This is a follow up from yesterday's blog about Paul Feig making excuses for why his Ghostbusters reboot failed four years ago. There was huge backlash well over a year before its release and the backlash escalating two months prior to its July 2016 release involving comedian Patton Oswalt and YouTube personality James Rolfe. It blew up into a huge story regarding misogyny and sexism, resulting in unfortunate social media war between Oswalt and so called "fans". Very unfortunate.
Rolfe has a site called Cinemassacre. It's home to a lot of videos he has done for over 30 years. I've followed the guy since the fall of 2006 and he has grown from doing fictional work into being himself and doing regular movie reviews. One of his early examples came in 2007 with the animated TMNT film. He had done a review a month prior of the third live action film and fans wondered his thoughts of something brand new. This applied in May 2016 when fans asked about the then upcoming Ghostbuster film and if he would do a review. He said he wouldn't and went into detail of why.
To put this in perspective from watching this guy for 14 years, Rolfe is a big Ghostbusters fan. Very big that he wanted to find stuff in New York that they may have filmed scenes at. Big film guy. Nothing in the video from what I remember was sexist, let alone misogynistic. He's been married for 13 years and has two daughters. Rolfe is simply a fan who had no interest. There can be fans who may not find a film interesting after watching a trailer of it, especially for a franchise that is very dear to him. Whatever the case, Oswalt went after him with a sarcastic tweet, and that's when it blew up and people went after both and both sides started verbal sparring. This was something you heard for a couple weeks.
The way Oswalt acts on Twitter is hugely dangerous. This is someone I would like to see get suspended and understand why his very awful behavior is a problem. There was no reason to go after Rolfe. And Rolfe was not under contract to review something he doesn't care for. Trailers have existed for a very long time and can dictate most of the time whether you want to see a film or not. But actions can also dictate that and I wouldn't be surprised if Oswalt's horrible attitude turned more people away from Ghostbusters. To be a little fair, his wife passed away a month prior. I've heard Michelle Mcnamara might have had some involvement, but I don't even know if that's true. It is upsetting and people have different ways of grieving. But to go after someone in that altered state of mind is very messed up. The ones mocking Oswalt for his dead wife didn't make the situation any better. All this over an opinion that shouldn't have been controversial at any point and become huge attention.
Both Oswalt and Rolfe are continuing to do what they love doing. But in regards to Oswalt, this is something celebrities will have to understand. Just because you think you can say whatever you want doesn't mean there won't be consequences. That is what I notice. Oswalt has a big mouth and doesn't know when to keep quiet. I think one of these days, he is going to be criticized very heavily for something he tweets that goes over the line. Whether he wants to accept what he did was wrong is up to him, but I could see him acting like a giant baby because he doesn't have any restraint. I'm not calling for unnecessary censorship, but we do need to take celebrities down a peg or two when they go overboard on social media. What he did four years ago was inexcusable and I feel bad for his young daughter. It's not the environment you want your flesh and blood to see and to see it from their own parent.
I hope that incident has some meaning at some point as a way of how not to act from one side and both sides fanbases.
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