by Eric Pfeiffer

In the past two months, Oliver Stone has been coming to terms with his very awkward anointment as conservative icon, after his film "World Trade Center," received gushing praise from the right.

For his part, Stone claims he was unaware of parent studio Paramount's efforts to target conservatives. That may be hard to believe, but it's clear he's now trying to shed any perceived ties to the right. "From Sept. 12 on, the incident (the attacks) was politicized and it has polarized the entire world," Stone told a receptive audience while traveling in Spain last week. "It is a shame because it is a waste of energy to see that the entire world five years later is still convulsed in the grip of 9/11."

Nonetheless, in an age of declining box-office returns, the conservative movement has managed to propel to success three of the last two years' highest grossing movies -- "Passion of the Christ" (third highest grossing in 2004), "The Chronicles of Narnia" (second highest grossing in 2005) and the documentary film "March of the Penguins," which is the second highest grossing documentary of all time. Together, the films have brought in a combined $739 million in U.S theaters alone. Gay penguins notwithstanding , these movies all share a moral message that fits in nicely with the values agenda of social conservatives.

Other studios are picking up on the conservative marketing strategy. Twentieth Century Fox announced the creation of its "Fox Faith" film division, which will exclusively release faith-based films to video. As the website FoxFaith.com describes it, "To be part of Fox Faith, a movie has to have overt Christian Content or be delivered from the work of a Christian author."

After eight weeks in release, Stone's "World Trade Center" has taken in more than $70 million dollars and has already become his fourth-highest earning film, banking more than "Natural Born Killers," "The Doors," and "Wall Street." By the end of the week, it should outpace "JFK," "Born on the Fourth of July," and his most recent hit, "Any Given Sunday." He's certainly received far warmer reviews for "World Trade Center" in the opinion pages of conservative journalism than for his previous effort, "Comandante," a glowing documentary starring Fidel Castro.

It is ironic, to say the least, that this message of hopeful accord was orchestrated by Creative Response Concepts (CRC), the same media firm that produced the divisive and slightly underhanded Swift Boat attack ads run against John Kerry in the last presidential race. CRC also helped promote "Narnia," which went on to earn more than $700 million in worldwide ticket sales last year. I was one of CRC's guests to a DC screening of "World Trade Center" a few weeks before it officially premiered. The theater was almost entirely filled with working conservative journalists moonlighting as film critics. In fact, I was seated next to my former National Review colleague, John J. Miller, who has written extensively on the film. After the screening, another reporter put his arm around me and said, "You have to write about this." Though I don't think this is exactly what he had in mind.

So, how much did conservatives actually impact the movie's ticket sales? Consider this year's other 9/11 film, "United 93." It was hailed by just about every mainstream movie critic and still only made $31 million dollars. "World Trade Center," on the other hand, received more mixed reviews yet has done twice as well on the business end. Still, it's fair to note that not all conservative-backed films have been blockbusters. For instance, CRC also handled press outreach for "Because of Winn-Dixie," which apparently has something to do with a smiling dog and the Dave Matthews Band. It took in $32 million during a short theatrical run last year.

The emergence of the right into pop culture completes the evolution of art as political discourse: For every Michael Moore movie, a "Left Behind" miniseries, until the interactions between left and right become nothing more than target audience strangers passing each other in the political multiplex. It's like a West Coast/East Coast rap war where artistic credibility gets gunned down in a drive by. That's because the problem isn't finding movies that appeal to everyone's sensibilities. It's that when you replace characters and story with a political message, the shared text is lacking. Sure, that penguins movie was okay, but the distinguishing charactersistic of even these broadly conservative movies isn't that they are conservative, it's that they -- as much as more secular fair such as "Jackass" or "Temptation Island" -- suck.

The conservative embrace of Stone is quite curious, and not just because of Stone's controversial views on everything from drug use to foreign policy. It shows that 9/11, hymed for so long as a wrenchingly transcendent moment in the American experience, can like most things today, be transformed into an object of niche marketing. Whether he did so intentionally or not, Stone has successfully pulled off something Republicans have been doggedly trying - and lately failing to do - rewrite this horrifying moment in our history, first time as tragedy, second time as brand.

Eric Pfeiffer is a National Reporter for the Washington Times and editor of the online magazine Brainwash (www.affbrainwash.com) .

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