It’s a paradox: Hollywood does not make films with conservative heroes, and conservative filmmakers such as the ones who made The Sound of Freedom don’t like to depict flawed protagonists. The director and producer Judd Apatow once put it this way : “When you see Mike Pence, you think there’s a lot going on inside that guy. At least I do. But the problem is that Mike Pence will not tell you that. Lena [Dunham] will. There’s an openness and an honesty to what she does. She’s saying, I have these values, but I’m also a human being and I make mistakes and sometimes I’m crazy and selfish and other times I’m loving and supportive.”

Writer Gabriel Bell, who interviewed Apatow, added this: “The conservative viewpoint indeed has difficulties admitting fault, admitting weakness, admitting doubt or any kind of internal battle. So much of what makes good television or movies hangs on character development, and in many ways, the conservative viewpoint only allows characters to develop in one, mostly unquestioned way: toward faith and complete confidence. This may be why we get Atlas Shrugged instead of Ulysses.”

Indeed. Yet things are different now in Hollywood.

[Not *that* different, which is why conservatives would still need to go indie to do much of anything. “Sound of Freedom” may entice more investors into support for conservative filmmaking, but the Hollywood system will still discourage conservative storytellers. Those will have to come from the ranks of people who don’t worry about working up the studio-system ranks. — Ed]