Bruce Willis comes out fighting for Iraq’s forgotten GI heroes

ANGERED by negative portrayals of the conflict in Iraq, Bruce Willis, the Hollywood star, is to make a pro-war film in which American soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.

It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Willis attended Deuce Four’s homecoming ball this month in Seattle, Washington, where the soldiers are on leave, along with Stephen Eads, the producer of Armageddon and The Sixth Sense.

The 50-year-old actor said that he was in talks about a film of “these guys who do what they are asked to for very little money to defend and fight for what they consider to be freedom”.

Unlike many Hollywood stars Willis supports the war and recently offered a $1m (about £583,000) bounty for the capture of any of Al-Qaeda’s most wanted leaders such as Osama Bin Laden, Ayman Al-Zawahiri or Abu Musab al- Zarqawi, its commander in Iraq. Willis visited the war zone with his rock and blues band, the Accelerators, in 2003.

“I am baffled to understand why the things I saw happening in Iraq are not being reported,” he told MSNBC, the American news channel.

He is expected to base the film on the writings of the independent blogger Michael Yon, a former special forces green beret who was embedded with Deuce Four and sent regular dispatches about their heroics.

Yon was at the soldiers’ ball with Willis, who got to know him through his internet war reports on www.michaelyon.blogspot.com. “What he is doing is something the American media and maybe the world media isn’t doing,” the actor said, “and that’s telling the truth about what’s happening in the war in Iraq.”

Willis is likely to take on the role of the unit’s commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Erik Kurilla, 39, a Bruce Willis lookalike with a chest full of medals, more hair than Willis and a glamorous blonde wife.

He was injured in August after being shot three times by insurgents “in front of my eyes”, Yon recorded in his blog: “He continued to direct his men until a medic gave him morphine and the men took him away.”

Kurilla now has a titanium plate in his leg. He met Willis at the ball and said that his men were “very excited and appreciative that he was there”. ”

Deuce Four has a chequered history. For decades it was a segregated black unit commanded by a white officer. It was disbanded in 1951 but veterans felt hurt that its past was considered to be a stain on the army and it was revived in the mid-1990s.

When the battalion arrived in Mosul in November last year the city was under threat from insurgents. “We faced very heavy fighting for about three months,” Kurilla recalled. “Every patrol was making contact with enemy forces. We would hit them where they slept, where they worked and where they ate.”

Today the picture was very different, he said. “I have watched a city that was in absolute chaos turn into one that has a viable Iraqi security force, which is taking the lead in fighting the terrorists.”

Yon, 41, went to Iraq after a friend from high school, Scott Helveston, a former navy Seal, was hanged from a bridge in Falluja in an incident that shocked the world. Yon had never blogged before but was the author of Danger Close, a book about his experience as a green beret when he killed a man in a bar-room brawl. He was charged with murder and acquitted on the grounds of self-defence.

“When I landed in Baghdad I was immediately struck by how much of a war zone it was,” Yon said. “Explosions were going off constantly. It was full-on.”

His first experience of Mosul was worse: “I got attacked on my first mission. One of our vehicles got hit with a car bomb and three guys were killed.”

In May, Yon took a photograph of a soldier from the Deuce Four cradling a little Iraqi girl who had been fatally wounded by a suicide bomber. He sensed that the inhabitants of Mosul were turning against the insurgents. “People began to realise that all the insurgents ever did was break things and kill people,” he said. “It started to switch from a firefight to an intelligence war. People started to talk more to us. They would pull us over and give us tips.”

The Iraqi security forces began to take pride in their work, Yon added: “These guys were getting slaughtered but they continued to volunteer and fight. It’s very dangerous now to be a terrorist in Mosul. They’re still out there but it’s not like it was.”

Willis said it would be wrong for Americans to give up on Iraq just as progress is being made. “The Iraqi people want to live in a world where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed,” he said. “I mean, doesn’t everybody want that?”

From IMDB.com:

Biography for
Bruce Willis

Birth name
Walter Bruce Willis

Nickname
Bruno

Height
6' (1.83 m)

Mini biography
Bruce Willis grew up mainly in Penns Grove, New Jersey, and graduated from high school there before going to New York to become an actor. He waited tables and tended bar for a living until he began to get roles in plays. While tending bar one night he was seen by a casting director who liked his personality and needed a bartender for a small movie role.

IMDb mini-biography by
Dotti Zawadzki < zawadzki@willie.salem.cc.nj.us>

Spouse
Demi Moore (21 November 1987 - 18 October 2000) (divorced) 3 children

Trade mark
Frequently plays a man who suffered a tragedy, had lost something or had a crisis of confidence or conscience.

Trivia
Was high school student council president.

His recording of "Respect Yourself" reached #5 in January of 1987.

Bruce and Demi announce they are ending their marriage of eleven years. No reasons given. [24 June 1998]

Ranked #22 in Empire (UK) magazine's "The Top 100 Movie Stars of All Time" list. [October 1997]

Has three daughters with Moore: Rumer Willis (b. 1988), 'Scout Larue Willis' (b. 1991) and Tallulah Belle Willis (b. 1994).

His mother Marlene was born in Kassel, Germany.

Appeared on "Late Show with David Letterman" (1993) to advertise for Demi Moore's Striptease (1996) by doing his own undressing act. [1996]

As a young man his personality was very much like that of the character that he portrayed on "Moonlighting" (1985). He was always getting into trouble because of this and was bodily ejected from parties by the hosts for being obnoxious.

Has been very vocal in his support of almost every major Republican candidate in recent history except Bob Dole. He felt that presidential candidate Dole was out of line in his attacks on Demi Moore and her part in the movie Striptease (1996).

Was the first actor to ever "act" in a video game. No one before has ever done voice work along with having their movements digitally added to the game.

Stated he will no longer be doing violent action or "save-the-world" movies. [2001]

Wears his watch upside down with the face on the inside of his hand. This is also visible in many movies he's done (_Die Hard with a Vengeance_ , -Mercury Rising_ , etc.) where they haven't requested him to flip it over.

Memorial Day weekend, 1987: Was arrested after reportedly disturbing the peace and assaulting a police officer who was called to quiet a raucous party at his home. The charges were dropped after Willis agreed to apologize to his neighbors.

According to friends, he had a terrible stammer as a child.

Younger brother Robert died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 42. [2001]

Was originally cast as Terry Benedict in Ocean's Eleven (2001) but dropped out.

Attended Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey.

Set a new benchmark for actors' salaries when he was paid $5 million for Die Hard (1988) in 1988. Eight years later, his wife, Demi Moore, set a benchmark of 12 million with Striptease (1996).

His ineptness as a waiter forced him to become a bartender.

Was named Man of the Year by Harvard University's Hasty Pudding Theatricals. [February 2002]

Was born on a military base in Germany.

Was president of a drama club at school.

Worked in a chemical factory before going to college.

He filled in as a last-minute host for David Letterman on February 26, 2003, a show he was supposed to be the guest for. It was Letterman's first "sick day" in 20 years (other than his time off for heart surgery).

Ranked #3 in Star TV's Top 10 Box Office Stars of the 1990s (2003)

Lives in Hailey, Idaho, where he owns The Mint bar and the Liberty Theater. He also owns the old Hailey Drug Store, but the building has been vacant and unused since the early 90s.

The scar on his right shoulder is from surgery due to complications from a broken arm when he was 17.

Has been in 7 movies with numbers in the title: _First Deadly Sin, The (1980)_ , Twelve Monkeys (1995), Four Rooms (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), The Sixth Sense (1999), The Whole Nine Yards (2000) and The Whole Ten Yards (2004).

Personally recommended Bonnie Bedelia for the role of his estranged wife in Die Hard (1988).

He is the hero of singer Nick Lachey.

Producers chose him for the role of John McClane in the "Die Hard" films because they felt he added a warmth and a sense of humor to an otherwise humorless character.

He ad-libbed many of John McClane's one-liners in the "Die Hard" films.

Graduate of Penns Grove High School, Penns Grove, New Jersey. Class of 1973 who voted him "Most School Spirit."

He was the only celebrity that attended Julia Roberts' wedding to 'Danny Moder' .

Recommended Michael Clarke Duncan to play the part of John Coffey in The Green Mile (1999).

20 October 2004 - Sued Revolution Studios for unspecified damages related to a blow to his forehead that he received during "ultrahazardous activity" involved in the filming of _Tears of the Sun (2003)_ . He claims that it has caused him extreme mental, physical and emotional pain & suffering.

Attended the Stella Adler Conservatory / Theatre program in New York City for three years.

Plays the harmonica.

France made him an officer in Order of Arts and Letters (April 2005). "France pays homage to an actor who represents the force of American cinema and the power of emotions that he invites us to share on screens throughout the world", Culture Minister Renaud Donnedieu de Vabres said. "I'm nervous. Bonjour Paris," he replied.

After dating Brooke Burns for ten months and finally being engaged to her they decided to split because of the difficulties with maintaining a long-distance relationship. (2 June 2004)

Was chosen to play John McClane in Die Hard (1988) because the producers felt he brought warmth and humor to an otherwise cold and humorless character.

He has been special ambassador of his birth town Idar-Oberstein since his 50th birthday.

Was a guest at Demi Moore's and Ashton Kutcher's wedding.

8 directors cast him twice in their films: Blake Edwards, Amy Heckerling, Rob Reiner, Robert Benton, John McTiernan, Alan Rudolph, M. Night Shyamalan and Quentin Tarantino.

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