At the annual Sundance Film Festival, actor Robert Redford said these words:
“For years and years and years, you’ve all experienced what we had to live with, the fact that other countries are far more supportive of their artists than we are…”
Redford is wrong. A quick check of boxofficemojo.com reveals that total domestic gross for 598 movies on the charts was over 9.8 BILLION DOLLARS!
Redford goes on to say the following:
“…I think it’s just tragic that we don’t support our artists more than we do. And as long as we’re going to have that kind of thinking in Congress, we’re going to have to fight it.”
I believe what Robert Redford is getting at is that he wants our tax dollars to support artists whom movie directors, producers and movie goers have already rejected. He makes his point by dissing the film “Transformers” and taking a political swipe at Mitt Romney.
What Robert Redford doesn’t understand is that we’d all like to have someone support and nurture us while we discover and cultivate that special skill within us that might change the world for the better. But the time for that is during the school years. For every artist and musician incubating a masterpiece there’s a iPhone programming formulating the next killer app and a stay at home mom raising the next great business genius. Artists need to make the transition to adulthood just like everyone else.
Your profession does great work. There’s brilliance among your members. But no free rides Mr. Redford…no free rides.