Hollywood Preps 'American Pastoral,' Another Look at Bomb-Throwing Radicals

Filmmakers can’t seem to shake their infatuation with radicals who fight the political process with bombs, not votes.

We’ve already seen The Company You Keep, Robert Redford’s gauzy look at a former radical on the run, The East and Night Moves in recent months.

Now, author Phillip Roth’s celebrated 1997 novel American Pastoral is prepping for production. The film will be shot at least partially in Pittsburgh next year and will co-star Oscar-winner Jennifer Connelly alongside Ewan McGregor.

The source material details how a successful man’s life unravels, in part, after his teen daughter ignites a bomb to protest the Vietnam War.

The previously mentioned films cut the radicals in question slack. Redford’s film in particular couldn’t come down harshly on radicals trying to put their acts of terror behind them.

Will American Pastoral do the same?