Replies

United 93 is very un-Hollywood.
Spielberg could take some lessons from Greengrass.

January 9, 2006
Reviewer: miat22 (Mia T)

... to borrow a phrase, perversely, from a Spielberg flick about benign intelligence.

Munich, with its false premises, phony pieties and outright lies -- Spielberg fantasy wrapped in sober documentary -- is a verisimilitudinous contrivance that is pernicious, especially now, especially here, especially if we understand Spielberg's real motivation.

Truth matters not at all to Spielberg, and courage matters even less. To advance his fallacious argument, he has Golda Meir speak words she never said, never would have said and, obviously, cannot now disavow. Posthumous misappropriation is a preferred tactic of the abject coward.

Munich is less about Meir avenging the Munich massacre than it is about Bush waging the War on Terror. The historical Munich allusion of appeasement, self-loathing and psychologizing that is practiced so fastidiously by the American Left today is key to understanding Spielberg.

The core of his anti-war argument: By fighting back, we become our enemy. Ironically, with Munich, the same can now be said of Spielberg.

Is Spielberg humanizing the terrorist really any different from Riefenstahl humanizing Hitler? If anything, Spielberg is more contemptible. Whereas Riefenstahl symbolizes the naïve actress and director who is induced to deal with devils, Spielberg is self-actuated and aware.

Hollywood is DreamWorks, fantastical and unthinking and solipsistic by definition.

To mitigate its danger, people capable of critical thinking must take on Hollywood... and must do so in Hollywood venues.

The printed word, sad to say, no longer carries the day.

My New York Times Review of Munich
Was this review helpful to you?
VOTE HERE

United 93 is an ugly, terrifying, horrible truth, just as the '76 Olympics was similarly a terrifiying horrible bloodbath brought to the world by the same species of Islamic Totalitarianism that has been visiting bloodbath after senseless bloodbath since at least Algeria in the early 1960's.

Spielberg/hollywood smugly believe they are superior to Bush because "they dont take sides" because all violent conflict is "destructive". The hollywood elite "know" they have a higher consciousness than Bush. They "know" they could reach the "humanity" in our enemies, who are like children that may need a time out, but who we must not seriously harm with our violence.

11 young Isreali atheletes, or 40 Americans boarding a flight at the local airport. In the view of the hollywood elite, it is the failure of the West to anticipate, understand and "connect" with generations of murderous fanatics that is the cause of the west's terrorist afflictions.

Unlike the "cowboy" Bush, whose instinct at least is to join the terrorist enemy in limited battle, Spielberg/Streisand/Reiner et al are certain (knowing wink) that he (Bush) is only making things worse.

Quite simply, these are the same kind of Americans who agonized for years about the US dropping the "big one" on the japs - another group of diplomacy resistent beligerents until their core beliefs were shaken at the nuclear level and until Douglas MacArthur was given a free hand and five years to effect their re-education.

In November 1943 the marines on Tarawa lost 1000 men, killing nearly 5000 japanese who fought to the last man woman and child. With those statistics what moron would have foregone use of the bomb and invaded the japanese mainland with conventional allied forces (and as well allowed partitioning of Japan with Soviet forces)?

America has now lost 3000 citizens in 9/11, 2400 men in Iraq and more in Afghanistan. To their credit Bush and Rumsfield have actually kept American casualities low. The left has paralized Bush in dealing with Iran and Syria, however. But, make no mistake about it, the 17 year old female Islamic suicide bomber is as lethal as a Japanese Kamakazi (which was far more lethal than the American public was ever told at the time. The lessons of the "greatest generation" should not be quickly forgotten. There is no substitute for Victory. Victory requires application of superior force until an enemy unconditionally surrenders. It is both ironic and meaningful that "peace in our time" through negotiated understanding, was also a message from Munich, delivered by Prime Minister Chamberlin in 1938. Just as with the Spielberg's message of moral equivalence of today, if their appeasment compulstions should become national policy, 10's of millions, not mere thousands would likely ultimately die containing the festering evil that is seeking nuclear weapons in Tehran.