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?
Bottom story of the day. Doesn't even have the same surprise value as "Dog Bites Man."
is this post from 1967?
I won’t be watching this trash.
Liberalism is a mental disease!
As if we’d expect Hollywierd to produce anything other than anti-war movies about Iraq. The days of movies that portray American Soldiers as heroes (as movies about WWII or Korea did) are sadly over. They won’t receive my money for their POS movies. Hollywierd should burn to the ground.
Who’ll play Clarke in that pic? Harvey Firestein?
side note.. Saw Rescue Dawn today, 2 thumbs up.
It is not in the class of the anti-war surge of Hollywood Hooie to come.. fortunately Redford’s latest contribution is not to be released ‘til November.
Thank you for your service.
I agree. I heard "Transformers" (a classic good vs. evil movie, with lots of exciting action) did very well; "Sicko," the looney libs' latest attack on America, is in the tank. I think these anti-American liberal looney cr*pola movies will go the same way as "Sicko."
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus
Somewhere, John Ford is turning over in his grave because of the treasonous crap being put out by this current batch of Hollywood scumsuckers...
Hey, if they want to lose more money; let em.
Pray for W and Our Troops
I'm sure Richard has already contacted Brad Pitt and George Clooney just to make sure he is portrayed "realistically".
The Vietnam generation having flashbacks again. I’m really getting tired of this.
I don't go to the theaters to watch their crap (easy).
Now I'm going to swear off renting their crappy videos, too. (much tougher).
Tonight, the bride and I are watching "Hell Freezes Over" for the 27th time, as we received it as a gift many moons ago (little Indian lingo there).
Yes, I know they're all libs (except for Joe Walsh, who's a...well, whatever he is.)
But, since we already own it, Hollywood isn't getting a dime tonight from this household.
And the prospects for future forays into my wallet are quite slim.
The 300 is coming out on video which my son says is excellent. He also loves Transformers which is Good v Evil.
Pray for W and Our Troops
So what else is new?
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