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Home Front: Culture Wars
Ho'wood Set To Unleash Anti-War Films
2007-07-26
Drudge, link will definitely move at some point.
Several upcoming Hollywood films use the damaged Iraq veteran to raise questions about an ongoing war, the New York Times is planning to report on Thursday Page Ones, newsroom sources tell the DRUDGE REPORT.

"Media in general responds much more quickly than ever before. Why shouldn't movies do the same?" said Scott Rudin, a producer of 'STOP LOSS,' which casts Ryan Phillippe as a veteran who defies an order that would send him back to Iraq. The film, he said, was deliberately scheduled to be released in the middle of the presidential election season.

The TIMES's showbiz reporter Cieply is set to details how in the past, Hollywood usually gave the veteran more breathing space. William Wyler's 'BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES,' about the travails of those returning from World War II, was released more than a year after the war's end. Similarly, Hal Ashby's 'COMING HOME' and Oliver Stone's 'BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY,' both Vietnam stories, came well behind the fall of Saigon.
That's because most Hollywood writers, directors, etc back in the '40s served, or at least were busy making our own propaganda films. There was a genuine respect for the guys who fought, and Best Years of Our Lives was filmed to portray the tragic cost of a war that had to be won. Even the Vietnam films had to be careful, they were filmed when the country was beginning to recognize the wrongs done to our soldiers by the anti-war movement, and Ho'wood didn't want to be on the wrong side of that one.

Today? Anyone want to guess where the average Ho'wood producer/director/writer has his heart? Anyone? Bueller? They 'support our troops' by declaring them to be children, to be damaged goods, and by spitting on their mission. I'm betting the mainline movie companies won't make a single film sympathetic to our soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan. Not a one.
Posted by:Steve White

#14  ex-lib is right; to a point. while broadly painting all og Hwood as lost, there are indeed small rays of light coming through the murk; encourage those by paying to see the films and ignore those that crap on our values. the power of the pocketbook is the great equalizer and if a film goes right to DVD rather than enjoy an extended theater run time, then you can pretty much consider it a turkey. just my 2 cents.
Posted by: USN, Ret.   2007-07-26 14:44  

#13  I agree with ex-lib...good point!

BTW: The best thing about Hollywood is nearby Van Nuys and Chatsworth, where all the "aspiring actresses" go when mainstream acting dreams don't pan out. *wink*
Posted by: Sigmund Freud   2007-07-26 13:12  

#12  Great comment AT.

A lot of the writers/workers in Hollywood are actually conservatives, but can't "come out of the closet" because of the (some of) the money, who are thick-headed liberals will put them out of work.

We shouldn't punish our film industry because of the stupids. About the war--it is tough to get a good script regarding our troops because the writers don't even have access to the right information. They only get fed the same crap everyone else out there gets fed from the MSM, and essentially, they don't know any better. They've never heard about Rantburg.

There is also a kind of cultural "lock down" that happens, in that if you venture out of the sociocultural "norm" idea that all war is evil (the essential argument--unless it's a war put on by Dems, of course), then your are a narrow-minded, shortsighted, uninformed, backward, racist bigot. It's all about education and the free flow of information. We have the MSM to blame for that, as well as the questionable nature/actions of politicians on both sides.

If the anti-war films fail at the box office and the better films succeed, then the industry leaders (who are businessmen, not politicians like some of the silly actors), then the industry learns that the public isn't buying into the nonsense. So reward the better films that aren't blabbing stupidity.

For example, Michael Bay's movies (Armegeddon, Transformers, The Island) are usually a lot of fun, and there's always stuff like Lord of the Rings, Gladiator, Master and Commander, BlackHawk Down, True Lies, Fifth Element, Shakespeare in Love, Live Free or Die Hard, Harry Potter, Pirates of the Caribbean, etc. etc. etc. --just good entertainment.

And please remember that the outspoken Hollywood anti-war liberal actors are in a tiny, tiny minority compared to the majority of better actors and crew members who wisely keep their mouths shut and just do their jobs.

Posted by: ex-lib   2007-07-26 13:08  

#11  Hollywood always reminds me of Tammy Faye Baker or Gloria Swanson. A fading star, living in a big house, with an adoring crowd, who has completely deluded herself that she is still somebody.
Posted by: AT   2007-07-26 11:16  

#10  And these will be a business success because....

I think Ho'wood has a better chance of making money with magical monkeys flying out of their butts holding 100 dollar bills.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-07-26 10:54  

#9  So don't go see 'em. I haven't seen a movie in a theater since "Apollo 13". I'm proud of that...
Posted by: tu3031   2007-07-26 10:17  

#8  Hollywood, another future battlefield.
Posted by: wxjames   2007-07-26 10:01  

#7  The modern Efialtes, the lot of them. Those of lesser virtue need to eclipse true heroes so that the people will only have tinsel store-bought make-believe heroes they huckster.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-07-26 07:36  

#6  Color me unsurprised. Dissappointed, perhaps, becuase the stories are out there, and American audiences would line up around the block to see them. I outlined why they don't in this memo from a couple of years ago.
Besides, Hollywood doesn't make moves for us any more, they make them for each other, or for the overseas market.
Posted by: Sgt. Mom   2007-07-26 07:27  

#5  I will remember Casablanca, with Humphrey Bogart, and Twelve O'Clock High, with Gregory Peck, long after a pretty boy whines in a new movie. Tough men facing really tough problems. Where are all the real men in today's movies? Do all the male movie heroes have to look prettier than the girls?
Posted by: whatadeal   2007-07-26 03:11  

#4  Americans like to hear stories about winners. Hollywood movie makers like to shit all over Americans, because they hold us in contempt.
Posted by: gromky   2007-07-26 03:10  

#3  If I could win the lottery..... it would be the cash payout... to find those folks who could produce the best of the best movies of what our current soldiers are doing.... telling their stories. Great propaganda.... Totally out-selling any of these anti-war stuff.

Building up..... throughout the fighting, the fight that these guys do.... to get that soccer field opened. Bet I could have lots of shoot 'em ups, but yet, building up to that opening of the soccer field. All those pics we see of soldiers and Marines with the kids. Folks would wiggle, attempting to hide those eyes that just seem to have too much water in them. Kinda like that baseball field of dreams, "If you build it, they will come." I want that lottery. There are so many stories to be told. Americans love the story of winners. There must the hundreds of Band of Brothers that warrant their story told. Oh, and a couple sniper scenes, lots of scenes of direct combat (showing the enemy to be the coward he is, of course).

This current group of warriors have exceeded all expectations! We keep dubbing them, the next Greatest Generation. Even Petraeus has agreed they are our next Greatest Generation.

With all the reading I do, I keep thinking, they need a name of their own, something far superior to the "Next Greatest Generation." They deserve a name of their own.

In reading Grim at Blackfive the other day, Grim posted the transcript of the Department of Defense Bloggers Roundtable with Major General Walter E. Gaskin, Commander Multinational forces-West via Teleconference from Iraq..

The words caught me, held me, stuck in my mind. General Gaskin had the words to describe them.. The Millennium Kids.

These words that a Marine Major General used, "The Millennium Kids".... to quote him: What I've found out is, this is truly, truly the best generation of our generation. The Millennium kids have a feeling that they want to do something to better themselves and they want to be challenged.

I got to take Major General Gaskin at his word..... the best generation of our generation.... The Millennium Kids.... had he thought about this? I don't know... but I like it... the Millennium Kids....

This Millennium has started with a bang, and they are the ones answering that bang, setting the stage for how this millennium will progress.

Find me a good screen writer and I'll keep buying those lottery tickets!
Posted by: Sherry   2007-07-26 01:53  

#2  I've almost completely stopped seeing Hollywood releases precisely because of the socialist teachy preachy boosh*t they contain.
Posted by: badanov   2007-07-26 00:29  

#1  I long ago reached the point that any movie coming out of hollywood is assumed to be made by leftist, sub-human vermin that hate America, the military, and everything that makes this country great. Occasionally a movie makes it out of this default category but that's increasingly rare.

Posted by: Silentbrick   2007-07-26 00:07  

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