EDINBURGH, Scotland (AP) -- Sean Penn praised anti-globalization protesters and slammed the quality of Hollywood filmmaking in scathing comments before a film festival screening of his new movie.
He dismissed President Bush as a "nowhere man" on Thursday and lauded protesters at a recent global meetings for caring about something beyond themselves.
"I don't know if people value the thought of revolution any more," Penn told reporters at the Edinburgh International Film Festival, where he was promoting the "The Pledge," which he directed. "I think it would be an enormously patriotic movement to invest in the possibility of revolution."
"There's a lot of stuff going on around the world and in the U.S. as well, like the protests in Genoa and Seattle, and young people are putting themselves on the line," he said, referring to demonstrations at this summer's G8 meeting in Italy and the 1999 World Trade Organization conference in Seattle.
The 41-year-old Penn said he became a director because the quality of most Hollywood films was so poor, he figured he could do a better job himself.
"Truly, half the people in this room could work on that level," he said. "It takes enormous pressure off to know that if you put two thoughts into your movie, you're already well up on them. ... There's a consistent beating against anything that doesn't serve the bank."
"The Pledge," about a retired detective trying to solve a series of child murders, stars Jack Nicholson, Vanessa Redgrave, Sam Shepard, Benicio Del Toro and Penn's wife, Robin Wright Penn.
