Comments (14)

• It’s fascinating how many can seemingly suppress their self-respect in such a suck-up industry. The Normal-American Community stands aside and chuckles at it all.

  Comment by Clintidote — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 3:56pm PST  Reply to this post

• I may be entirely wrong on this… But in all of the interviews I’ve seen with Danny Boyle, he seems to be a man of great humility.

  No doubt that’s because he’s not from Los Angeles.

  Comment by TheScribbler — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 4:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• He went out of GUILT .. as he FORGOT to thank his agents on Oscar night!

  Comment by Jonah — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 4:28pm PST  Reply to this post

• Cupcakes and champagne. Yum!

  Comment by LA VO — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 4:35pm PST  Reply to this post

• Reflected glory is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

  The owners feel so good this may even keep people from getting laid off for a week or two.

  Comment by ReelBusy — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 4:54pm PST  Reply to this post

• I’m glad he won, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.

  Comment by Tyler Pietz — Wednesday February 25, 2009 @ 7:11pm PST  Reply to this post

• It’s an intelligent film with a minuscule budget, starring unknown Actors with discernible talent doing something that could actually happen.

  …Makes you wonder how it ever got made??

  Comment by Michael J. Austin — Thursday February 26, 2009 @ 8:56am PST  Reply to this post

• “This is one of those rare days when being in the agency biz is gratifying.”

  Boo #$&(*^% hoo hoo hoo!

  Oh please…agents are some of the most smug, self-important people in this business. And everyone knows it. All you need to do is turn on NIP/TUCK and see how CAA (pronounced ‘caah’) was mocked last season or so. Or go to a premiere or similar event and see how the packs of black Armanis swarm around their clients in some faux lovefest.

  We can all blame the Era of Ovitz for that. In a business where an actor needs a manager to help weigh the deals presented by their agent as well as a lawyer to protect him/her from both, your comment is truly laughable.

  Rare…if only the backslapping were rare as well.

  Comment by Tom Marshak — Thursday February 26, 2009 @ 10:40am PST  Reply to this post

• SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE portrays Hindus as violent thugs, the brave Indian police (who defended Mumbai when Islamic terrorists massacred the city a week after this film’s release in the U.S.) as torturing brutes, and India as filled with slums and the poor. Ironically, it’s Indian money that’s bailing out Hollywood moguls now.

  These cupcakes & champagne are being enjoyed over the misery and outrage of Hindus. Hindus have long been passive to such insults to their faith, but that passivity might not last long. Just keep making more films that show our people as thugs and mocking our faith, and even the worm will turn.

  Of course, the average American knows nothing of any other country or culture outside their border, and the rhapsodic comments above reflect just that.

  Comment by sveta singh — Friday February 27, 2009 @ 8:09am PST  Reply to this post

• And the Indian kids are back home sleeping in shit.

  Comment by ANONYMOUS — Friday February 27, 2009 @ 1:36pm PST  Reply to this post

• Wait, wait, wait, Slumdog Millionaire is a documentary?

  Holy sh!t, that does portray India in a bad light. I think all fiction films that portray real life places/situations in a bad light should be banned!

  Sveta, I think most American can separate fact from fiction as it relates to movies….but apparently the most vocal of voices coming out of India can’t.

  Comment by InformedViewer — Sunday March 1, 2009 @ 7:16pm PST  Reply to this post

• To Anonymous: Yes, some Indian kids are “sleeping in shit”, just like some of your Western poor are doing drugs, getting killed, killing others. Would you like it if a foreigner made a film depicting Western countries as nothing but your inner-city messes? I don’t think so–so please understand where our outrage comes from.

  As for “Informed/Viewer”: Hello, sir or madam. Did I say the Hindu-bashing SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE should be banned? Read my statements–I expressed my outrage, & that of countless Indians. But I never said this film–as hate-filled as it is, should be banned. Hindus, you see, believe in accommodating all sorts of opinions and thoughts, even unevolved ones. It’s gushing “fans” like yourself who seem to think no one should criticize this masterpiece, and if we dare to say the emperor has no clothes, we are unsophisticated Indians who don’t have your superior intellectual prowess to separate fact from fiction.

  Comment by sveta singh — Sunday March 1, 2009 @ 10:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• “Informed/Viewer” says most Americans are smart and can distinguish between SLUMDOG’s fiction and the facts of India. But the previous writer, “Anonymous”, shows us how savvy American viewers really are about other cultures when he/she defends SLUMDOG by saying Indian kids are sleeping in shit–meaning “Anonymous” believes SLUMDOG has depicted the true plight of India.

  That’s the danger of films like this, which take sides and potshots at someone or the other. People in the West who hae no clue regarding other cultures countries do indeed believe what they see onscreen in true. Some American guy went on YouTube after seeing SLUMDOG and said Hinduism is the worst religion. So we Westerners can’t shrug and say Indians who express their sadness at this film’s depiction of them & their religion just don’t get it.

  I live in India 6 months in a year (I’m white), and the poverty there is real–so is the progress, prosperity, a growing middle class, and Hindu openness to all faiths. The latter bunch of facts never made it into Danny Boyle’s film–taking potshots is so much easier, isn’t it? Then one can collect one’s Oscars and scrurry away to one’s cozy home in the West.

  And the poverty in India is on the same scale as the poverty in Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Belize, Mexico, El Salvador, Peru, Columbia–Muslim & Christian countries. But you don’t see Western filmmakers making films about the poverty in these places and blaming Islam or Christianity for the poverty. And if they did so, Muslims and Christians would cry foul–and in more vehement ways than Hindus have, over SLUMDOG.

  So let’s not try and shut down Indians who express their feelings about this film. That’s the least we can do.

  Comment by ben — Sunday March 1, 2009 @ 11:07pm PST  Reply to this post

• “The Indian kids back home are sleeping in shit.”
  Oh! I finally get it. That’s why these British filmmakers made the film–right? To show the world the plight of these poor Indian shit-sleepers. It can’t have been to amass personal glory and build their images as brave radical artistes in the West–nah! Cynical me!

  Comment by arpuda — Monday March 2, 2009 @ 5:39am PST  Reply to this post