Disney dropped the anti- Bush hit, 'Fahrenheit 9/11 ' - now it has a patriotic flop on its hands instead, reports Dan Glaister.
One is a film that celebrates the wholesome things in American life: men on horseback, women weaving tapestries, oil-well firefighters in Texas. The other is a film that highlights the strength and resilience of the American people even when its government is conspiring against it: mothers of teenage war veterans, hopeless youths stuck in middle America, trusting border guards patrolling remote frontiers.
One is the sort of film that Disney would like to be involved with. The other is the sort of film that Disney would go to great lengths not to be involved with.
America's Heart and Soul, a patchwork of moving and heartwarming vignettes of regular American eccentrics, was released in the US by Disney on July 2nd, just one week after Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 had been put out by an independent group set up by the Disney employee and Miramax chairman, Harvey Weinstein.
Disney had famously passed up the opportunity to release Moore's film, even though the studio had helped to finance it. The ensuing ruckus, revealed by the film's director just a few days before its Cannes premiere, gave an undreamed-of boost to the fortunes of Fahrenheit 9/11. The rest is now part of movie lore: the documentary took the Palme d'Or and, despite a restrictive rating in the US, is close to being the first documentary to break $100 million at US box offices. Its US success has been mirrored around the world.
Without Moore's film, Disney turned to America's Heart and Soul as an unblemished antidote to the dark cynicism it felt inhabited Fahrenheit 9/11. Surely audiences, sickened by the paranoid ramblings of the fat man in the cap, would flock to a life-affirming portrait of the characters that make America great.
Inspired by the success of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, a strategy was decided on to bring the film to the heartlands. More than 500 screenings were arranged for community groups, political groups, religious groups, cookie-baking groups - any gathering that might feel some affinity with the film. The International Federation of Bike Messengers, based in San Francisco, was given a special screening, in the hope that it would be drawn to a segment of the film that follows a New York courier as he careers through the city's streets. The American Association of People with Disabilities, in Washington DC, got another, its interest to be guaranteed by the film's story of a blind mountain-climber. The Sierra Club, the biggest environmental pressure group in the US, got another, the idea being that it would be impressed by the breathtaking landscapes in the film.
But it wasn't just screenings. E-mails were sent, websites primed. All bases were covered as Disney deployed its marketing know-how, not just its money, to persuade enough people to see a film that echoed the sentiments on which the company had built its reputation.
Even the story behind the film-making had the sort of lone-man-against-the-odds ethic that was sure to inspire audiences. Louis Schwartzberg, a first-time director and renowned cinematographer, had spent years making the film. What started off as out-takes from the commercials he was shooting grew into a series of brief portraits, which he decided to make into a feature-length film. In true Hollywood style, he saw it rejected by the major studios, only for Disney to offer to release it. Disney put $1 million into the film, including $400,000 spent on print advertising. For its outlay, according to John Horn of the Los Angeles Times, the studio would be gratified if the film took $10 million.
Which is where things came unstuck. Almost four weeks after its release on 98 screens, America's Heart and Soul had taken $311,572. This week it was showing on just 13 screens in the entire US mainland. Someone, somewhere, misjudged the mood.
Nobody at Disney was willing to comment for this article, preferring to let America's Heart and Soul slip quietly into the night. But the film, whatever its aesthetic failings and its apple-pie sensibility, has been done a disservice by some of the misguided efforts to promote it.
Although Disney denies that the film was released as a deliberate response to Fahrenheit 9/11, some of its promotion stressed its potential as a counterpoint to the overt politicking of Moore's film. One screening in particular, in the Californian capital, Sacramento, drew attention to the contrast.
"Move over, Michael Moore," shrieked an advert made by a political pressure group set up to counter what it sees as the media's bias against the triumphs of US foreign policy. "Disney and Move America Forward team up to show a brighter side of America. Unlike the negative and misleading storyline of Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, Disney's America's Heart and Soul features a collection of upbeat storylines of real-life Americans who pursue their passions in a way that underscores what makes America a great nation."
In response, Moore posted a statement on his website accusing Disney of "joining forces with the right-wing kooks who have come together to attempt to censor Fahrenheit 9/11".
It's not been a good year for Disney. After the triumphs of last year, led by a small orange and white fish called Nemo and a pirate film based on a ride at a Disney theme park, 2004 has been full of disappointments.
Teacher's Pet, Miracle, The Alamo and Raising Helen have all opened to great fanfare in the US, only to depart a short time later without unduly troubling box-office staff.
And then there is the boardroom. Shareholders revolted, led by Roy Disney, nephew of Walt, and a stormy a.g.m. in March saw Michael Eisner stripped of much of his authority. But the real blow to the company's prestige came from disagreements with its two most valuable assets, Pixar and Miramax.
Somehow, Disney contrived to let Pixar, the subsidiary behind Finding Nemo and the Toy Story franchise, out of its grasp. Miramax, with countless box-office triumphs behind it, is mired in negotiations with the parent company and seems likely to leave the fold, antagonisms sharpened by the falling out over Fahrenheit 9/11.
The release of America's Heart and Soul suggests more miscalculation at a time when Disney can barely afford it. The decision to use private screenings was mistaken, as the films for which this approach has worked - notably The Passion but also documentaries such as the McDonald's endurance test, Super Size Me - generated controversy and passion. The Norman Rockwell-like Americana in America's Heart and Soul did no such thing.
The studio says simply that it loved the poetry of the film and wanted it to be seen. Although there is no reason to doubt the sincerity of those motives, the suspicion remains that Disney released the film as a political counter to Fahrenheit 9/11. As one reviewer noted, if the Democrats win November's presidential election, Michael Moore will win another Oscar; if not, America's Heart and Soul should get a statuette.
Or, as President Bush told a rally in Moore's home state of Michigan recently: "The other day my opponent [Democratic candidate John Kerry] said, when he was with some entertainers from Hollywood, that they were the heart and soul of America. I believe the heart and soul of America is found in places right here." - (Guardian Service)