Regards, Ivan
Posted on 07/23/2004 3:52:43 PM PDT by MadIvan
HOLLYWOOD’S choice of bad guy can say a lot about the state of the world at any particular time. So it is interesting to note that the generic Eastern European gangster, and more specifically the Serbian War Criminal, has received a massive boost in popularity as the action movie villain du jour.
Serbian baddies turn up in Matthew Vaughn’s forthcoming drug-dealing underworld drama Layer Cake; Serbian war criminals take their place at the bargaining table (alongside Hollywood’s evil stalwarts, the Asian despot and the dour German) to bid for the ultimate super weapon in Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle Of Life.
Serbian war criminals also take over an hotel full of extreme sports enthusiasts in Extreme Ops. And, in XXX, Vin Diesel battles an Eastern European nihilist gangster called Yorgi.
The evil Serb has ousted Hollywood favourite baddies “the crazed Arab” and “the ruthless Russian Mafioso”. However, the fact that Serbian villains turn up so regularly in American films does not indicate that the influx of gangsters from Eastern Europe is perceived as a real threat by the cinema-going public. Quite the opposite.
Pre-9/11, Arab terrorists turned up regularly as baddies intent on destroying the world. That’s a bit too close for comfort to pass as entertainment now. So, when golden all-American boy Owen Wilson finds himself in dangerous territory in Behind Enemy Lines, he is pursued by Serbs in Bosnia rather than Taleban in Afghanistan.
So far as most movie fans are aware, Eastern European gangsters are only really a threat if you muscle in on their drug cartel.
The ideal Hollywood villain is one who does not remind the audience of anything that they come to the cinema to forget, such as the threat of a terrorist attack.
Regards, Ivan
Ping!
Makes me long for Chuck Norris in The Delta Force.
No. The Ideal Hollywood Villain® is one who doesn't have a special interest group that will whine constantly that you are stereotyping their ethnicity if you use them in a movie.
It's not the audience that is driving this. It's the Hollywood production companies and movie studios. I'd be more likely to buy tickets to a movie where the bad guys are like the bad guys we can expect in the real world.
The Scourge of Yazid:
The filthy Wahabbi dogs that run Hollywood will never allow it! Inshallah, they will be sent to the perfidious depths of jahanam for their apostasy. MAY THE DESPICABLE YAZIDIS DIE WATCHING THEIR OWN PATHETICALLY-CONCEIVED PLOTS!
BEWARE THE BLACK TURBAN YAZID!
-good times, G.J.P. (Jr.)
Besides, they're the only folks I've ever met who hate Islamofascists as much as I do lol...
I'd like to see a movie of a couple dozen Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders ambushed, pinned down, and heavily outnumbered by insurgents. They run low on ammo, fix bayonets, and charge from their Land Rovers to glory, miraculously winning and leaving bodies of their enemies strewn everywhere, at the cost of only three slight wounds.
Naaah...to unbelievable.
Does anything in the US change? Ever?
Hey, not all of us are down on Serbs. Some of us actually have rather warm feelings towards our Serb brothers and sisters.
Some of us are ready to invite all the Serbs over for supper, since anyone Hollywood is against must be pretty cool!
Has anyone noticed how many movie plots in Science Fiction revolve around some new discovery which could help mankind but the discoverer realizes the evil American Military (it could also be the CIA, or some right wing militia) is secretly planning on using it as a weapon.
The hero then spends the rest of the movie fighting the "bad guys".
An Open Letter To Our Troops In The Former Yugoslavia From Over 500 MlAs Saved By The Serbian People During WWII
By: Richard L. Felman Major USAF (Ret) President National Committee of American Airmen Rescued by General Mlhailovich, Inc.
P.O. Box 17478, Tuscon, Arizona 85731
During World War II, we were in the Army Air Corps list as "Missing in Action" in the very same area you are now serving. If we may, we would like to relay to you a frank, soldier-to-soldier message about our personal experience while there - something which politicians who sent you there have not told you and something which you have not read or seen in the Anti-Serb media.
In 1944, the members of our committee were flying bombing missions out of Italy over Southern Europe. During that time over 500 of us were shot down over enemy-occupied Yugoslavia and saved from certain death by the Serbian people. Ours was the greatest rescue of American lives from behind enemy lines in history but has been kept under wraps all these years because of pressure from foreign sources.
While we were there, those of us who were wounded were given whatever medical supplies they had even at the deprivation of their own troops. If there was one piece of bread in the house, or one egg, it went to the American airmen while the Serb went hungry. If there was one bed or one blanket, it went to us while the Serb slept on the bare ground. No risk of sacrifice was too great to insure our safety and well being. One experience which is forever seared in my memory is the time a village with 200 women and children was burned to the ground by the Germans because the Serbs would not tell them where they were hiding us. To this day, I can smell the terrible stench of their burning flesh. One does not forget such things.
Speaking as an American, we haven't had enough.
Hollywood depicts Serbs as bad guys because they consider Clinton's war against the Serbs to be the only good war we have fought since WWII.
I've had one over for supper! When my ex and I had exchange students, we had a boy from Belgium whose parents were doctors, he was pretty well full of himself, but in a likeable way. I used to say that Ben could mooch off you in such a way that you wished you had more to give him, that's how charming he was.
Anyway, he befriended a fellow exchange student from Belgrade, who had a horrible experience with his host family. The young man had to do a lot of the work around the house, the family life was a wreck (pregnant 20 year old unmarried daughter in the house), and to top it off, he often had to buy his own food! Needless to say, when he had a chance to have dinner with us, he jumped at it.
After the Belgian boy left, we were approached by the Serbian lad's visit co-ordinator, who ascertained that this young man was not the problem, his host family was. We took him for the last four months of his stay in the US, and turned the whole trip around for him. Of course, he was delighted to find that a lot of Americans (and believe me, we introduced him to them) didn't like Clinton!
Truly, one of the best experiences of my life.
Gee somebody should tell Louis B. Meyer. He made millions during WWII by portraying every villain as either German or Japanese. Oh yeah, but I forgot, that's when Hollywood still made successful films that Americans actually wanted to go see. It was also when films about America were made IN America instead of Canada.
Intersting isn't it that it's the Hollywood leftists who hate the Serbs so much. Go figure!
As most people who have been following FR Balkan threads are well aware, the "Eastern European gangsters" who run the drug cartels are Albanians, not Serbs!!!! (There is also some "Bosnian" islamist involvement, as part of the international jihad, to peddle drugs to finance terrorism.)
There really should be US-made movies with Serbian heroes--after all, there are countless numbers of good and brave Serbs in real life!!!! And shoot-em-up movies with jihadist villains would allow most ordinary Americans to let off some vicarious steam without resorting to violence.
But no, Hollyweird must continue to demonize the good Christian Serbs, while at the same time pushing gays, gays, and more gays in our faces whether we want them or not!!!!
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