A Kentucky theater owner has banned the number one movie in America, The Butler, from his theater because he says that actress Jane Fonda is "an enemy of the United States of America."
Movie Palace and Showtime Cinemas owner Ike Boutwell told The News-Enterprise that he was not interested any of the $25 million that Lee Daniel's film about an African-American butler who served eight United States presidents had made during its opening weekend because Fonda had brought disgrace to the screen with her portrayal of former First Lady Nancy Reagan.
"I was a military flight instructor during the Vietnam War, taught hundreds of pilots to fly, many of whom Ms. Fonda clapped and cheered as they were shot down and killed," the retired Marine explained. "That's treason, right in our Constitution... aid and comfort to the enemy."
Boutwell said that it would be a "terrible dishonorment on my part to give money to a woman" such as Fonda.
He added that it would be "throwing gas on the fire" to support a "person of treason" as she portrayed a "patriotic lady" like Nancy Reagan.
"I'm a former Marine, I've got a long memory," Boutwell pointed out. "I just -- I cannot give up to the enemy, and Ms. Fonda, as far as I'm concerned, is an enemy of the United States of America. That's exactly how I feel about it."
Well, at least the guy's not saying "I'm not going to show this movie with black people in it" or anything. That would be really ludicrous, right?
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4 comments:
As a retired member of the US Navy, I belong to a mail group of ex-Navy folks. I was unaware of Ms. Fonda's activities in Vietnam and to this day could not care less.
But most of the other members of the group hate her as much as Boutwell and quote him.
For the record, the last movie I saw in a movie theatre was when "Coal Miner's Daughter was in its' original release. Sometime in the 1980s.
"Dishonorment?"
Is that even a word?
While Jane Fonda indeed pulled rather stupid crap in Vietnam, many (if not most) accounts of it are exaggerated. No, she did not "clap and cheer" when American soldiers were killed, and no, she didn't pass on notes that American POWs had given her to North Vietnamese authorities (Snopes is your friend).
Yes, most Vietnam veterans, understandably enough, despise her to this day. Whether a brief appearance by Ms. Fonda is enough reason to boycott the movie is everyone's own decision. Hopefully the residents of Elizabethtown, KY, who want to see it will have an opportunity to do so elsewhere.
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