Posted on 07/27/2007 5:35:11 PM PDT by lowbridge
First it was the traumatized Vietnam veteran, now are Iraq vets set to become the next "progressive" cliché?
Being the strapping patriot sort of folks that they are, the Hollywood left is gearing up to release a bunch of anti-military movies that portray veterans of the Iraq war as deranged psychopaths, screwed up by an "unjust" war. The New York Times's Michael Cieply reports (h/t Instapundit):
Now some in Hollywood want moviegoers to decide if the killing is emblematic of a war gone bad, part of a new and perhaps risky willingness in the entertainment business to push even the touchiest debates about post-9/11 security, Iraq and the troops’ status from the confines of documentaries into the realm of mainstream political drama.
On Sept. 14, Warner Independent Pictures expects to release “In the Valley of Elah,” a drama inspired by the Davis murder, written and directed by Paul Haggis, whose “Crash” won the Academy Award for best picture in 2006. The film stars Tommy Lee Jones as a retired veteran who defies Army bureaucrats and local officials in a search for his son’s killers. In one of the movie’s defining images, the American flag is flown upside down in the heartland, the signal of extreme distress.
Other coming films also use the damaged Iraq veteran to raise questions about a continuing war. In “Grace Is Gone,” directed by James C. Strouse and due in October from the Weinstein Company, John Cusack and two daughters struggle with the loss of a wife and mother who is killed on duty. Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss,” set for release in March by Paramount, meanwhile, casts Ryan Phillippe as a veteran who defies an order that would send him back to Iraq.
In the past, Hollywood usually gave the veteran more breathing space. William Wyler’s “Best Years of Our Lives,” about the travails of those returning from World War II, was released more than a year after the war’s end. Similarly Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home” and Oliver Stone’s “Born on the Fourth of July,” both stories of Vietnam veterans, came well after the fall of Saigon.
Of course, these movies aren't politically motivated at all:
“Media in general responds much more quickly than ever before,” said Scott Rudin, a producer of “Stop-Loss.” “Why shouldn’t movies do the same?” He said his film was deliberately scheduled to be released in the middle of the presidential campaign season.
That impetus for immediacy is driving other filmmakers and studios as well. In October, for example, New Line Cinema will release “Rendition,” in which Reese Witherspoon plays a woman whose Egyptian-born husband is snared by a runaway counterterrorism apparatus. Paul Greengrass, the director of “The Bourne Ultimatum,” in which the bad guys belong to a similar rogue unit, is adapting Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book about the Green Zone in Baghdad, “Imperial Life in the Emerald City,” for Universal Pictures.
Brian De Palma’s “Redacted,” focusing on an Army squad that persecutes an Iraqi family, is to be released in December by Magnolia Pictures. And Sony Pictures is developing a film based on the story of Richard A. Clarke, the former national security official and Bush administration critic.
Isn't it wonderful how the left can with one hand decry the "unfairness" of the one medium that the right dominates (talk radio) while shamelessly making politicized movies (and television shows for that matter) explicitly designed to whip up anti-war frenzy and bash our nation's military?
bump
After all, honorable service is not politically correct.
Will not spend my entertainment dollars on any of those pictures!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They won’t get a dime from me.
They’ll all be box-office flops, just like “Jarhead.”
Give them a week in the theater before they end up on DVD or HBO.
Perfect time to make another blockbuster spoof like “Hot Shots” where an islamic army takes over hollywood - and the conservatives and US military help them...
“Of course, these movies aren’t politically motivated at all:”
And Jane Fonda went over to Vietnam to support democracy and just happened to visit while the commies were in charge(sarc).
Good—maybe they will lose their shirts on each and every one of them! Hollywood is so where it’s NOT!
Gee, no movie planned for that great Iraq war hero, Scott Thomas Beauchamp? (Yes, that was sarcasm.)
Oooh! Good idea! Maybe we could get the Team America guys to give it a go again!
By the way, have any Iraq knowledgeable FReepers read this book, and hold an opinion on it?
Nam Vet here. Quit going to the movies around ‘68. Life is so good without Hollywood.
I hate to admit this, but we tune into The Lifetime Channel to watch reruns of “Frasier”. The promos for their shows are enough to make you barf. One I’ve wondered about, but refuse to tune in, is “Army Wives” - any word on what the bent is on this one?
That was the one I was trying to remember...
“They’ll all be box-office flops”
By definition.
The lefties in hollywood would rather lose money pushing their agenda than make money producing good storying-telling films.
Say what? Who at Sony thinks anyone wants to see a movie about Dick Clarke? I hope they budget 100 million dollars.
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