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Will taxpayers have to bail out Tanda Putera, again?
Published:  Sep 30, 2013 9:13 AM
Updated: 4:59 AM

YOURSAY 'Taxpayers' monies should not be used to cover any more losses or to promote the proven worthless movie. The cronies better use their own money...'

Tanda Putera flops as run ends

your say Watcher : ''Tanda Putera ended screening early this week with a loss of approximately RM3.77 million'. That's how the government wastes the rakyat's money. Next time use your own money to finance this type of money losing movie. Whoever the smart guy who proposes making any more of these types of movies, let him pay for it.

Bee Gees: What do you mean by "special bookings" for the movie? I'm sure those Umnoputra/BN cronies will be trying to cover up their losses by 'forcing' other cinemas to screen the movie. Internet movie database IMDB's users even rate the movie 2.7/10. It was poorly executed by the director. Disgraceful.

Freethinker: What I can't understand is that a movie that fails in cinema would have private screening requests and oversea screening requests. So the question is, who is behind buying back the tickets to push the movie's sales? Worse if those efforts are made from taxpayers' money.

Chritopher Loi: Taxpayers' monies should not be used to cover any more losses or to promote the proven worthless movie. The cronies better use their own money to fund the additional screenings and promotions.

DontPlayGod: Not to worry, Umno will foot the bill for any losses. After all this is Umno's project. Notice how keen Umno has been in promoting the showing of this film. And of course, Umno will then suck the GLCs of more funds and contributions for any losses made by the film.

After all, Umno owns the GLCs and all government departments, right? It is only a matter of time when Parliament will also be privatised. Next to be privatised would likely be your spouse.

Abasir: I heard that Prime Minister Najib Razak could have screened it during his session at the Council of Foreign Relations as a prelude and scene setter to his kutbah on moderation. But for some reason, he chose not to.

The fictitious aka 'creatively licence' urination scene alone would have moved war mongering Americans to be more circumspect when dealing with the faithful. And the superb acting, stupendous screenplay and brilliant cinematography would have opened several doors in Hollywood. A missed opportunity really.

OMG : The minister responsible should resign for channelling taxpayers' money to this piece of crap, which was probably produced at an inflated cost, just like all the other contracts given to cronies.

Pimai2tangtu: Simple mathematics: how can the film company incur losses when they received a grant of RM4.7 million from taxpayers' money? The ticket sales alone are already pure profit.

Okeylah: Having obtained from the government grant RM4.2 million, Persona Pictures had only spent RM0.5 million of its own money to make the movie. So, with the ticket sales of RM930,000, they are laughing to the bank! Hidup Umno! Hidup Finas!

Odin: In my not so humble opinion, this negative report is premature. My contacts at various international news agencies and in the film industry in the west told me the other night that they were inundated with phone calls and email from their public as to when the film would be screened in their respective cities.

In fact, my relatives in Norwich (England), Columbus (Ohio), Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal (Canada) have also told me that the whole populace have heard about the film and are anxiously waiting to watch it.

This confirms the producer's claim of heavy bookings by overseas parties. We can be quite certain that it will be a blockbuster overseas and that the producer will rake in hundreds of millions before 2013 comes to an end. So, let's not be too hasty in our judgement.

Anonymous #35456667: Odin, overseas people want to watch it? Do you think this is a James Bond movie? You must be joking.

0berserver: More likely, more subsidies will be sent to 'Friends of Umno' and other shady foreign 'networks' to promote the movie in the UK, not to other markets. Millions to be passed on to these Umno goons, but the movie will flop in the marketplace. Those millions will never be heard of again.

Samurai: I wouldn't doubt that millions abroad are dying to watch Tanda Putera - they are probably all the cronies abroad who have lush apartments and even a spare to rent out to the American CIA in Seattle. My only question is, if they are so patriotic, why are they all overseas and not here?

Aries46: Had only Tanda Putera confined the story to actual events of history without portraying the Chinese as the provocateurs and aggressors of the May 13, 1969 riots, it would have done much better in the theatres.

Former PM Abdul Razak and his deputy were respected leaders of their time and Malaysians would have at least supported a film that sought to highlight their many contributions and achievements.

But the moment the film deviated from actual events to needlessly slot in snippets of fictitious elements of the May 13 event that would likely sow the seeds of division and hate among the races, Tanda Putera became a lost cause, rejected and a flop.

This is a bitter lesson to its makers not to use the noble deeds of past leaders for despicable racist propaganda purposes. True! Umno underlings are running around like headless chickens to cover up this self-made disgrace, little realising that Malaysians are wiser and no longer the gullible lot of the Mahathir era.

Tehachapi: The poor performance of the movie is a clear indication that the Malaysian public is smart, moderate and progressive. Please don't feed these smart people with rehashed rubbish, because they are discerning and highly intelligent to know what is truth and what is a lie.

It is high time for the Umno leaders to wake up that they are really poorly qualified to lead such an intelligent people. Make way and make room for true leaders to take over and lead the country forward.

Another message to the Umno leadership is that the past propaganda ingredients using race and religion no longer work. People are no longer responding to such simple-minded formulae. Basically, they don't trust what is being doled out from the Umno propaganda machinery.

Try something else please. It is tiresome to hear such drumming and threats while the country languishes in the doldrums of collective depression. Try using positive mental attitude to inspire and encourage.

Podeh: A review by one Brett Olivers notes that a lot of items in the movie eg. smoke detectors, air-conditioning compressors, road tax stickers, were not made in 1969 when the incidents took place.

Keeping that in mind, it looks like no research was done, hence this movie should be marked as nothing more than science fiction and propaganda material. This is the kind of movie we expect to come out of North Korea, not Southeast Asia.

For the sake of my eyes and brain, let's hope no more movies come out of this 'director'.

Boonpou: As far as the producer, director, and sponsors (which is literally the rakyat) are concerned, the making of this movie is not about making money. It is about stirring up racial hatred based on the manufacturing of certain propaganda about our history.

This is the current historical present we live in, starting with the 2008 tsunami and the most recent 2013 general election, whereby the politics of reconciliation is but an illusion. 1Malaysia this or that is a hoax in the first place, and we have to thank this movie, together with the reintroduction of detention without trial that clearly illuminate how desperate this Najib-cum-Mahathir administration has become.

Did anyone catch the announcement by the Stone Age body Jakim that it is illegal for Malays to marry non-Malays? Shocking but that only goes to show you how moronic certain institutions are in Malaysia.

Kanasai: How could this film be a flop with 3.2 million members in Umno and another million government servants? Are those 3.2 million Umno memberships phantoms? Are those one million government servants loyal to Umno? Endless possibilities.


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