New in PJ Media (written yesterday, before the game):
The Super Bowl on Sunday will once again feature two national anthems, the real one and the so-called “Black National Anthem,” “Lift Every Voice and Sing,” as if we were two nations, not one and indivisible. Country artist Mickey Guyton, who is black, will sing “The Star-Spangled Banner,” and the gospel duo Mary Mary will give us “Lift Every Voice and Sing.” Then at halftime, the renowned Mr. Snoop Dogg will regale us with his beloved classics, exhorting America to “smoke weed every day” and “smoke and go hoein.” The commercials, meanwhile, will vie to outdo one another in woke self-righteousness. The Super Bowl will be, in short, a celebration of schoolmarmish Leftism, racial divisiveness, and unabashed debauchery. Turn it off.
There are so many great movies you could see instead. Here are five of them. These are not the five greatest movies ever, nor are all of them full of vast cultural significance. They’re just each a far better way to spend Super Bowl Sunday than watching woke sports.
- Casablanca
If you’ve never seen it, it’s time to treat yourself. If you have seen it, it’s worth revisiting. Against the backdrop of a doomed romance, here are all the virtues that so many Americans have forgotten: nobility, self-sacrifice, dedication to a cause greater than oneself, even at a cost, and more. And speaking of racial politics, even in the Jim Crow days of the 1940s and within an employer/employee relationship, there is a real friendship between Rick Blaine (Humphrey Bogart), who is white, and Sam (Dooley Wilson), who is black. It’s easy to forget, amid today’s rampant race hysteria and victimhood profiteering, that such a thing was possible, and still could be.
- Suspicion
Johnnie Aysgarth (Cary Grant) is as charming as ever, back in the days before men were women and women were men, and Lina McLaidlaw (Joan Fontaine) falls for him hard. But kind of like with Joe Biden, the affable demeanor appears increasingly to be a façade, until finally Lina is not at all sure that Johnnie is not just a ne’er-do-well and a bit of a con man, but perhaps even a murderer. In the climactic scene, is Johnnie trying to push her out of the speeding car or keep her from falling out? This is a movie from the days before the content of one’s character was determined by the color of one’s skin, and when it was widely understood that human beings are complex and multifaceted.
- Ball of Fire
If you can believe that Gary Cooper is a nerdy professor who has never been kissed, and that Barbara Stanwyck is a nightclub singer and a mob boss’s moll (okay, that part is easy), then this much-overlooked 1941 romcom will keep you laughing. Once again, however, it depends on the highly antiquated notion that men and women are different, and are interested in one another without wanting to exchange roles. Crazy, I know.
There is more. Read the rest here.
libertyORdeath says
I can understand your position, but I’m not gonna let them take football away from me.
To me its just more overcompensation for what the NFL feels is it’s racist past – from outright segregation to racially biased cognitive assessments. The ones with the most questionable past think they have to be the wokest of them all to avoid scrutiny. The same can be said of Hollywood, Jimmy Kimmel, Howard Stern, George W. Bush, etc.
gravenimage says
I take your point, libertyORdeath–but with players “taking the knee” and rejecting America. I think that football *has* been taken away from us.
revereridesagain says
Any excuse to watch “Rear Window” is a good one.
The original murder mystery was by William Irish and there was no one like Grace Kelly involved but it’s still good. Hitchcock reproduced the West Village/Chelsea neighborhood backyard so accurately that I guessed the “real” location within two blocks!
USA says
I didnt waste hours of my life watching the unamerican so called super bowl or the half time garbage and my life is better for it.
Infidel says
Years ago, Rush Limbaugh came out w/ a system called the ‘Environmental Wacko method of calling a game’, where he used the name of teams and woke standards to put them on a morality scale, and then make a call on whom to choose. I don’t know the first thing about football, but yesterday, I decided to try that, more so b’cos I’m from that state in India whose named tiger that the Cincinnati team is named after. I just checked the scores in the news, and was disappointed
But yeah, sports is the one are where I have not assimilated w/ this country at all. Dunno whether that’s a good thing or bad
Matt says
Thank you for your comments on the movies! “Ball of Fire” is particularly silly and fun! I disagree that “Casablanca” is about sacrifice. It was nice to see them give to a cause that was greater than their daily lives. I’m transgender, but I still see the beauty in men and women’s traditional roles. I still see the importance of them, though I am not my biological gender.
gravenimage says
+1
jewdog says
Since I’m a baseball fan (Atlanta Braves – world champs) I watched “Roman Empire” on Netflix, an excellent dramatized documentary featuring comments by notable experts on the topic.
I didn’t know who was playing until a couple days ago; I still need to find out who won, The Woke Wombats maybe?
gary fouse says
As usual, Roger Goody Goodell turned the whole Super Bowl production into a masked ball. Can’t we just have a high school marching band instead?
James Lincoln says
Instead of watching the 2022 “WokeBowl”, I watched a recording of Super Bowl III when Namath and his underdog Jets defeated the NFL’s Baltimore Colts.
One of the greatest sports upsets of all time – right up there with John Daly’s 1991 PGA Championship win at Crooked Stick.
gravenimage says
Five Movies You Could Have Watched Instead of the Woke Super Bowl
…………….
All excellent suggestions!
Michael says
Such events are a chance to express pride in town or nation, through local songs and dress.
But they are turning into Nowhereville sound and light shows.
Its bad news for spectators and also the teams. When the fireworks and razzmatazz displaced the crowd singing Calon Laan and Mae Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau before kick off, it cost the Welsh 10 points a game; the songs of the Scottish, English …. being feeble. Only the NZ haka can compete with the Wellsh choirs.
Thankfully the Welsh crowds still dress up as daffodils dragons or nervous sheep.
OLD GUY says
I’am done with professional football, basketball and baseball. Just tired of listening to the poor me millionaires who make their living playing a game. I’ll stick to high school and college sports. You have to love that half time show that reached out to the whole adult population of America. I guess the majority listen to rap and hip-hop music that promotes the drugs, hate the cops and bitches and ho’s was vary appropriate for a family event. Nothing says the best of America like Snoop Dog.