Two years ago, at Christmas week 2014, Sony studios was the victim of a massive cyber attack by suspected North Korean adversaries, who were threatening 9-11 level terrorist attacks at any cinema that showed the Seth Rogen and James Franco comedy The Interview. The motive behind the attack was presumed to be fear of mockery of Dear Leader, Kim Jong Un.
This lead to a grim chapter in Hollywood history when Sony Pictures Entertainment made the last-minute and unprecedented announcement to pull the film from theatrical release, with no further plan for its distribution.
The controversy of The Interview quickly moved off the Arts pages and onto the front pages. And that was over “a dumb satire,” as the editors of the film reported at the time in a story in CineMontage.
The White House back then was more direct in it’s response than it has been to responding to the Russian hacking scandal. President Obama at his year-end press conference would not say for sure that dictator Putin tipped the scales for the election of Trump. Though President Obama was far more direct in his response to the Sony hack and their decision to pull The Interview from theaters.
“I think they made a mistake,” Obama said, adding: “We cannot have a society in which some dictator someplace can start imposing censorship here in the United States.”
And what about a dictator hacking the Democratic campaign? Does it seem there is less outrage of this real horror film we are living than there was by the consumer film-going public to pressure Sony to show the film? It seems we cared more at the time to #FreeTheInterview than to free our elections?
After all, who wants to be denied a good laugh at the expense of a real dictator?