David Mamet gave up on Hollywood the moment he came out as a conservative.
Yes, Mamet’s bravura work speaks for itself, from film classics like “Glengarry Glen Ross” to plays (“Speed the Plow,” “American Buffalo”).
Once Mamet penned his infamous 2008 Village Voice piece entitled, “Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal,” Hollywood and the Left viewed him differently.
A FLASHBACK CLASSIC THAT EVERYONE IN HOLLYWOOD SHOULD READ–BUT WON’T
“David Mamet: Why I Am No Longer a ‘Brain-Dead Liberal’”https://t.co/tqFn2YzYrZ pic.twitter.com/YpfmqKgGLV
— Larry Elder (@larryelder) February 6, 2018
His last major film credit? Writing and directing the 2013 HBO biopic “Phil Spector.” He’s attached to write “Assassination,” a Barry Levinson film tied to President John F. Kennedy’s death.
That means his recent comments at unHerd.com won’t do serious damage to his Hollywood career. Said damage was already baked in.
Still, Mamet’s adulation for President Donald Trump could sever any remaining bonds between the 76-year-old auteur and Tinsel Town.
Feisty as ever, Mamet runs through some serious material with both wit and applied wisdom. Example?
His take on so-called “hate speech”
“…who gets to say what counts as hate speech? That’s where the power is. […] The most terrible thing in the world was the idea that there were certain crimes which are hate crimes. The question is not what did the person do, but what do we think about their motives in regard to certain societal norms which we have today.”
It’s his comments about Trump, the GOP’s likely presidential candidate, which might cause even liberals willing to give Mamet the benefit of the doubt pause, if not indigestion.
Trump was the best president since Abraham Lincoln. […] He brought peace to the Middle East. He closed the border. He made us an energy exporter. He had the best rating among African Americans of any president ever…. And the country was at peace and prosperous in the world. All of a sudden, he gets kicked out. And the world is a mess. But because the liberals cannot defend their position, all they can do is indict Trump….
He’s got a big mouth, so do I. The question is, who do you like in a fair fight with your back to the wall? Who would you rather have: Joe Biden, who’s a senile old bag-man, or Donald Trump, who’s a scrapper and loves his country.
It’s one thing to skewer President Joe Biden and say what the press won’t – the 81-year-old suffers from cognitive decline. It’s something else to praise Trump and suggest the country was far better off when he lived at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW.
It gets worse, at least for his tenuous bond with the artistic realm. Will Trump win a second term in office come November? Mamet answers with speed and decisiveness – “Yes.”
The unHerd interviewer then asks what the world will look like after four more years of Trump.
“It’s gonna look much, much better, but it’s gonna have to get worse before it gets a little bit better because the Biden/Obama administration has put the world and the West in a terrible place, and it’s all about diversity and racism. It means white people are bad, capitalism is bad … police are bad, but the inner cities are falling apart. Who is that hurting? It’s hurting the black Americans.”