The real reason to boycott The Day After Tomorrow

Glenn Reynolds has a post up about the absurd environmentalism that undergirds The Day After Tomorrow, a disaster movie coming soon to a theater near you. MoveOn.org has touted the film as, “The Movie the White House Doesn’t Want You to See.” We here at danieldrezner.com tend to cast a skeptical eye on the bashing of action movies for their political content — mostly because all action movies have their built-in political absurdities. Any principled moviegoer choosing to abstain from action movies with political or factual absurdities would be unable to go to any of these movies. Since we here at danieldrezner.com also like to see explosions, chases, and digitally-enhanced mayhem on a regular basis, we cannot recommend boycotting The Day After Tomorrow because of silly envoronmentalism. However, as a loyal Chicagoan, I can recommend that all current and former residents of this great city boycott the movie because of what director Roland Emmerich told Entertainment Weekly about setting the film in New York City as opposed to Chicago (subscription required):

Once again, the German-born Emmerich annihilates beloved landmarks (buh-bye, Hollywood sign!). But coming less than three years after Sept. 11, he had doubts about setting the film primarily in the Big Apple. ”It was a big discussion for me: Can I do this movie in New York? Is it in bad taste?” he says. ”We decided that because New York is the symbol of Western civilization, it has to be New York. We could have shot this movie in Chicago, but what is the worldwide recognition of Chicago?” (emphasis added)

I’ll concede that New York City may be the most easily recognized city in the world. But claiming that Chicago doesn’t have any “worldwide recognition” smacks of provincialism.