you act as if this is new...one of the most political-motivated films was "Citizen Kane" - a thinly veiled expose on the life of Hearst. It has been on everybody's top ten movie list for 60 years.

It's not an issue of political ideologies - it's an issue of making bad movies.

Any movie more politically motivated than "The Manchurian Candidate?" - how about "The Deerslayer?" - "Apocalypse Now?" Perhaps we could back to the days of silent movies with "Birth of a Nation?"

There is nothing - NOTHING - new about politically slanted movie viewpoints.

I'm not denying that...

What's at issue is how these films are going about making their political statements...

And they're doing it by making the troops out to be corrupt and evil...

And the public is showing they're not buying into it...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd

you have GOT to be kidding

every 'rogue' serviceman adventure movie shows the status quo military/government body as corrupt

nothing could have shown the military in a more unpleasant manner than "Casualties of War" - a huge hit with Sean Penn and Michael J. Fox, raping their way across Viet Nam

The article you posted is bull**** - the public is simply not buying bad movies. Or - are you going to say the reason that political movies flopped this weekend is for another reason than the OTHER bad movies that flopped this wekend?

So what are you worried about?


Just because somebody talks about one incident, or a group of people involved in an incident, doesn't smear the entire military.


No argument here.
Mostly, that's a strawman argument brought up by people trying to defend the war.


As opposed to those who proclaim we need to invade a country, cause this is what Muslims do...



It's quite simple.
Hollywood puts out stuff like anybody else.
But they have no power to enforce change. People watch, or don't watch movies as they please.
Fahrenheit 9/11 didn't stop Bush from getting elected.
Movies are made, and they either cause action or they don't.

Like it or not, Americans have a right to assembly. Even if that "assembly" means under a movie theater roof, eating popcorn and drinking soda and then leaving to do absolutely nothing about what they saw.

The government on the other hand gets to choose what information they do and don't give us.
What spin they want to put on it.
They have the power to do things and make it happen.
Unlike a movie theater where I can choose to pay or not pay, I've got a government that taxes me as they ignore the fact that they are doing something that the vast majority disapproves of.

The president can veto gay employment discrimination that has overwhelming support, or continue in a war that has no support, as the president lives out his life with a ridiculously low "approval" rating.

THAT is what I'm talking about.


And in Hollywood, we pay money to watch movies.

But in Washington, unlike Hollywood, they actually have power to make things happen. Order soldiers to go to a foreign country. Collect taxes. Ignore budgets and spend off of non-existent money.

I am not sure what "power" you think Hollywood has that we might need to have "elections" for.


Yeah.
That sort of thing NEVER happens in Washington.
That would be like somebody being in office about three years and then deciding to go to war with a country that doesn't even have WMDs.
People talk about how he wanted to go to war with Iraq LONG BEFORE 2003, and nobody cares.
He presents all sorts of wonderful slides and crap to sell his story, and he's been "head" for about three years...

I'm sorry, but are you being sarcastic with your junk?
Cause unless you're willing to start going down a road where every CEO has restrictions on his actions for "two years" or some other junk, your complaint is thoroughly meaningless and arbitrary.


Much like anybody who believes our government only fights wars to "keep us safe", when the truth is that they were looking to start a war with Iraq long before they started talking about WMDs...

I'm a big fan of war movies. I've never gotten this "smearing the troops" angle.. what a bunch of bull****.

EVERY movie that supposedly does that has a hero in it who is a SOLDIER.

The Casulties of War movie Tristan cited was like that. Sean Penn was the *******-rapist soldier.. and Michael J. Fox was the good soldier who risked his life to do the right thing.


War, by the very nature of what it is, tends to denigrate people's morality and blur the lines between right and wrong. Even Stephen Ambrose.. who was very "rah-rah America" in his books about World War Two... which was a very "rah rah" war... noted instances of American troops doing depraved things... like gunning down unarmed prisoners just for fun.

It can be noted at different points in "Saving Private Ryan," a hugely succesful movie, both American and German troops are shown caulously cutting down enemy soldiers who were trying to surrender. And that wasn't a Hollywood smear tactic, it was extremely accurate. Those things DID happen during the war.

It happens. And I think people DO like movies that show the truth.. even when it's ugly.

So, I have to agree with Tristan. Maybe these movies are not doing well because they suck.

Red Dawn, while not exactly a military movie, also showed people doing horrible things in times of war. Blackhawk Down did too.

And no one mentioned Platoon.

I think cnredd sees anything done against Bush as treason, and there's no talking him out of it.

Two aspects everyone seems to forget....

1) in movies like "Platoon" and "Casualties of War", there's always the soldier with a heart of gold who tries to do the right thing...The evil shown by a soldier is representative of THAT soldier and NOT the military in general...People leave the theater thinking "THAT GUY was an a-hole." and NOT "THE MILITARY is a bunch of a-holes."...

2) Unlike the other movies mentioned, this war is GOING ON NOW...

That means that this movie can and will be used as a tool to ferment hatred towards America by our enemies...

Do you think the Vietnamese could use "Platoon" as a reason for them to hate us and attack us 15 years AFTER the Vietnam War ended?...They didn't...

Do you think elements in the Middle East will use movies like "Redacted" to say "This is what THE US MILITARY is doing to us and we must retaliate!"?...Absolutely...

__________________
"You get the respect that you give" - cnredd