I’m not usually one to isolate libertarian viewpoints or meanings in books and films, but every point made in this essay was very much in line with how I saw the film.

Also, very interesting to compare and contrast between this review/essay and the one posted on the World Socialist web site (see previous comment)!

I took him for a Left wing type from some of the interviews and such over the years. i.e. his criticism of govt was outweighed by his criticism of the market

On a forum I was posting on when this movie first came out, somehow Tripp came up as a topic, and everyone was surprised when I was critical of the man. The typical protrait of the man is a visionary, and a great businessman.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2005/jan2005/avia-j13.shtml

I think they appreciate entrepreneurialism all right, but Hollywood is the capital city of phoneyness. They present themselves as left-wing to distract the envious public away from their enormous wealth and to keep the government off their backs.

Atom Egoyan made a similar comment with respect to the level of intellect and education of Hollywood moguls – he said they’re all extremely smart and well-read, but for business reasons they have to act like the simpleminded everyman. Kind of like when Frasier Crane sits down to read Tale of Two Cities aloud to the gang down at “Cheers”, and quickly realizes he has to turn it into a sex- and gore-fest if he’s going to keep their attention.

French filmmaking is superficially opposite – even when they’re filming a romp of a movie full of T&A, they feel obliged to lard it heavy doses of intellectual talk. But they do it for similar reasons – to pander to the intellectual pretensions of their public and to keep the government subsidies rolling in.