Freedom of speech is one of the rights that makes the United States a unique and culturally thriving nation, especially when it comes to the arts. Paintings, songs and films can and do foster strong political and social opinions. But even freedom of expression through the arts has its limits, right? Of course it fucking doesn’t! Were you really expecting me to play along with that crazy bullshit?!
If you don’t know, Sony Pictures has been the target of a massive information hacking during these last few weeks, releasing seemingly countless amounts of data, ranging from emails from executives to unreleased scripts and films. This information breach comes from a group called the “Guardians of Peace.” Sony has been trying to pick up the pieces after these cyber attacks, urging news outlets to cease reporting on the information released from leaked information. Guardians of Peace continued to bully Sony Pictures for days on end, ultimately resulting in them releasing what can only be called terrorist claims. They released a statement stating that theaters that showed The Interview would be the victims of attacks equivalent to those on 9/11. Theaters nationwide responded by pulling the film and Sony Pictures formally cancelled the release of the picture entirely.
Now, the Seth Rogen and James Franco film has garnered plenty attention from all corners of the world due to its controversial plot. That is, the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Sony has received threats prior to the ones decreed by Guardians of Peace. For crying out loud, North Korea officially released a statement in June stating that if the movie were to be released, it would be considered an “act of war” by the U.S. Even after this official decree by the North Korean government, Sony still went ahead with releasing the movie, albeit making some slight alterations (like cutting a scene in which the dictator’s head explodes).
What’s so incredibly troubling about Sony’s pulling The Interview out of theaters is that the threats came from an anonymous source. Not a foreign nation or even a recognized hacker group, but a completely unknown individual or individuals. Granted, it could be something like Anonymous. However, it could also be two teenagers in a basement just messing around. Domestic intelligence agencies even said that there were no present terror threats planned to affect the United States.
So, these threats, as scary as they may seem, are completely unfounded. Sony’s reaction does come at a time in which they are incredibly vulnerable and are still trying to recover from the effects of the massive hacking that took place. Preventing The Interview from being released is most likely just a way for them to prevent any more heinous acts to be committed.
But this raises an imperative question: Can any anonymous threat wield this extraordinary power for future releases? It seems it very well could be. However, seeing as this is the first publically known case of this type of occurrence happening, we just don’t know. But Sony’s response is not making the landscape of cinema any more reassuring. Let’s take a hypothetical situation for a moment, shall we? Let’s say there is a movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It’s very violent, much like Last Temptation of Christ. A bunch of radical Christian groups catch wind of the film and make a threat much like the one for The Interview. Would the production company cave in and appease these extremists? If anyone doesn’t like a certain movie and makes anonymous threats, will distributors around the country be expected to do as they command?
This should most definitely not be the case. We’ve seen situations similar to this, although not exactly the same. When The Dark Knight Rises was released at a Aurora, Colorado theater in 2012, a lone gunman entered the premises dressed as the Joker and opened fire into the crowd, injuring over 70 and killing 12. Now, this was not just a threat, this was an actual act of violence committed by an individual. Did Warner Brothers or Legendary Pictures respond by pulling every copy of the film from theaters around the country? No! Even if there were other copycat shooters who would maybe do the same in time, the chances of that were and are unlikely. There are over 39,000 movie theaters in the United States. You’re telling me that if a majority of those theaters played The Interview, they would all be targeted to 9/11-esque attacks? Yeah right. Get real.
Coverage of this crazy story has continued throughout the day. Around 8 PM today, federal sources revealed that North Korea was indeed involved with not only the major Sony hack but the “anonymous” threats involving The Interview. Now, in their defense, if we heard of a film depicting the assassination of a current U.S. president, we’d lose our shit! (Maybe some Republicans would be okay, but that’s not the point.) What the United States government chooses to do next is a mystery, but that’s not what’s important here. It’s that the American movie industry and our government are more afraid of unidentified hackers than a ruthless military dictatorship. We often scoff at North Korean threats of armed retaliation, saying that they’re too poorly structured as a nation to commit to a full on attack. But now we know that they do in fact have the ability to hit us in vulnerable areas.
What’s messed up about this whole debacle is that technology has reached a point in which we fear the unknown much more than the known. (I’m starting to sound like Donald Rumsfeld. I don’t like that.) It’s one thing for North Korea to say they’ll declare war on the U.S. if the film is released, but it’s so much more dire when some unsolicited online group (maybe it’s one guy, we don’t know) makes a 9/11 related threat. Maybe that’s why this threat was worse than what was said by North Korea; the implication of 9/11. It’s very vague, but it’s specific enough to Americans right in their Levi-wearing, bald eagle and apple pie souls. But perhaps now that we know North Korea is responsible, Sony might actually think about releasing the film to the public.
Or maybe not, now that we know what they’re capable of. This is still an ongoing story and the federal government’s response will (hopefully) be pretty exciting. Hell, someone might make a movie about it.
If you don’t know, Sony Pictures has been the target of a massive information hacking during these last few weeks, releasing seemingly countless amounts of data, ranging from emails from executives to unreleased scripts and films. This information breach comes from a group called the “Guardians of Peace.” Sony has been trying to pick up the pieces after these cyber attacks, urging news outlets to cease reporting on the information released from leaked information. Guardians of Peace continued to bully Sony Pictures for days on end, ultimately resulting in them releasing what can only be called terrorist claims. They released a statement stating that theaters that showed The Interview would be the victims of attacks equivalent to those on 9/11. Theaters nationwide responded by pulling the film and Sony Pictures formally cancelled the release of the picture entirely.
Now, the Seth Rogen and James Franco film has garnered plenty attention from all corners of the world due to its controversial plot. That is, the assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Sony has received threats prior to the ones decreed by Guardians of Peace. For crying out loud, North Korea officially released a statement in June stating that if the movie were to be released, it would be considered an “act of war” by the U.S. Even after this official decree by the North Korean government, Sony still went ahead with releasing the movie, albeit making some slight alterations (like cutting a scene in which the dictator’s head explodes).
What’s so incredibly troubling about Sony’s pulling The Interview out of theaters is that the threats came from an anonymous source. Not a foreign nation or even a recognized hacker group, but a completely unknown individual or individuals. Granted, it could be something like Anonymous. However, it could also be two teenagers in a basement just messing around. Domestic intelligence agencies even said that there were no present terror threats planned to affect the United States.
So, these threats, as scary as they may seem, are completely unfounded. Sony’s reaction does come at a time in which they are incredibly vulnerable and are still trying to recover from the effects of the massive hacking that took place. Preventing The Interview from being released is most likely just a way for them to prevent any more heinous acts to be committed.
But this raises an imperative question: Can any anonymous threat wield this extraordinary power for future releases? It seems it very well could be. However, seeing as this is the first publically known case of this type of occurrence happening, we just don’t know. But Sony’s response is not making the landscape of cinema any more reassuring. Let’s take a hypothetical situation for a moment, shall we? Let’s say there is a movie about the crucifixion of Jesus Christ. It’s very violent, much like Last Temptation of Christ. A bunch of radical Christian groups catch wind of the film and make a threat much like the one for The Interview. Would the production company cave in and appease these extremists? If anyone doesn’t like a certain movie and makes anonymous threats, will distributors around the country be expected to do as they command?
This should most definitely not be the case. We’ve seen situations similar to this, although not exactly the same. When The Dark Knight Rises was released at a Aurora, Colorado theater in 2012, a lone gunman entered the premises dressed as the Joker and opened fire into the crowd, injuring over 70 and killing 12. Now, this was not just a threat, this was an actual act of violence committed by an individual. Did Warner Brothers or Legendary Pictures respond by pulling every copy of the film from theaters around the country? No! Even if there were other copycat shooters who would maybe do the same in time, the chances of that were and are unlikely. There are over 39,000 movie theaters in the United States. You’re telling me that if a majority of those theaters played The Interview, they would all be targeted to 9/11-esque attacks? Yeah right. Get real.
Coverage of this crazy story has continued throughout the day. Around 8 PM today, federal sources revealed that North Korea was indeed involved with not only the major Sony hack but the “anonymous” threats involving The Interview. Now, in their defense, if we heard of a film depicting the assassination of a current U.S. president, we’d lose our shit! (Maybe some Republicans would be okay, but that’s not the point.) What the United States government chooses to do next is a mystery, but that’s not what’s important here. It’s that the American movie industry and our government are more afraid of unidentified hackers than a ruthless military dictatorship. We often scoff at North Korean threats of armed retaliation, saying that they’re too poorly structured as a nation to commit to a full on attack. But now we know that they do in fact have the ability to hit us in vulnerable areas.
What’s messed up about this whole debacle is that technology has reached a point in which we fear the unknown much more than the known. (I’m starting to sound like Donald Rumsfeld. I don’t like that.) It’s one thing for North Korea to say they’ll declare war on the U.S. if the film is released, but it’s so much more dire when some unsolicited online group (maybe it’s one guy, we don’t know) makes a 9/11 related threat. Maybe that’s why this threat was worse than what was said by North Korea; the implication of 9/11. It’s very vague, but it’s specific enough to Americans right in their Levi-wearing, bald eagle and apple pie souls. But perhaps now that we know North Korea is responsible, Sony might actually think about releasing the film to the public.
Or maybe not, now that we know what they’re capable of. This is still an ongoing story and the federal government’s response will (hopefully) be pretty exciting. Hell, someone might make a movie about it.