Hollywood’s domestic insurgency coming soon to a theater near you
Hollywood used to like a good patriotic storyline during wartime. Not anymore. They are about to release an avalanche of movies portraying Iraq vets in the worst possible light. Why are they doing this? For the same reasons Democrat politicians declare the surge a failure before it has begun, the same reason they declare the mission lost and give aid and comfort to our enemies. For cheap political points. At least they are not shy about it.
“Media in general responds much more quickly than ever before,” said Scott Rudin, a producer of “Stop-Loss.” “Why shouldn’t movies do the same?” He said his film was deliberately scheduled to be released in the middle of the presidential campaign season.
Today’s New York Times gives us a warning, er, preview of the coming distractions,
While Real Bullets Fly, Movies Bring War Home
Other coming films also use the damaged Iraq veteran to raise questions about a continuing war. In “Grace Is Gone,” directed by James C. Strouse and due in October from the Weinstein Company, John Cusack and two daughters struggle with the loss of a wife and mother who is killed on duty. Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss,” set for release in March by Paramount, meanwhile, casts Ryan Phillippe as a veteran who defies an order that would send him back to Iraq.
…In October, for example, New Line Cinema will release “Rendition,” in which Reese Witherspoon plays a woman whose Egyptian-born husband is snared by a runaway counterterrorism apparatus. Paul Greengrass, the director of “The Bourne Ultimatum,” in which the bad guys belong to a similar rogue unit, is adapting Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book about the Green Zone in Baghdad, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” for Universal Pictures.
Brian De Palma’s “Redacted,” focusing on an Army squad that persecutes an Iraqi family, is to be released in December by Magnolia Pictures. And Sony Pictures is developing a film based on the story of Richard A. Clarke, the former national security official and Bush administration critic.
Among the new films, “Valley of Elah” is sure to be one of the most closely examined, thanks to Mr. Haggis’s credentials — he shared an Oscar for writing “Million Dollar Baby” and was nominated for another as co-writer of “Letters From Iwo Jima” — and because of his opposition to United States policy in Iraq.
“This is not one of our brighter moments in America,” Mr. Haggis said in a telephone interview from London, where he is still working on the film’s music. “We should not have gotten involved.”
These Hollywood people disgust me. They have never met anyone who doesn’t agree with their world view. They live in a giant echo chamber. People don’t want to see this crap. Who are they kidding. It used to be that people like Jason Dunham and Paul Ray Smith would be the subjects of Hollywood movies. You know, actual war heroes. Not today. Like the MSM, they have no use for the true, inspirational stories of of the men and women fighting for us around the world.
This is exactly why we contacted Blackfive and asked him if we could bring his Someone You Should Know series to the radio. You can listen to dozens of stories about the amazing achievements, bravery, courage and valour of our soldiers, Marines and airmen here.
Screw Hollywood.
Iraq, Media Bias, War On Terror | Kevin | 
July 26, 2007 8:56 am
The majority of Americans don’t uncritically support imperial wars of aggression, so a rekindling of WWII-era propaganda films that you seem to desire wouldn’t find much traction these days.
Imperial war of aggression? For one thing the u.s is not and has never desired to be an imperial power thats just leftist propaganda and as far as a war aggresion thats bunk at the end of the 1991 gulf war we did not sign a peace treaty with the hussain regime we signed a CEASE FIRE agreement. The Iraqi regime violated every article of that cease fire agreement by action and in spirit for over 12 years and as everyone with a little common sense knows if one side doesnt abide by said agreement we have every legal right to resume hostilities at the time and place of our choosing. As far as the “progressives” in hollywood go In my 10 year stint with the air force I helped liberate a country, stopped ethnic cleansing in the balkans and supported relief operations in africa. The only time anybody does anything in hollywood its usually just for a photo op.
Crk:
While I agree with you about the US not now being imperialistic, the never is a hard argument to follow through on. Beginning of the 1900s with the Spanish American War and the revolt in the Phillipines. Pretty straight forward imperialism on our part (and pushed by the media with yellow journalism. remember the Maine.)
To Kevin’s point, Kevin I think Hollywood is cyclical in terms of war movies. World War II is the last example of a conflict that had full support by Hollywood during the war. But only a few years after there were some very good anti-war movies based on World War II.
Korean conflict had a number of big budget, grand movies about battles (got to love Pork Chop Hill), but that was the beginning of Hollywood focusing on soul searching and the price of war. Ever since, most war flicks are about the terrible price on soldiers, and not so much about the issues around the war. I see several of the Iraqi war movies taking the same path (John Cusack movie sounds like just a movie about how hard it is for family survivors.)
The rendition and redactment movies seem like antiwar propaganda. Unless they do well at the box office though, I bet that class of film dies and we don’t see too many more anti-Iraq fictional movies. Hollywood is about money more than politics.
On a positive note, American soldiers have been well portrayed in a number of recent movies. Saving private Ryan. Flags of our Fathers. Band of Brothers. Memphis Belle. All big budgets. There are several other projects in the works, including movie versions of Helmet for a Pillow and With the Old Breed (and if you haven’t read these, you should.)
And heck, CBS’s The Unit is basic US army propoganda (and I love it. Great show.)
A thought. In 1946, Clint eastwood’s Letters From Iwo Jima would have been killed as being anti-American for showing the Japanese in a decent light. The point being that Hollywood changes its tune about war movies constantly. The only danger is if those rendition/redactment movies do well, then Hollywood will make more of these. If they fail outright, we will see more movies on the lives of US soldiers in a positive light.
[...] Home for only two hours following a 25-hour return trip from Israel to Seattle, Michael was very generous with his time tonight. We had a great discussion about Israel, the attitude of its people, their booming economy, how they feel about Iraq and Iran. In many ways, life in Israel is good but the public mood is sour. Just like here. We also talked about the broader situation in the Middle East and the domestic insurgency in Congress and Hollywood. [...]
[...] did these pictures do? They literally BOMBED at the box office. All of them. Why? Because, as Kevin of Pundit Review put it a year ago, People don’t want to see this crap. Who are they kidding. It used to be that [...]