[Borges]

Those were real American soldiers in WOTW btw. He had a premiere with them and they had a great time. In Raiders I always thought it was the Goverment Beauracrats who do that. In E.T. the military was just doing their job. I don't know how you go from there to 'pissing on all the rest of military efforts'

[WorkingClassFilth]

The fact that US troops were used doesn't bear on the film. The essence of the military element was to display futility. Even at the end of the film when they hit the tripods with shoulder launched missiles, the aliens are already faltering and crashing without military opposition. In sum, they're clueless cannon fodder. As I said before, Spielberg makes his seminal point about the military in the screaming exchange between father and son about the foolishness of fighting (i.e., the military response). This is further underscored with Spielberg's symbolic portrayal of civil resistance in the Tim Robbins character.

The use of the military by Hollywood is hardly an honor, although somebody in the Pentagon has wised up in the last couple decades enough to read the scripts they're asked to participate in. In this case, some might simply conclude that the military element was heroic in going up against an implacable foe. That's true, but in the context of the rest of the film the meaning was much more about futility and mindlessness.

In the past, his portrayal of the military was of the same sort (again, other than WWII). Mindless, faceless drones just doing, as you said, "their jobs." Where have we heard that before?

In sum, my comments still stand. Spielberg's disdain for ordinary American life, morality, civil authority and all the rest of the enchilada are pretty much the usual drivel inculcated in the boomer g-g-generation. This film bore little resemblance to the original Wells novel and like most products of Hollywood only served as a framework on which to hang their nihilistic postmodern socialist dreck.

Save your money and stay away from this dog.