LA Times Slams Daily Wire Film as Racist (Without Seeing It)

The Left has spent weeks attacking conservatives for skewering “The Odyssey,” sight unseen.

And progressives have a point … to a degree.

Right-leaning scribes and YouTubers alike slammed Christopher Nolan’s film for its woke casting choices. That’s mostly fair. 

Hiring a trans actor like Elliot Page for a small but critical warrior role is woke to the core. Why would a casting director select a five-foot-one star for such a gig?

So is hiring black actress Lupita Nyong’o to play a Greek heroine typically portrayed by white stars.

And, of course, these are creative choices that are open to debate. Nyong’o is both beautiful and an Oscar winner.

Others suggested the film itself would be a woke parade, based on those casting choices, the nature of modern Hollywood and Nolan’s relative silence on the matter.

It’s fine to read tea leaves and call out creative decisions, but prejudging a film puts critics on shaky ground. 

Yet the far-Left L.A. Times did far worse this week. The newspaper blasted an upcoming Daily Wire film as “xenophobic” and prone to inspiring violence.

Sight unseen.

(Editor’s Note: This critic is a contributor to The Daily Wire)

“Run Hide Fight: Infidels” won’t be released until the Fall, and all we’ve seen of the film is one provocative, but vague, trailer.

That didn’t stop two LA Times writers from savaging the film, prejudging it based on, well, not much of anything. The article also excoriated “Citizen Vigilante,” the only recent film to call out the wave of immigrant-fueled violence unfolding across Europe.

The piece compared the movies in question to the unabashedly racist “Birth of a Nation.” Next, the authors suggest the films will spark anti-Muslim violence, even though “Infidels” isn’t available yet and “Citizen Vigilante” is but a few weeks old.

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The article doesn’t say it outright, but it clearly wants films that don’t fit the Left’s agenda to be censored. How else can one interpret this passage?

“Citizen Vigilante,” which features an American protagonist killing dark-skinned immigrants and Muslims in an unnamed European setting, was denied a rating certificate by the German government for inciting violence. Yet despite that determination, the film secured global reach through decentralized digital distribution and high-profile promotion from Elon Musk.

Censorship for thee, but not for me (and Jimmy Kimmel). Plus, the titular vigilante kills many people, including white Europeans and innocents.

Next, the authors play the “representation” card, ignoring how the film industry punishes conservatives for merely existing and refuses to tell their stories.

We’ll have to wait a while before the authors touch on either topic. Maybe forever.

In case we missed the article’s first censorship plea, it delivers a second attempt.

Studios, distributors, streaming platforms and filmmakers all have a responsibility to reject narratives that portray immigrants as enemies and instead embrace stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of our world.

Did The LA Times pen any op-eds tied to “One Battle After Another,” a movie that glorifies anti-government violence?

The answer would be, “no.”

Dallas Sonnier, a co-producer on “Run Hide Fight: Infidels,” exclusively told Hollywood in Toto his thoughts on the column.

“This LA Times junk piece by professional grievance merchants ignores the blood-soaked reality of radical Islam. Since the writers love quoting statistics, here’s one they ignored: Islamist extremists are responsible for the overwhelming majority of global terrorism fatalities.

Movies like ‘Run Hide Fight: Infidels’ and ‘Citizen Vigilante’ don’t incite violence. They expose it, giving voice to justified anger over unchecked migration and ideological surrender that puts America at risk.

Audiences are celebrating unapologetic tales of American resilience and moral clarity, and no amount of pearl-clutching from advocacy groups will change that.”

Why would The LA Times publish such a screed? It’s simple. The Left wants to own the Hollywood narrative. The stories. The shows. The messaging. The messengers.

When something comes along to challenge that monopoly, the Left fights back.

Hard. Fast. Ugly.

And they’ll do whatever it takes to silence those willing to buck the preferred narrative.

The article is a warning, a shot across the creative bow. If someone tells a story that doesn’t align with the progressive worldview, they’ll be called out in no uncertain terms.

Racist. Bigot. Hater. That’s the third way the article hopes to censor artists.

Except “Citizen Vigilante” proved to be a VOD sensation.  And The Daily Wire has a track record of producing compelling titles without fear or compromise.

Expect more op-eds to rally to The LA Times’ side moving forward all the same.