Hollywood vs. Individualism

John Stossel
Tue, 06 Jan 2026 15:03:13 -0800
Opinion

Many popular movies make a constructive point: If you work hard enough and push through tough times, you can achieve your dreams.

In "The Pursuit of Happyness," a struggling father tells his son, "Don't let anyone tell you, you can't do something." The movie is a true story about a man who overcomes homelessness and gets his dream job.

In "Rocky Balboa," Rocky says, "It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."
Updated: Wed Jan 07, 2026

Many popular movies make a constructive point: If you work hard enough and push through tough times, you can achieve your dreams.

In "The Pursuit of Happyness," a struggling father tells his son, "Don't let anyone tell you, you can't do something." The movie is a true story about a man who overcomes homelessness and gets his dream job.

In "Rocky Balboa," Rocky says, "It's not about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

These are good messages.

They fit my libertarian philosophy. We libertarians believe people try harder and do best when individuals are free to pursue their own dreams.

In my new video, I interview libertarian Timothy Sandefur, author of the new book, "You Don't Own Me." He says, "The title comes from the famous song by Leslie Gore, saying, I'm in charge of my own desires, dreams. I'm responsible for my own self."

"That's kind of obvious." I point out.

"It should be," he replies. "Unfortunately, a lot of people ignore this and say, you're responsible for other people, or other people must be responsible for you."

He gives examples from Hollywood.

"The original 'Wizard of Oz' movie is this optimistic, joyful film about somebody who always had the strength within her to accomplish her dreams."

But the recent "Wizard of Oz," "Wicked," focuses on the Wicked Witch, who is a victim because she's green. Her dream isn't to do anything; it's for others to accept her.

"Very different from a film in which the character wants to accomplish something," says Sandefur.

She rejects the wizard's offer of a seat by his side, instead asking him to help society.

Sandefur says the message is, "We should not pursue our own dreams. Instead, curtail our own behavior for the benefit of society."

Likewise, in the latest "Wonder Woman" sequel, the villain grants individuals' wishes, but that threatens the world. So Wonder Woman tells everyone to give up their wishes. That saves the day.

As Sandefur puts it: "We should not want things, not desire or dream things, and that will save the world."

The flop "Strange World" is a kid's movie about a society that relies on a power source called Pando. Leftist scriptwriters, selling climate hysteria, have the hero say: "If we want to survive, Pando has to go."

The good guys happily destroy their main source of energy.

Sandefur mocks the stupidity, "Living without today's energy technology doesn't just mean doing without warm coffee. It means doing without ambulances when you have a heart attack, doing without an airplane to carry people's organ transplants. Doing without today's energy technology would be a colossal disaster for the human race. Yet the movie kind of ridicules that concern."

When woke movies fail, Hollywood often blames the audience.

After remaking "Charlie's Angels," director Elizabeth Banks said, if this movie doesn't make money, it's because "men don't go see women do action movies."

But that's just dumb.

Didn't Banks notice that men helped make the original "Charlie's Angels" TV series a hit? Did she not notice "Kill Bill," "Aliens," "Tomb Raider," "Resident Evil" — lots of successful action movies feature female leads.

"The reality," says Sandefur, "is that people are not interested in another lame remake that satisfies all the politically correct tests."

"Films that are individualistic," he adds, "tend to be very successful." But "Hollywood wants to propagandize to us about the evils of individualism."

To Sandefur, the best message is:

"My life is mine. I don't exist to make other people happy."

"Sounds selfish," I say.

"It is, but it's also true that I might want to spend my life helping other people that I love, my wife and my kids. When it comes down to it, my life belongs to me."