More Power to "The Grid": Hollywood finally tackles the war on terrorism, and the result…

The Weekly Standard ^ | July 23, 2004 | Jonathan V. Last

[quidnunc]

… is better than you could have possibly hoped for.

Those who have paid attention to popular culture over the last three years know about Hollywood's uncomfortable views on terrorism.

For the most part, Hollywood ignores the war on terror. Since September 11, 2001, only a handful of movies and TV shows have been produced that even mention 9/11. The broader subject of the war on terrorism has been addressed barely at all. And the war in Iraq has been mentioned only twice, in two documentaries — The Control Room and — which are largely critical of America and fawning of the Islamists with whom we are at war.

So if I told you that TNT was airing a mini-series, called The Grid, about the war on terror, you would know what to expect: Sympathetic, over-burdened Muslims and Americans who, when not fighting silly bureaucratic turf-wars, were waging brutal, destructive, real ones. As it turns out, you would be wrong. The Grid is the bravest, most-daring piece of entertainment in years.

It is difficult to overstate how resistant the creative community has been to dealing seriously with the war on terrorism. A year ago, Jack Valenti, head of the Motion Picture Association of America, explained why Hollywood was reluctant to tackle the subject: "Who would you have as the enemy if you made a picture about terrorism?" he asked. "You'd probably have Muslims, would you not? If you did, I think there would be backlash from the decent, hardworking, law-abiding Muslim community in this country."

Valenti's concern was well-founded — Muslim activist groups have a long history of bullying artists into submission. Whenever a production depicts Islamist terrorism, the Council on American-Islamic Relations or some such lobby is there to protest. The result is often ludicrous: In the film version of Tom Clancy's Sum of All Fears, for instance, the Islamist terrorists were turned into Nazi white supremacists.

-snip-

[coconutt2000]

Tell the people in Hollywood to accurately depict the extremist Islamic leaders for what they are... Opportunistic businessmen hijacking a religion for their own political agenda.

That should redirect the anger of law abiding and good Muslims away from Hollywood and at the real and honestly depicted extremist leadership.


If the extremist leadership really believed in the religious aspect of their jihad against the west, they'd be willing to become martyrs. But they run and send others to Allah in the name of their murderous cause.

ps - anyone who tries to equate terrorists with the American military should report their address to me so I can send them an butt kicking squad of veteran marines on leave. really.

[EUPHORIC]

Who CAIRs what the fifth column thinks. Hollywood reacts to the squeaky wheel.

We just need to get LOUDER then the enemy is in Hollywood's ear. They will flip flop to our side. Guaranteed.

[TomGuy]

I watched it. It has potential.

Didn't care for the subtitling--on my screen is was blurred (poor type selection) and disappeared too quickly to read.

The subtitling didn't serve much purpose as all of the characters speaking Arabic also spoke English.

Too many characters were introduced, with short blurbs printed, but disappeared too quickly to read.

[GeorgeW23225]

I watched the 2 hour premier. And I did NOT appreciate the British Bitch calling President Bush a "Cowboy" who over reacted and then left us (The British) holding a bag of "poop"........

[GVnana]

Monday nights on TNT. Well, if the Weekly Standard gives it the nod, I guess it's worth a shot.

[gilliam]

They have a pretty cool website:

http://www.tnt.tv/Title/Display/0,5918,540146,00.html