Cinapse is squarely focused primarily on discussing film, not reporting news flashes and casting rumors or speculating about the business side of things. So when a big story breaks, we’ll do our best to not simply regurgitate what you can read elsewhere, but rather offer meaningful reflections and insights. That’s when we turn to jerks — Knee Jerks!
[NOTE: You can read Cinapse staffer Jacob Knight’s full review and thoughts on the film and its cancellation, even more of interest now because he is now one of the few people to have seen the film.]
The hack perpetrated against Sony Pictures is one of the most unprecedented and enormous unfolding news stories in the world right now, and especially in the film industry. MUCH has been rumored and reported regarding the identity of the perpetrators (still unconfirmed), and a lot of that reporting has come from the hacked information itself. News outlets have been scouring Sony’s outed data for leads and headlines. Some of that reporting has been interesting and will serve to push forward the cultural conversation around electronic security, corporations’ obligations to their employee’s privacy, or even what “hacking” really means and when it crosses the line into “terrorism”. Most of that reporting has been gossip-mongering and irresponsible click bait, which further deepens the damage done by the hacker/s. Since Cinapse isn’t primarily a news site, we haven’t waded into the story until now.
Yesterday, press received notification from Sony Pictures through their PR firms, that their film, The Interview, would no longer be released in theaters at the planned Christmas Day release. The full statement from Sony is below:
“In light of the decision by the majority of our exhibitors not to show the film The Interview, we have decided not to move forward with the planned December 25 theatrical release. We respect and understand our partners’ decision and, of course, completely share their paramount interest in the safety of employees and theater-goers.
Sony Pictures has been the victim of an unprecedented criminal assault against our employees, our customers, and our business. Those who attacked us stole our intellectual property, private emails, and sensitive and proprietary material, and sought to destroy our spirit and our morale — all apparently to thwart the release of a movie they did not like. We are deeply saddened at this brazen effort to suppress the distribution of a movie, and in the process do damage to our company, our employees, and the American public. We stand by our filmmakers and their right to free expression and are extremely disappointed by this outcome.”
The Cinapse Team obviously wanted to weigh in on this massive story, and our wildly varying reflections are below. We chose to center our conversation on this MASSIVE story around this particular element, the canceling of The Interview’s release after major theater chains around the country insisted they would not play the film after the as-yet-unidentified hackers issued a threat of violence against anyone showing or attending a screening of the film. Here are our knee jerk reactions.
Victor: First of all, North Korea: I don’t know how THIS and not the Red Dawn remake is the movie that sets you off. Maybe if Seth Rogen looked a little bit more like Chris Hemsworth, none of this would have happened in the first place.
Anger is a natural reaction to the oppression of free speech, which this categorically and undeniably is. And others, I’m sure, will speak to that better than I ever could. But for me personally, I can’t get over the absurdity of it all. Think about it: the same dudes that invented “McLovin” have now inadvertently triggered the biggest cyber-attack in American history. And as a result, I don’t have shit to watch next weekend.
People seem pissed at Sony for this one, but they’re really only reacting to the fact that none of the major theater chains were going to run their movie anyway. Which is an important thing to keep in mind when we decide who to blame for this mess. I mean, I suppose if we had all signed waivers freeing Regal and AMC of any liability in the event of a terrorist attack, maybe that could have worked. But the fact that I even typed that sentence in the first place just goes to show you how fucking insane this whole situation is.
In closing, there’s probably not a market for it at the moment, but if a few years down the line someone makes a movie about a batshit crazy dictator essentially declaring war on another country on account of a stupid comedy, we’ll have to call it a ‘docudrama’. How fucking ridiculous is that? (V.N. Pryor)
Austin: Let’s get something clear before I continue: I despise Sony. These fires were lit by the PS3 launch fiasco and then reignited by their mishandling of the Spider-man property, among other ineptitudes. So if I give them a partial defense, any chuckleheads that want to write me off as a fanboy can forget it.
Like most of you, I’m extremely disappointed by their decision to can The Interview. Giving in to the demands of terrorists sucks, and North Korea in particular has been a cancer on this planet for far too long. As many have also identified, this also sets a very disturbing precedent.
Where I differ though, is a matter of practicality. Sony is a Japanese, international, corporate entity. Engaging them on a moral, social, or political level doesn’t compute because they’re not operating on a moral, social, or political plane. They’re making a business decision, and right now that might very well mean for their survival. We’ve long known that Sony is run by semi-advanced robots and not actual humans, so this shouldn’t surprise us.
The most obvious conclusion is that there’s more dirt to uncover (quite probably specific dirt), and Sony would rather deal with this backlash of canning a release or two than be further compromised. This is a business decision to mitigate as much damage as possible. Survival before valor, live to fight another day, and all that. I’m not agreeing with this; I’m just saying “Yeah, I get it”.
But there’s a human element to this, too. Criticisms would be far more valid if Sony was merely worrying about themselves. But the truth is far more complex. Thousands of individuals — not just industry fat cats but regular employees — are affected by this breach. It’s one thing to demand that a company stick their neck out, but quite another to ask them to put Joe Grip and Jane Gaffer’s personal data at further risk.
The way in which Sony handled all this was pretty sly, if transparent. By putting the decision in the hands of theaters who chickened out, they were able to use the widespread withdrawal as a catalyst to throw up their own hands in mock resignation. Be that as it may, our ire would more appropriately be placed on American theater chains for failing to stand up for us and provide the supply to our demand, terrorists be damned. (@VforVashaw)
Malachi: Sony was provided an incredible opportunity to, at the very least, show a principled stand. They blew it. Now, they are not only petty and unimaginative, as shown by the email leaks, but also cowards. (@CinapseMalachi)
Ed:Terrorism (n): the use of violence and intimidation in the pursuit of political aims
My focus of fascination is on the transition this incident underwent from “hack” to “terrorism”. The initial hack, based sheerly on its massive size, the loss of revenue it represented, and the broad impact it had on innocent employees at Sony PIctures, could maybe have been defined as cyber terror. But when direct threats of physical violence against humans beings gathering at specific showings of stoner comedy The Interview come into play, this becomes an entirely different conversation. It becomes terrorism. And in 2014, threats like this becoming a bureaucratic nightmare as corporations like Sony, AMC, and Regal stumble all over themselves to get as distant as possible from the threat of violence or lawsuits, even as the federal government steps in with their own protocols. Lost jobs and revenue, even if we’re talking in the billions, is not quite terrorism. So this story, as it has developed, has changed on a fundamental level.
North Korea can’t provide food or electricity to its citizens, much less perpetrate an organized attack on the world’s uncontested military superpower, so I don’t give credence to the terror threat if it does come from North Korea’s government. But the hack was clearly highly successful, and we know hacks can be executed by very few highly skilled people.
I want to see The Interview as much as the next guy, and I’m sure I will someday. Sony’s hands were likely tied by myriad factors here, and as a result, the threateners clearly won. But anyone who thinks this story is “just about a movie” isn’t acknowledging just how successful and large scale this hack was, how few people are probably behind it, and just how far the implications of it will go in changing western capitalism. (@Ed_Travis)
James: I’m not too surprised that in the same week that 132 schoolchildren were massacred by Taliban terrorists in Pakistan, Sony should choose to cancel the release of Seth Rogen’s North Korea-baiting comedy The Interview. In a world still reeling from the potentially horrific consequences of terrorism, both Sony and the US theatre chains involved are damned if they do and damned if they don’t.
Ignore the (seemingly) vague and unsubstantiated threats and release The Interview only to result in said threatened attacks becoming a reality, and they’d be vilified for not heeding the warnings. Capitulate to a bunch of attention-seeking maniacs extolling some warped ideology, and it not only looks like a society built on freedom of speech has lost its balls and undermined its own ideals, but sets a dangerous precedent that could see future, potentially sensitive cultural output stymied. After all, one of the primary goals of satire is to expose, ridicule and normalise the terror terrorists are desperate to spread.
It’s not the first time North Korea has got a satirical drubbing — although Team America may have got away with it either because it was puppets or maybe Kim Jong-il had more of a sense of humour. Perhaps there’s more to this story than we know, and the threats are more credible than the US government is letting on. But I can’t help thinking the funniest thing about this sorry saga is North Korea branding a lame-looking stoner comedy that seems more scatological than satirical an “act of war”. Before this debacle, I wasn’t interested in seeing The Interview. Now I, like many others (I assume), will want to see what all the fuss is about. Although this may be counter-productive to the terrorists’ aims, unless this is all some kind of tasteless publicity stunt on behalf of the distributors, I can’t help but think Sony’s mishandling of this situation has meant that today the baddies have won. (James Carey)
Sharon: The hilarious thing about this whole The Interview kerfuffle is that no one wanted to see this stupid movie in the first place. But of course now EVERYONE is going to watch it (somehow). Sony shouldn’t have kowtowed on the theatrical release; but since it did they should just release it for free on the internet/On Demand as kind of a giant middle finger. (@salsalissentio )
Jordan: Now that we KNOW that the threat is North Korean, I’m not really sure what we’re worried about. Sony pulling The Interview is like Bugs Bunny agreeing to stop “being such a stinker” just because Elmer calls himself a hunter. Okay, so North Korea’s got a cartoon shotgun. But is there ANY scenario where the steam-spouting Kim Jong-un’s gun barrel DOESN’T get tied up in a pretty little bow — face black with gun powder — while somehow exposing his adorable heart boxers in the process? The Guardians of Peace (heh) promise a 9/11 on all participating theaters. Well, in 2013, the Natl. Association of Theater Owners counted up 5,317 movie houses on North American soil, alone. Are we SERIOUSLY supposed to think that Jong-un’s operating even 10 terrorist cells this side of the Pacific -much less, in the likes of the parking lot outside Yonkers’ Cinemark 16? Last week, The Interview premiered in L.A. and (surprise!) looked NOTHING like Inglorious Basterds’ third act. Sony’s pulling of The Interview isn’t just a win for terrorists — it’s a win for prank callers. But, hey, at least we’ll get a great South Park episode out of this. I’m guessing. (@ProblemPasture)
This is obviously an ongoing story that will perhaps be unpacked for years on end as an example of a possible new era of technological espionage and terror. It is with all earnestness that we express our sincere hopes that no further lives or careers be ruined as this story continues to unfold.
And We’re Out.