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Hollywood Tackles Iraq
By John
In a rather predictable manner:
On Sept. 14, Warner Independent Pictures expects to release “In the Valley of Elah,” a drama inspired by the Davis murder, written and directed by Paul Haggis, whose “Crash” won the Academy Award for best picture in 2006. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as a retired veteran who defies Army bureaucrats and local officials in a search for his son’s killers. In one of the movie’s defining images, the American flag is flown upside down in the heartland, the signal of extreme distress.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.
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That impetus for immediacy is driving other filmmakers and studios as well. 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.
It's the same narrative that inspired the whole sordid Scott Thomas affair. But unlike TNR, Hollywood can actually get away with fiction.
These flicks will tank. Even after the enormous success of movies like 300 (comes out on DVD Tuesday, by the way), Tinsel Town is still completely incapable of wrapping their minds around a single, simple truth. Americans love heroes. We love strength and we worship winners. The classic American champion has always been the immortal GI, so why does Hollywood make flicks like Jarhead and then bemoan the fact that it bombs?
Still, despite the enormous ideological slant in Hollywood....we've still got good guys batting for the home team.
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Comments
Trust me. Grassroots Americans know what the military is all about. They know these movies are made as much for political purposes as for anything else.
People keep telling me how stupid the American public is for trusting and respecting the military and government in a patriotic way.
I have to remind them that even though we have a relatively small military, we have a relatively large number of civilians who have served voluntarily in the military in a variety of capacities. And just because we are not civilians doesn't mean we stopped supporting the comrades in arms who now serve.
Movies like this are just as much an insult to us "civilians" as they are to those currently in uniform... but, then again, maybe that's the whole point, trying to make us all feel guilty for our voluntary military service? Hmm... I don't think it's going to work.
And just because we are 'NOW' civilians...
Is what I meant.
What ticks me off is that Hollywood hasn't made a film about Raven 42, the squad of Kentucky MPs that took out an ambush. It has everything: all-American squad of Citizen soldiers, first female to win a Silver Star since WWII, lopsided victory, etc.
Here's the problem: Hollywood knows that Americans love heroes and love winners. Their problem is that they are disconnected from the average American about what consists of a hero. For them a guy who defies his orders to ship back to Iraq IS a hero. For them the heroes are the guys who tell the gripping tale of our malfeasance and evil in Iraq, regardless of how fake or nonsensical that tale may be.
No surprise here... :|
These movies will be suckers in box-office records in US, but I bet, that movie theaters in Middle East would give producers a good revenue, like it was in the case of "Kingdom of Heaven".
the main issue is that people also do not want to be patronized. isn't it kind of suspicious that these films will be coming out just when the election for Pres in 2008 heat up?
Now there may be some more interest in these films, as more Americans are suffering war burnout than in 2004 and 05. But as those prior series about the Iraq and a female Pres tanked, these most likely won't make much money either. No one wants to be preached to, especially by a bunch of snotty hollywoodites who never hang around us plebs anyway.
So, how do we win back Hollywood?
The scent of money doesn't seem to do it. Honor and duty? As said above, if they have it, it isn't like ours. A good story? Nope.
(Answers longer than post length should be submitted to West Point Countering Terrorism Center's Essay contest.
So, how do we as Americans win back our filmmakers?
It says something about Hollywood that the only recently pro-military film from them was Transformers.
By the way, we do still make pro-soldier films in Australia, I can thoroughly recommend this one (although it's probably only available in PAL rather than NTSC);
So, how do we win back Hollywood?
holy cow guys what the he** kind of statement is that. the hollywood bunch is the antithesis of almost everything you guys stand for.
they are professional liars. think about it, they get paid houmoungous amounts of money to make you believe that they are what the script calls for.
they are organized as to what charities they appear for. did you ever notice that they never give money to charities or causes but donate thir "time", and that there never are two or more of them sponsoring the same charity/cause.
their agents look for the best cause (something that will pull at the heart strings of the teeny boppers that buy the magazines) and sign them up for it.
professionally they cannot be conservative because the top end of the studios have decided that liberal makes more money in movies than conservative.
this is the bunch that you get a check for the prospective goods and services in your hand three days before execution and then make sure that the check clears the bank before you do it.
C
Here's a solution to the Hollywood problem. Give them all driver's licenses and free cocaine.
Three down...
I wish I could find someone to help me get "Marines in the Garden of Eden" made into a movie. It would show the heroism and sacrifice our men and women are exhibiting in Iraq.
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You are right on! Americans do love their heroes. We like movies where the good guys win.