Hollywood: G.I. Joe no Longer American Soldier But an 'International' Operative?

Newsbusters.org ^ | 9/4/07 | Warner Todd Huston

[Mobile Vulgus]

Outrageously, a new live-action movie based on the G.I. Joe toy line might see Joe's American soldier identity scrubbed to be replaced by membership in an "international force based in Brussels." The news site, IGN Entertainment, a site that reports on the gaming, comics and movie industries, has the scoop on the upcoming live-action G.I. Joe movie that Paramount is launching and it is looking like the G.I. Joe that we all loved, that "real American hero," is going to be replaced with "Action Man," a member of an "international operations team." It appears that the American soldier, a liberator and protector, isn't a good enough role model for the execs at Paramount!

Paramount is even turning Joe's name into an acronym adding insult to injury. Instead of just being the main character's name, it will become G.I.J.O.E., meaning "Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity."

In a follow-up to their confirmation that Stephen Sommers will direct G.I. Joe, Variety offers this new description of the team: "G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force of operatives who use hi-tech equipment to battle Cobra, an evil organization headed by a double-crossing Scottish arms dealer. The property is closer in tone to X-Men and James Bond than a war film."

According to various reports in Variety, Ad Age, and IGN, the producers of G.I. Joe the movie are claiming that marketing will be too difficult on the international market for a movie about a heroic U.S. soldier. So they are thinking of eliminating Joe's connection to the U.S. military.

Deciding whether to make "GI Joe" at all, let alone how to market it, is nettlesome thanks in large measure to an unpopular American president defending an unpopular war: In a July USA Today/Gallup poll, a record high of 62% respondents had called the invasion of Iraq "a mistake." A month later, that view is 57%, more or less where it's been for over a year.

Yet with the announcement that Steven Sommers will direct the movie, though, there is no confirmation that the standard G.I. Joe we all loved as the expression of American heroism will be replaced by the international mercenary man concept. Paramount is refusing to say officially which way they will go, but reports of their vacillation toward an anti-U.S. military point of view are many throughout the industry.

Some rumors claim that the title “G.I. Joe” will even be dropped in the international release to be replaced by "Action Man" (the original name of the Joe series' British soldier) so that the name won't offend anyone outside the USA.

Whatever the case, we have another U.S. based entertainment giant ashamed to be Americans. This is par for the course for Hollywood, sadly. It should be recalled that the last Superman movie dropped the American part of Superman's tag line, "truth, justice, and the American way" because it had American in it, not to mention that every Iraq war movie coming out has an anti-American point of view. So, with that in mind, it is hardly surprising that G.I. Joe is doomed to be denuded of his American identity by a weak-kneed and unpatriotic Hollywood.

Read more at Newsbusters.org.

[Mobile Vulgus]

No American icon is sacred. Pretty soon, the Lone Ranger will be a UN "peacekeeper" and Captain America will be dead... oh, wait. They already KILLED Capt. America.

[Huck]

"G.I. Joe is now a Brussels-based outfit that stands for Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity, an international co-ed force

That's pretty funny.

[ishabibble]

IIRC, the Hollywood machine did this to Superman, too. In the last movie, he was all about “truth and justice”. There was no mention of the last part of the phrase, “The American Way”.

How sick in the head do these people have to be when they are ashamed of their own country which has given them so much?

[SolidWood]

American heroism will be replaced by the international mercenary man concept.

Okay, I'm all for a "Blackwater Man" Action figure and movie. That would be a hoot and give the lefties heart-aches.

[SJSAMPLE]

Worse, I hear that Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg is being cast as Duke.

Say it isn’t so.
That guy sucks in evrything, even “Shooter”.

[BallyBill]

I guess if don't call the movie G.I. Joe, the whole complaint is moot.

I could care less if Hollywood made it G.I. Joe Stalin.

[NCC-1701]

Well, the way to get back at whorellyweird is TO NOT SEE this tripe. Spend your money on something else. Just don’t let “them” have any of it.

[pacelvi]

“Global Integrated Joint Operating Entity”

bwahahahaa

Entity?

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

[Alberta's Child]

I don't know why we should blame Hollywood for doing something that the U.S. government has already done to "G.I. Joe."

[Rinnwald]

G.I. Joeski, cool.

I love chicks with Dragunovs!

[longtermmemmory]

PC destroys box office.

why else is wonderwoman taking so long?

Remember the superman remake commercials with “an all that stuff” instead of “american way”

[horse_doc]

I wouldn't worry too much. G.I. Joe has been surpassed by New Millenium's Ultimate Soldier. Same size as the old G.I. Joe, but with incredible uniforms and equipment.

You can't walk into a Wal-Mart anywhere in America and not find a shelf full of 1:18, 1:32, 1:48, and 1:114 WW II-era tanks, planes, and soldiers. The new stuff is infinitely better than the Marx playsets and G.I. Joes of my childhood, and my nephews love it. Given a choice between a goofy peacekeeper figure, and a guy with an M1, they take the M1 every time.

[Loyolas Mattman]

The October Guard in the flesh! Very cool.

This is very disappointing news for a hard-core G.I. Joe fan.

I have long attributed my “hawkish” (if you pardon the pun) politics and support for the military to a steady diet of G.I. Joe comics between the ages of 8-13.

G.I. Joe is a treasured memory for this child of the Reagan era, and it is sad to see how times have changed.

[Virginia Ridgerunner]

Me too. Snake Eyes was the MAN!

[getarope]

The G.I.Joe of the 1980’s onward is in reference to an American special-missions force which seeks to defend freedom throughout the world. Their nemisis, Cobra, is a worldwide terrorist organization(al Qaida, Muzzies, take your pick). If Michael Bay can leave the Transformers as most people growing up saw them on TV, then why can’t Paramount with this G.I.Joe movie? Oh wait, that wouldn’t be PC. Come to think of it, Top Gun would not make it past the cutting room floor if it was made today- too Pro-American.

[amchugh]

In other news, the 'A Team' has been revamped as the 'PC Team', a multinational think-tank that generates special reports for UN committees and does pro-bono art projects. Notable bits from the trailer for the pilot:

"I supportively encourage that learning disabled man." - G.A. Baracus

"I just love it when a consensus comes to fruition." - Dr. John "Mahinda" Smith

The PC team goes to burning man to create custom artwork and generate positive opinion about UN projects to educate third world denizens in alternative sexuality and spirituality. An exciting scene where they weld solar panels and hydroponic hemp growing tanks onto an electric golf cart promises to become a formula for future episodes.