While conservatives have long focused on passing tax cuts and appointing judges, the left has gained nearly universal control of the entertainment industry. This has negative impacts far beyond Hollywood—because culture inevitably influences politics. The left knows this, which is part of why Melania Trump never graced a major magazine cover as First Lady, Netflix released Cuties, and the Oscars created diversity quotas.
Since the left has been winning America’s culture war for years, The Daily Wire has finally decided to fight back. On January 14th, the conservative outlet premiered its first movie, Run, Hide, Fight. The movie tells the story of seventeen-year-old Zoe Hull, who uses her survival skills and smarts to save lives, after her school is attacked by a gang of school shooters. Run, Hide, Fight isn’t overtly political, but it includes conservative values and showcases the importance of exercising Second Amendment rights.
The movie left me on the edge of my seat because it is both violent and relatable. The reactions of the characters feel real. Their dialogue mirrors the way my friends and I actually talk. And while watching, I couldn’t help but imagine myself in Hull’s place—surrounded by my former high school teachers and friends.
The movie’s realism is heightened by the fact that the heavy topic of school shootings is not sugar-coated or dulled down. Instead, the issue is explored through multiple angles, such as mental illness, bullying, and obsession with social media. For example, the shooters have such an infatuation with social media that they force their peers to livestream the shooting, hoping that it will make them famous. And the four attackers are more complex than one-dimensional “bad guys.” Each of them is fully, and realistically, fleshed out. Despite this, the movie refuses to sympathize with the school shooters. Their issues and motivations are addressed, but they’re not offered as excuses. The irredeemable evil of their violence is made clear.
Even more importantly, the focus of Run, Hide, Fight, is not the villains, but the brave people who outsmart the shooters. Characters of all walks of life stand up and fight back. Teachers sacrifice themselves for students. And students help their classmates escape to safety. In short, Run, Hide, Fight champions courage, and its inevitable triumph over evil.
The clear star of the movie is Zoe Hull, whose fear and bravery are subtly portrayed by Isabel May. The actress’s emotions are palpable, and I felt myself tearing up with her more than once.
So often, “strong” female characters are written and portrayed as male roles who just happen to be represented by female actresses. But Zoe’s portrayal is refreshing because she’s smart, capable, and brave—and she doesn’t pretend to be a man. Instead, she’s unapologetically a teenage girl, who worries about love and the stress of her upcoming prom. More crucially, Zoe doesn’t solve her problems with brute force, by fighting men who a teenage girl could never realistically beat. Instead, Zoe uses her gun knowledge, survival skills, and cleverness to outsmart her assailants. And the success of her tactics illustrates that having access to guns is the only way to defend oneself against those who wish to harm the innocent.
All of these factors make Run, Hide, Fight a great start to 2021’s movies. And to be clear, I recommend Run, Hide, Fight, not just because I support The Daily Wire’s mission, but also because it’s a genuinely good movie. Rotten Tomatoes’ ratings make the movie’s success clear. The current audience score is 93 percent, compared to the critics’ score of 25 percent.
Admittedly, Run, Hide, Fight, marks the beginning of what will be a long and difficult task for conservative creators, but the movie’s initial success nonetheless suggests that The Daily Wire, and conservatives in general, have a promising movie career ahead of themselves.
During the premiere’s live stream, Daily Wire Co-Founder and Co-CEO Jeremey Boreing explained the importance of succeeding in this endeavor:
“For too long, we in conservative media have devoted too much of our energy to criticizing art and not nearly enough energy to actually making it. We focus our energies on the short-term political conflicts in front of us… but almost none of us spend our time and energy on the generational cultural struggle that actually defines the Overton window in which our politics take place, [and] that’s a recipe for long-term political defeat.”
In other words, the time for conservatives to fight back in America’s culture war is now.
*The views expressed in this article solely represent the views of the author, not the views of the Chicago Thinker.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yJqfNroFp8U&feature=youtu.be
First of all, link the video that I think all conservatives should at least watch and consider.
Second, I haven’t seen the movie but, uh, it just seems like a realistic fiction horror movie. Guns are pretty common in those. I do appreciate a positive female representation of a “conservative” past the “redneck”, “catholic”, or “rich girl” stereotypes.
But I really don’t think that “having access to guns is the only way to defend oneself against those who wish to harm the innocent” line is quite the slam dunk you think it is. Like, this implicit message of “well if everyone had guns in schools that would solve the problem” doesn’t make sense to me. I can actually think of a number of other ways.
Perhaps every once in a while a fully militarized school would turn out incredibly well, but it seems more likely that it would just end in a higher escalation/death tally. It seems like both the cheaper and more practical alternative would literally just be to install security systems around doors that would make it so you can’t bring guns in. You could make it illegal to have more than like two pieces of ammo (imperfect but reduces mass shootings). Honestly, I imagine installing bullet proof doors would even be cheaper than everyone having a gun. In the moment, I can definitely see the appeal of having a gun, but it seems pretty inevitable that it would just end in more deaths to literally hand potential school shooters their weapons..
I mean, let’s imagine how this plays out for a second. Shooter walks in, everybody pulls out their guns (which are loaded and safety off), tries to shoot, nobody hits anybody else by accident, hits the shooter, and all is well? Really? Or is there just one class leader who gets a gun/training and you hope that ends well? As a fellow Iowan, I’m disappointed.
-L.F.
Actually, on second thought, I did some more digging and this video with prominent gun advocates/republicans rlly convinced me of your point.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good kid with a gun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkXeMoBPSDk
You’re taking firearms advice from Borat?
Let me explain the problems with your views on hab7ng firearms in schools.
First, you cannot justify 2 rounds of ammunition per person by the theory it would prevent mass shootings. Why? The Second Amendment and the Heller SCOGUS decision clearly define citizen firearm’s ownership as an individual right, and that includes ammunition. Second, it is ludicrously impractical to enforce. Third., it only affects law-abiding gun owners.
You seem to think citizens with firearms are inherently more dangerous than a school shooter or other armed criminal in a shootout situation. Most states that allow concealed or open carry ban carry in schools using just such illogic.
As a CCW holder, I am required to demonstrate proficiency with a firearm. Aa a combat shooter, I practiced marksmanship and target identification as well as ‘fire from cover’s movement and target angle tactics. I seriously doubt school shooters do. If the options were to confront them with your firearm or hope for the best that they didn’t shoot you – or the cops didn’t while trying to take them down in a forced entry – you are taking a risk either way.
I choose to defend myself rather than be at the mercy of armed thugs. According to an Obama era CDC report, that happens uo to half a million times a year – self defense with a firearm. Most of the time, displaying it referencing a firearm results in preventing or stopping a crime. It is rare any citizen has to shoot someone, but it happens more often than the leftist media likes to admit.
The bottom line is, having trained firearm carrying individuals in schools gives the student victims an option to fight back effectively, at least for those who carry. It also intimidates would be shooters.
Note the Parkland shooter, Nichopas Cruz. He wandered the hallways for several minutes shooting people without much concern for being targeted and shot himself. The school ‘resource officer’s stated outside. If one student had taken him on from cover and simply ordered him to drop the weapon and shot him if he did not comply, think how many lives would have been saved.
Guns are not evil, nor are they good. They are a tool that when bad guys misuse them hood guys must have to fight back and survive.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yJqfNroFp8U&feature=youtu.be
First of all, link the video that I think all conservatives should at least watch and consider.
Second, I haven’t seen the movie but, uh, it just seems like a realistic fiction horror movie. Guns are pretty common in those. I do appreciate a positive female representation of a “conservative“ past the “redneck“, “catholic”, or “rich girl“ stereotypes.
But I really don’t think that “having access to guns is the only way to defend oneself against those who wish to harm the innocent“ line is quite the slam dunk you think it is. Like, this implicit message of “well if everyone had guns in schools that would solve the problem” doesn’t make sense to me. I can actually think of a number of other ways.
Perhaps every once in a while a fully militarized school would turn out incredibly well, but it seems more likely that it would just end in a higher escalation/death tally. It seems like both the cheaper and more practical alternative would literally just be to install security systems around doors that would make it so you can’t bring guns in. You could make it illegal to have more than like two pieces of ammo (imperfect but reduces mass shootings). Honestly, I imagine installing bullet proof doors would even be cheaper than everyone having a gun. In the moment, I can definitely see the appeal of having a gun, but it seems pretty inevitable that it would just end in more deaths to literally hand potential school shooters their weapons..
I mean, let’s imagine how this plays out for a second. Shooter walks in, everybody pulls out their guns (which are loaded and safety off), tries to shoot, nobody hits anybody else by accident, hits the shooter, and all is well? Really? Or is there just one class leader who gets a gun/training and you hope that ends well? As a fellow Iowan, I’m disappointed.
-L.F.
Actually, on second thought, I did some more digging and this video with prominent gun advocates/republicans rlly convinced me of your point.
“The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good kid with a gun”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkXeMoBPSDk
Really only 3? He needs to get his game on, at this rate he is never going to catch his predecessor, but then again Donald is like the Tom Brady of lying so there really is no point in trying!