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Home Front: Culture Wars
With America at war, Hollywood follows
2005-02-09
Interesting look at new movies and TV shows about the military and Iraq. Not at all anti-American in its basic reporting.
Posted by:Steve White

#12  Lol; the problem is is that a good war movie serves to give us guidance and reassurance in this and our being right, yes?

"Sadly," the Puritans got it right. :P (on why they were anti-actor)
Posted by: Edward Yee   2005-02-09 9:32:03 PM  

#11  Yep, all about the $$$. Though I'd trust either Mel Gibson or Clint Eastwood to make a good war movie.
Posted by: Jarhead   2005-02-09 3:00:28 PM  

#10  Mad back in the day did the evolution of the Nazi in cinema.

Filthy Nazi, Bad Nazi, Misunderstood Nazi, Anguished Nazi, Good Nazi.

Bet we skip the first 2 and go straight to Misunderstood Jihadi.
Posted by: Shipman   2005-02-09 2:12:18 PM  

#9  Ahead of the pack once again--- I posted about the sad lack of entertainment that even touched on this last July, here!
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2005-02-09 1:36:49 PM  

#8  Evil Gov't Agencies - nobody remembers Janet Reno?
Posted by: Frank G   2005-02-09 12:42:29 PM  

#7  By the way, .com, don't knock Evil Government Agency plots! Some of them can be quite entertaining - although they're best when they involve just a few people and not half of the federal government, know what I mean?

Besides, at least the government can still be evil. You don't get many truly evil villains anymore; they're all post-modern, fully-rounded characters who have home lives and wives and sometimes even repent instead of meeting an awesome and terrible doom. I'm all for fleshed-out villains, but sometimes I miss the days of S.P.E.C.T.R.E. and bad guys identifiable by their accents alone.
Posted by: The Doctor   2005-02-09 12:32:02 PM  

#6  Couple of things came to mind.

First of all, I did not get the impression that F9/11 was kind towards the troops. Several times Moore went too far.

Second, I'm not sure that Hollywood "needs" the Pentagon the way the article implies. Sure, the official stuff helps, but it's not like they're lacking people to make the stuff up (and a friend of mine who's somewhat familiar with the military claims Hollywood usually gets it wrong anyway).

Third . . . how many of the actors who make fools of themselves speak out are going to want to do these kinds of movies? Would Redford or Penn even consider doing a movie that puts our military/Iraq in a good light? Doing it for the money is one thing - but wouldn't they be compromising those oh-so-great principles that cause them to comment on subjects they have no qualifications in?

I'm glad to see this kind of thing, but in my opinion but, like .com, I'm suspicious: Either a few people in Hollywood recognize that they are part of an entertainment industry that ultimately must tell stories and portray characters and situations that will meet with approval (read: bring in the cash) from us idiots who done went and voted for Bush, or it's becoming clear that we don't take our cues from the celebrities we read about all the time, and so there's no point in continuing to bash America. The two are connected, and I think I had a third possibility, but I didn't get much sleep last night and so I forgot it as I was typing.
Posted by: The Doctor   2005-02-09 12:25:46 PM  

#5  You will see pro-American, anti-military; pro grunt, anti-officer messages all through this stuff. Gen. Mattis comments will not be shown being received with tumultuous enthusiasm from his men. Zarqawi will not be shown sawing people's heads off....until Mel Gibson makes his film.

Actors are trained not to tell the truth. That is their job. That is why the Puritans sought to ban them. Why anyone expects truth or wisdom from them has always confounded me. DB hit this nail on the head. $$$$$
Posted by: Mrs. Davis   2005-02-09 11:49:54 AM  

#4  Realistically they waited 2 years before jumping on the Iraq bandwagon. They waited until pro-iraq stories couldn't help Bush and they waited until after the Iraqi election to announce anything. Hollywood still has cold feet about real War on Terror subjects (took until the 3rd season until 24 could manage an Islamic terrorist).

Better late than never, but I'm not going to be holding any big parades for Hollywood's support of the military just yet.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2005-02-09 11:40:17 AM  

#3  Hollywood is above all interested in making money. Since the re-election of President Bush, there is a very strong support for our military and Hollywood is just climbing on to the "War Wagon" because the Moguls see Moolah. They don't really give a rat's ass about much else. It's all about the money.
Posted by: Deacon Blues   2005-02-09 10:50:16 AM  

#2  I've looked at this story several times - wondering what made sense - and I want to be positive, but I just don't trust them. Even Bochco. Sad.

You just can't erase 35+ years of total bullshit: farcical evil Govt plots, secret rogue Govt agencies with evil agendas, evil corporations with unlimited power screwing everyone out of secret formulas that would let cars run on tap water, free cold fusion energy for all locked away forever by evil [insert villainous entity here], global warming mega-disaster junk-science, yadda3 - no way. They've sucked too long and lied too long to buy into now. At best, it's gonna be a movie by movie, episode by episode thing. They've burned up all the goodwill. And you know they'll slip in bullshit, of every type, even in the best of the lot. Bank it.
Posted by: .com   2005-02-09 8:26:22 AM  

#1  fuck hollywood--read "generation kill' by evan wright for the real deal
Posted by: SON OF TOLUI   2005-02-09 3:12:23 AM  

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