Moviegoers at a drive-in theater in Alabama won’t be able to see a retelling of the “tale as old as time.”
The Henagar Drive-In Theatre in DeKalb County has canceled its screenings of “Beauty and the Beast” because the film will feature Disney’s first openly gay character.
Director Bill Condon recently told Attitude magazine that Josh Gad’s LeFou — villain Gaston’s (Luke Evans) eccentric sidekick — will be Disney’s first-ever LGBTQ character — a way of honoring the original 1991 animated film’s late lyricist Howard Ashman.
The announcement follows the Alabama theater’s change in ownership. “When companies continually force their views on us, we need to take a stand. We all make choices and I am making mine,” a statement on the northeast Alabama theater’s Facebook page read. [...] Here’s the Henagar Drive-In’s full statement below.
As of December 16th the Henagar Drive-In is under new ownership. Movies scheduled prior to that date and four weeks after this date were not scheduled by the new owners. That being said—It is with great sorrow that I have to tell our customers that we will not be showing Beauty and the Beast at the Henagar Drive-In when it comes out. When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand. We all make choices and I am making mine. For those that do not know Beauty and the Beast is “premiering” their first homosexual character. The producer also says at the end of the movie “there will be a surprise for same-sex couples”. If we can not take our 11 year old grand daughter and 8 year old grandson to see a movie we have no business watching it. If I can’t sit through a movie with God or Jesus sitting by me then we have no business showing it. I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine. We are first and foremost Christians. We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches. We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language. Thank you for your support!
23 comments
There is so much wrong and hypocritical in this that I don't even know where to begin . If I did get started, I would end up writing a ten-page essay on it, but this is Cishet Supremacy 101 shit not worth that many of my words. I'll just point out that it's supercilious to the point of literally granting people permission to disagree :
I know there will be some that do not agree with this decision. That’s fine.
You should take that fact and your audience's awareness of it for granted. If you "politely" point it out, then your message is almost certainly massively passive-aggressive, and it is less substance and more of what I call preemptive persecution posturing: framing your actions and presenting your arguments in a way that you can cry persecution and play tone police to discredit your opponents if their response doesn't kiss your ass and pay lip-service to the validity of your position. The intended outcome is to reinforce the perception of your position as valid and 'normal' and to paint your opponents as oppressive outsiders for having the gall to question that position (much less to outright reject it without at least pretending it deserves equal consideration).
This is one of the most obnoxiously insincere tactics I have ever seen. It's pretty transparent in this quote, but you can see it done much worse on Tumblr, where they make even less effort to hide it and they crank the melodrama up to eleven, though fundies of all stripes absolutely love this tactic.
LeFou seemed gay in the original too. It's not hard to interpret his character as such. Besides children don't get confused about this thing, "Some men love men," and that's that.
I can't wait until this person gets faced down by their grandkids when they realize everyone at their pre/school seen the movie and didn't die of shock.
Do they still do drive-ins?
Oh, and if a gay character in a film is enough to keep God and Jesus away, then they're not as powerful as you think they are.
@FELIX
As was said in the other posting of this quote, yeah, there's 300-something still around in the US. I just had to google it, too, the closest ones to me are 30 miles one way, and 20 miles the other way. Guess that's what happens when you live between two big cities about 50 miles apart! ;-)
Even came across the story about how one drive-in by where I used to live was just about destroyed by a freak storm. I only vaguely remember that myself, (I was like 3 at the time! Lol) but I've always heard people a little older than me talk about the "green sky storm"....
"the "green sky storm""
It was a green day?
@Malingspann
People reported the sky turned pea-soup green. I've even seen some pictures of it.
But I guess since it's me recalling something so long ago, you'd say I was a basket case? Or maybe that I have the long view of things here?
I like how they always pretend this is a great noble sacrifice but it's always done in areas that are uber religious and they literally scream about how righteous they are at every opportunity. Imagine how many high end movies he won't run 'because ungodly'. Know your market.
It's quite possible he could run only religious movies, he could get them cheaper, maybe free, He and God knows the drive In movie is becoming extinct.
When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand.
Right! You take a stand and force your own views on your customers. And "sorrow"? Is that another word for bigotry?
We are first and foremost Christians. We will not compromise on what the Bible teaches.
Right! So you, of course, would never dream of charging outlandish prices at the snackbar and you let poor people into the drive-in for free and give them free food, right? No? But I thought you were first and foremost Christians and will not compromise on what the Bible teaches. Strange.
@creativerealms: Admittedly LeFou has a heel-face turn toward the end in this version, but whether it's enough to achieve redemption within the timeframe of the movie is another story. The characters and plot aspects in this version have been made surprisingly elaborate, complex, and three-dimensional given the source material, and a part of the ending actually acknowledges this particular question in a subtle, symbolic way.
That sort of thing flies completely over the heads of fundies, though, and all they'd be interested in anyway is latching onto LeFou doing something heroic and grossly exaggerating it because a gay hero better suits their persecution complex, just like they latched onto a literally three-second part with him for "forcing ungodly homosexual views" on them. The queer-mongering fundies were truly desperate (and determined!) to find LeFou actually do somethinganything they could interpret as gay so they could launch into hysterics about having his sexuality shoved down their throats.
As for the rest of movie, it's definitely worth a looksee if you enjoyed the original Beauty and the Beast when you were a kid, or you think you could watch and enjoy a musical fairytale as an adult. (I obviously can, or at least I can if it's something I remember fondly from my childhood.) I also don't care what anyone else says; Emma Watson absolutely nailed her part as Belle, and I couldn't think of a better person to play the role. My only complaint about her is that her singing voice was a little rough around the edges.
@shy
Even without the ban, these saps are going to run this drive-in into the ground. They wont show anything outside their very narrow list of "suitable entertainment"....and many family-friendly films aren't making the cut.
This is not going to end well.
Oh well. I guess I will see it elsewhere then. Such is their right to not show it for any reason. But such is the right for those who aren't offended by LGBT individuals to see and for their allies such as myself to support them. And as it stands, the new Beauty and the Beast looks really cool.
Also did anyone read the comments? Seems our LEGBT friends are still, sadly, very much hated by many claiming to be moral people.
" When companies continually force their views on us we need to take a stand."
Since your company is forcing it's views on me by cancelling the movie, I will take a stand and go to another theatre.
From a financial standpoint, this is a stupid decision; if the movie is a hit, their profits are going to take a serious hit when people simply go elsewhere to see the movie.
I'm sure the competing theatres in the area are applauding this decision.
"We will continue to show family oriented films so you can feel free to come watch wholesome movies without worrying about sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language. Thank you for your support!"
I don't necessarily disagree with this. It's their theater. They can show whatever movies they want and not show whatever movies they want. Although I do find it a bit strange that they're making a decision without actually seeing the movie.
I think it's foolish from a financial and reality viewpoint. Movies are about life and life contains "sex, nudity, homosexuality and foul language." Whether or not these things are evil or inappropriate depends very much upon the circumstance. From what I know of the gay references in "Beauty and the Beast" they sound far from inappropriate. But that's my opinion and I suppose these folks are entitled to theirs.
Where are you going to get your 'family oriented films' from now?
Disney?
Who's to say that the other distributors won't show solidarity and refuse you their releases? A multiplex wouldn't behave the way you are, so who gives a shit if your pissant little irrelevance of a 'drive-in' goes out of business, and is reclaimed by nature?
Like I say: those multiplexes.
It's in Alabama, Moose; that could be why drive-ins are still around.
That and it may just be novelty thing as well. Though I don't imagine there are a lot of hipsters in Alabama outside of the urban centers.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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