Maybe if your entire universe is limited to New York and L.A., you might not realize how offensive this movie truly was. As someone who considers myself fairly cultured, and definitely on the liberal side politically, this wasn't the Wyoming I know and love.
I suppose there is the temptation to portray small town folk as ignorant, backward thinking yokels who are too foolish to know how uncivilized they are. But, don't fool yourself into thinking this movie portrayed Wyoming. Don't get me wrong; Wyoming IS a conservative state, but it's not some ignorant form of conservatism. It's a place where people are fiercely independent, mindful of their individual freedoms, and largely have a live-and-let-live attitude.
In my two decades spent there growing up, I never felt like a fish out of water. Exactly the opposite was true. People are friendly, welcoming, and grateful to live in such a treasure of a place. That's what this movie missed. I get that they were trying to go for easy laughs about the characters in a fish out of water setting, but instead they too-often portrayed Wyoming as hell on earth. Anyone who truly knows the place knows this is laughably incorrect, and this was just lazy, uninspired filmmaking.
I suppose there is the temptation to portray small town folk as ignorant, backward thinking yokels who are too foolish to know how uncivilized they are. But, don't fool yourself into thinking this movie portrayed Wyoming. Don't get me wrong; Wyoming IS a conservative state, but it's not some ignorant form of conservatism. It's a place where people are fiercely independent, mindful of their individual freedoms, and largely have a live-and-let-live attitude.
In my two decades spent there growing up, I never felt like a fish out of water. Exactly the opposite was true. People are friendly, welcoming, and grateful to live in such a treasure of a place. That's what this movie missed. I get that they were trying to go for easy laughs about the characters in a fish out of water setting, but instead they too-often portrayed Wyoming as hell on earth. Anyone who truly knows the place knows this is laughably incorrect, and this was just lazy, uninspired filmmaking.