via The Wall Street Journal

Hollywood wimps out and makes a formula film

After a decade of war and half-century of costly military involvement in the Middle East, the United States stands on the brink of “energy independence.” Then a shadowy Canadian billionaire coupled with Mideast oil interests sponsor a Hollywood propaganda movie aimed at luring Americans into throwing away the instrument of their deliverance: shale energy.

They co-opt a name-brand Hollywood movie star to be the useful idiot of their nefarious plot. The movie is released a few days after Christmas, just in time for Oscar nominations in a diabolical scheme to influence a national debate over fracking.

In other words, a typically stupid Hollywood thriller plot, except for a minor deviation: The poor shmuck actor is Matt Damon and he’s making a real movie, albeit with its own typically stupid Hollywood plot, one that doubles down on the conventional “evil oil company” stereotype.

So will Americans flood out of theaters early next year demanding to be relieved of the shale bounty? Not likely. And before getting too conspiratorial, Abu Dhabi’s last movie was a Nick Cage “Ghost Rider” stinker, while Jeffrey Skoll, the Canadian eBay billionaire and co-financier who makes no secret of his progressive longings, also backed “Lincoln” and “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel.”

Perhaps Mr. Damon at least made a good movie. Alas, early word is not promising. Variety, not constitutionally inclined to criticism, called it “dramatically underpowered” and said its plot “cheapens the seriousness of the issues at stake.”

If a movie were to tell the truth about fracking, it would begin with the core conflict, which isn’t between environmentalists and earth-raping oil companies. Fracking was a bone of contention first of all between landowners who wanted to cash in on energy royalties and neighbors who didn’t want the neighborhood invaded by heavy industry.

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