Hollywood Production

"Director Rosenberg has no intention of promoting violence." Standing in the Fox press room, Penny Kalis, acting as Duke's spokesperson, refuted certain media claims that the film was overly gory and violent. "Duke abhors any subjective dramatization that makes violence look fun or portrays it as a game. Everything he depicts is meant to objectively reflect the violence of war."

The press conference was called not only to push back, but also to generate buzz. While the critics' attacks brought trouble, they could also be leveraged for publicity.

Thanks to the Fox staff maintaining order, the press room remained calm. Perhaps spurred by the excellent first-day box office results, Fox CEO Tom Rothman even showed up in person to say a few words.

"Saving Private Ryan is a war film shot using a documentary style. Battle scenes take up about a third of the movie's runtime, featuring plenty of gory, brutal violence, but it is absolutely not a violence-glorifying movie!"

Tom Rothman's voice was exceptionally loud. "If you have seen this movie, you'll realize that not a single violent shot in it is gratuitous. After watching it, people will surely feel that this is the most grounded war film ever made, one that will go down in history as the truest depiction of war."

Although these words smacked of blowing one's own trumpet, Duke, hiding in the back of the press room, knew that with Fox's capabilities combined with the other two studios, they would soon steer public opinion. The critics wouldn't pose much of a threat.

If someone thought they could rely on such tactics to take down Saving Private Ryan and let Braveheart turn the tables, they were far too naive.

Ignoring the press conference behind him, Duke walked to the window and gazed out at the azure sky. Yesterday's single-day box office had already made it clear: even if Saving Private Ryan took a hit, Braveheart still wouldn't catch fire. Freedom was indeed a concept deeply ingrained in America's consciousness, but Mel Gibson screaming it in such an incredibly exaggerated manner might win over the old men of the Oscar committee, but it wouldn't necessarily resonate with the general public.

If a movie could simply borrow a few suitable scenes, shout 『freedom』 at the right moments, and achieve massive success—pushing an initially average box office to hundreds of millions or more—then it would be an absolute mockery of the sophisticated industrial production model Hollywood had spent decades building.