Held to answer

Wouldn’t it be funny if Kim Jong-un kidnapped Seth Rogen and held him hostage in North Korea, forcing him to make movies for the Supreme Leader?

There is some historic precedent for this.

In 1978, Kim Jong-un’s father, Kim Jong-Il, a movie buff, kidnapped Choi Eun Hee, a popular South Korean actress, and brought her to North Korea along with her husband, South Korean director, Shin Sang Ok. The dictator wanted the couple to improve North Korea’s movie industry, according to writer Peter Maass in The New York Times.

The actress and her husband finally escaped eight years later.

Three generations of Kims (Il Sung, Jong-Il and Jong-un) have ruled North Korea with a cult of personality that has been compared to Stalin. Like Stalin’s gulag, anyone who dissents is purged.

The country is now so poor that North Korean men are on average 1.2 to 3.1 inches shorter than South Korean men because of childhood malnutrition.

This is the setting for Rogen’s “The Interview,” a comedy about assassinating  Kim Jong-un.

Screenwriter Dan Sterling recalled in an interview with Esquire how Rogen and co-director, Evan Goldberg, came up with the idea several years ago: “What if a journalist somehow got an interview with Osama bin Laden? Wouldn’t he be tempted to try to kill him? I’d never really had that question in my head before, but we kicked it around and imagined that a story like this could become almost like a comedy version of Frost/Nixon.”

Would a journalist have tried to kill Osama bin Laden? No, he probably would have tried to interview him for an exclusive. Journalists are brave to chase stories in dangerous places, but they are also pursuing livelihoods. They want a good story, some glory and awards, a book deal, perhaps. Would the legendary Edward R. Murrow have tried to kill Hitler if he could have?

A better question, and one “The Interview” doesn’t ask outright but alludes to is: How can 24 million people be cowed by the likes of Kim Jong-un? True, he has a military, and the citizens are unarmed. But still, how do entire nations become so submissive?

As part of Sterling’s research, he read what he called the most amazing book – “Escape from Camp 14.”

Written by Blaine Harden of the Washington Post, the book is about Shin Dong-hyuk, who was born in a North Korea labor camp and managed to escape. Initially, Shin told a story of watching his mother and brother executed. Later Harden discovered the truth: The mother and brother were executed after Shin snitched to prison guards that they were plotting to escape. He didn’t care if they were killed. He didn’t want to compete with them for food.

Shin is so brutalized by the camp that his survival does not seem heroic. As one critic put it, “the grit and determination to survive dire circumstances can sometimes make for poor humans.”

Sterling acknowledged he found nothing comedic in “Escape from Camp 14,” but it was important to his understanding of North Korea.

It’s hard to see how the story of Shin Dong-hyuk could have influenced in any way Sterling’s script. That’s not to say “The Interview” doesn’t have its share of laughs.

Because comedies tend to be more funny with an audience, I saw it at the Living Room Theater in downtown Portland. A full bar is attached to this theater, and several audience members got up for refills during the movie so alcohol may have fueled some of the laughter. The movie’s funniest moments are directed at the American news/entertainment media, not Kim Jong-un.

The movie opens with an amusing cameo by rap star Eminem being interviewed by TV host Dave Skylark (played by actor James Franco). Skylark asks Eminem about the homophobic lyrics he is known for, and Eminem casually mentions that he’s gay. Skylark’s long-time producer, played by Rogen, acts like the Pope has just come out of the closet. Eminem is gay! And it’s their exclusive!

There’s another cameo gag with actor Rob Lowe taking off his toupe to reveal what he really looks like – only this scoop is interrupted by network news breaking in that North Korea is developing nuclear weapons that can reach the West Coast of the U.S.

Rogen’s pride in his work suffers when he is snubbed by an old classmate who is a senior producer for “60 Minutes” – in Hollywood terms, a real journalist.

When it turns out that Kim Jong-un is a big fan of American pop culture and Skylark’s celebrity show, Rogen sees a chance to prove himself as a journalist. He gets Skylark to land an interview with Kim, and soon the TV host and his producer are preparing for a rare visit to North Korea. Then the CIA comes calling, asking the TV duo to use their access to Kim to kill him.

As the real Kim Jong-un undoubtedly knows, Rogen is famous for making sophomoric comedies that appeal to young males. Butthole jokes abound in “The Interview.” The Supreme Leader does not have a butthole. He does not need one; he does not defecate. Neither does he cry. He is god-like.

Still, it’s not funny getting assassinated, even if the actor (Randall Park) playing Kim is charming and attractive.

By now, the controversy surrounding “The Interview” has covered a lot of ground: Was it in poor taste to make a movie about assassinating a sitting head of state? Was it in even worse taste to open such a film on Christmas Day? Was it cowardly of Sony Pictures to cancel the opening when the major movie-plexes bowed out for fear North Korea would attack? Did North Korea hack into Sony’s confidential emails and release embarrassing information about celebrities? Was President Obama wrong to have blamed North Korea for the hacks without releasing any evidence? Was the U.S. behind the recent Internet and wireless phone disruptions in North Korea?

By the time “The Interview” was released online and at independent movie houses, some people thought it was all a marketing ploy to begin with. Not likely. The emails were too embarrassing. American corporations – actually all corporations – have disgruntled employees who are motivated to dig up dirt on management. That is a more likely source of Sony’s hack.

None of the controversy can change the fact that “The Interview” is just another testosterone-fueled action extravaganza, which is what American studios are increasingly known for.

At the end, when Kim is blown to bits, the Portland audience I was sitting in cheered.

They must have been cheering the special effects, because the real Kim Jong-un is still alive, and North Korea’s Camp 14 still exists.

– Pamela Fitzsimmons