroine getting revenge in a payback movie?

^^^^This quote helped me to understand what was being said.
Did anyone else get a headache reading this story?
I had to read this story, particularly the "cheering" part where she mentions her movie THE ACCUSED. I finally understood her to mean she is equating audiences who will cheer her heroine role in her new movie to the "idiots" in the actual move THE ACCUSED (those men in the bar) who cheered the rapists. I was confused for a moment, I thought she meant PEOPLE WHO SAW THE MOVIE "THE ACCUSED" WERE CHEERING THE RAPISTS.


Anyhoo, I hate when actors/actresses get all dramatic over their roles. If it was a historical movie or a fact-based movie, etc. I can understand, but this is just a move for God's sake. The audience wants to view movies and cheer, hate, and get "involved" with the plot. I don't get Jodie's point.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

^^^^This quote helped me to understand what was being said.
Did anyone else get a headache reading this story?
I had to read this story, particularly the "cheering" part where she mentions her movie THE ACCUSED. I finally understood her to mean she is equating audiences who will cheer her heroine role in her new movie to the "idiots" in the actual move THE ACCUSED (those men in the bar) who cheered the rapists. I was confused for a moment, I thought she meant PEOPLE WHO SAW THE MOVIE "THE ACCUSED" WERE CHEERING THE RAPISTS.

That is who she's referring to. Read what she said. The topic was audiences cheering her on in the movie, The Brave One, and she was asked about a cheering audience in The Brave One.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: There's a rallying moment in The Brave One when you stick a gun in a bad guy's face and say, ''I want my dog back.'' How are you going to feel about the audience cheering on your
character as she starts hunting people down?

JODIE FOSTER: It's shameful, but that's human and that's who we are as human beings. There will be unsophisticated people who see a sophisticated movie.Just like there were in The Accused. And thank God I only went to one screening of that movie with an audience.

Foster is referring to the audience in The Accused.

[Ireneparalegal]

I don't get it though. Who cheered on that horrible scene? I know of no one who cheered that scene...normal people at least. The only people I can think of who would cheer that on are people who are sick, pathetic and a$$holes.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

I don't get it though. Who cheered on that horrible scene? I know of no one who cheered that scene...normal people at least. The only people I can think of who would cheer that on are people who are sick, pathetic and a$$holes.

Sorry to say, but I think she's full of it, as in, I think she's lying.

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Janice

Sorry to say, but I think she's full of it, as in, I think she's lying.

Or she was on drugs or something.

[Janice]

Originally Posted by Ireneparalegal

Or she was on drugs or something.

Who knows. Beats me why she would insult her audience, not only for her new movie, but from an old movie too. I thought she had more class than that. I wouldn't pay to see her in another movie now, after those remarks. I don't put my money in the pockets of people who insult me. She sounds like a judgemental snob.

[Ireneparalegal]

Not only that, she mentions "they must be Christians" when referencing those who complained abt Dakota Fanning's rape scene. Where oh where does it say that someone who complains abt a rape scene in a movie has to automatically be a christian???? Why can't people just complain?

[Janice]

Perhaps Jodie feels that she's so successful that she can alienate certain segments of her audience. I don't understand why she would take these shots at people. I've been reading her interviews for years, and this is out of character for her. I always consider the source, and this was an interview in Entertainment Weekly.

[Ireneparalegal]

Yes, a good source is the key to whether it can be considered trustworthy or not. I love EW.

I cannot begin to think what or why she stated such things. It really is more than just an interview regarding a movie. For someone who hates the audience for cheering a gun scene or whatever, doesn't she think she is no better by calling us "unsophisticated" or referring to people by a religion. Excuse me, but I think ALL PEOPLE despise the crime of rape, whether they are christian, jew, jehovah or even atheist. For her to make the big assumption that only "christians" abhor Dakota's rape scene speaks volumes abt Jodie's intellect. For someone who may be lesbian, she should know better than to chastise those for their religion.

[Dean Winchester]

what was the message she wanted to get across when she made The Brave One then? From all the previews and everything, it looked like the point of the movie was to cheer her on for getting revenge on people who did her wrong in the past. Much like past "woman done wrong seeks revenge" movies like The Burning Bed, Sleeping with The Enemy and Enough among others

[Ireneparalegal]

Originally Posted by Dean Winchester

what was the message she wanted to get across when she made The Brave One then? From all the previews and everything, it looked like the point of the movie was to cheer her on for getting revenge on people who did her wrong in the past. Much like past "woman done wrong seeks revenge" movies like The Burning Bed, Sleeping with The Enemy and Enough among others

Exactly. What is the point then? Or like Janice stated, why make the movie at all? Let some other female actress have that role.

[Mr. Television]

That's disgraceful for her to say. I don't get it. I've always been a big Jodie Foster fan...one of the reasons being that she's very quiet and doesn't speak out on topics she knows nothing about.