Variety magazine is facing mockery for complaining about Hollywood’s “legitimization” of vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance’s life story.
In 2016, long before Vance became a famous figure, he published a memoir, “Hillbilly Elegy,” about the working-class community he’d grown up in. The book went on to receive rave reviews for achieving the impossible: Giving the country’s elite an intimate glimpse into the lives of real Americans.
Four years later, director Ron Howard and producer Brian Grazer turned the book into a feature film that helped drastically expand the reach of Vance’s message and turn him into somewhat of a household name.
Years later, Vance has since been chosen as former President Donald Trump’s vice-presidential running mate for the upcoming 2024 presidential election, turning him into an international star.
But none of this is good news, according to Variety magazine:
By treating “Hillbilly Elegy” the way they had “Cinderella Man” and “American Gangster,” Ron Howard and Brian Grazer contributed to the mythmaking that got J.D. Vance elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022. https://t.co/rXxFDumaOI
— Variety (@Variety) July 16, 2024
Variety’s chief media critic, Peter Debruge, complains in the piece linked above that Howard and Grazer “may have created a monster by legitimizing [Vance’s] origin story, much as ‘The Apprentice’ producer Mark Burnett did by giving Trump a reality TV spotlight back in 2004.”
Debruge also whines that Howard and Grazer “contributed to the mythmaking that got J.D. Vance elected to the U.S. Senate in 2022.”
But what the hell is he talking about? There’s nothing fake, mythical, or illegitimate about Vance’s story, as his own wife attested to while speaking at the Republican National Convention this Wednesday.
“Vance was introduced Wednesday night by his wife, Usha Chilukuri Vance, who talked of the stark difference between how she and her husband grew up — she a middle-class immigrant from San Diego, and he from a low-income Appalachian family,” the Associated Press noted.
“That JD and I could meet at all, let alone fall in love and marry, is a testament to this great country,” she said. “It is also a testament to JD.”
“It’s hard to imagine a more powerful example of the American dream, a boy from Middletown, Ohio raised by his grandmother through tough times, chosen to help lead our country through some of its greatest challenges,” she added.
See some of the public’s response to Variety’s post:
Did Ron Howard also get Joe elected in 2020 thanks to him directing Cocoon?
— AdamInHTownTX (Not a Neurologist) (@AdamInHTownTX) July 17, 2024
This article is not worth your time. Apparently Ron Howard is responsible for Trump’s VP selection. Pathetic analysis.
— Jonathan Bock (@JonathanBock) July 16, 2024
It’s not a “myth” that this was how JD Vance grew up.
It’s real. It’s his real life, or, using a phrase that seems to be approved, it’s Vance’s actual “lived truth”.
— Reine (@ReineDeTout) July 17, 2024
Or it could be the lower-class upbringing, Marine service, Yale degree and wise technology investments while raising a family with a wife at keast as accomplished as he. Just spitballing here.
— Ruben Zorian (@RubenZorian) July 17, 2024
“Mythmaking”? Vance’s experience is not uncommon in many parts of our country, and you sound petty and snobby. https://t.co/PVPuwrC1eK
— Tinker (@TinkerTYJ) July 16, 2024
Have you all thought about contacting some of your friends in the industry to do biopic as to how Kamala Harris got to where she is???? pic.twitter.com/XkrBW0CSQW
— Geary (@indiucky) July 17, 2024
Debruge also complains about Vance’s “less than two years’ government experience” while ignoring the fact that former President Trump had even less government experience when he ran for office in 2016.
But not everything about his piece for Variety is bad. Take for instance Debrudge’s acknowledgment of Vance returning to his roots.
“[T]he combination of poverty and ignorance can be like quicksand, trapping many Americans in their circumstances,” he writes. “Hollywood typically depicts places like Vance’s Ohio hometown as communities to be escaped from. The movies inevitably end the same way: with the protagonist breaking free. But what of all those who are left behind (the Trump voters)? And what happens after?”
“Vance dealt with that phenomenon in his book, describing how he felt like an outsider once he got to Yale. Instead of relating to the ‘elites’ — a favorite epithet from the right — Vance navigated the system, got his degree, and then returned to his roots. Not literally, but in terms of his conservative ideals.”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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