Pro-military films prove opportunistic

UCLA Bruin ^ | December 03, 2001 | Ben Shapiro

[andrew]

Pro-military films prove opportunistic
HOLLYWOOD: Industry is capitalizing on recent events, public sentiment

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Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a second-year political science student bringing reason to the masses. E-mail him at FrumFiddle@aol.com. Click Here for more articles by Ben Shapiro

Hollywood is taking a commercial break – from bashing the military. Not because Hollywoodites finally realized the error of their ways, and not because Sept. 11 woke them up. We couldn't hope for that kind of drastic turn-around.

For the time being, Americans won't have to swallow another psychedelic anti-military script about Gulf War soldiers being abducted by David Duke and the U.S. military for gnarly tests involving a great deal of sex and pot. The demand for that kind of garbage is down, and Hollywood is feeling the pressure. When times are tough, the calls for pro-American movies finally penetrate the Berlin Wall-thick skulls of Hollywood moguls.

Illustration by JARRETT QUON/
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Unfortunately for those '60s-style hard rock, die-before-I'm-30, Hollywood types, patriotism is an "in" thing nowadays. This means that all of those movies ripping the military – like "The Thin Red Line" and "A Few Good Men" just won't cut it at the moment. So the movie industry is doing an about face, meeting public demand for pro-military movies. Hollywood is quitting the anti-American propaganda business for now, but don't hold the grand clearance sale yet – this is just a breather.

Think back just a few short months to the kind of movies rolling off the Hollywood production line. Remember "The Thin Red Line?" The movie nominated for best picture in 1999? It revolved around the invasion of Guadalcanal in World War II, a monumental effort by the U.S. military, which was fighting in guerrilla warfare circumstances. To make an excruciatingly long story short, the main character, played by John Cavaziel, begins and ends the movie swimming with the fishes – only the first time he is alive. The movie sends a subtle, yet strong, anti-military message, claiming that World War II was useless in the same way as Vietnam – a ridiculous claim when you consider America was fighting the Axis power, the most powerful force of evil seen in thousands of years.

Let the waves of time continue to wash away the years. It is Nov. 6, 1998, opening night for "The Siege," a well-made movie starring Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis. Washington plays an FBI agent, and Willis plays – you guessed it – a general in the Army. Willis is out to get a terrorist cell in Manhattan, and nothing will stop him. He locks up all the Arab-Americans in the city, throws away the key, tortures terrorists and has an all-around good time before being locked up by Washington. The movie is a propaganda piece promoting the "victimized" terrorists, putting down the Army, and showing that the real "danger" in the world is the military. It is Willis, the one who actually attempts to locate terrorist cells and kill terrorists, who is the horrible, sadistic villain of the piece. The terrorists are just misunderstood people.

Now let's look back to the paradigm of anti-military movies. Think back to 1991, the opening weekend of "A Few Good Men," starring Tom Cruise as an obnoxiously hissy yet determined lawyer striving to indict Jack Nicholson, a hard-nosed general, for the accidental death of a soldier during what can best be described as a hazing ritual.

In the film's climactic scene, Nicholson cuts loose, screaming at Cruise: "You want me on that wall – you need me on that wall!" And this statement is absolutely true. While good old Tom is off drinking and playing softball, Nicholson is out defending the country. Yet Cruise righteously berates Nicholson for his hard-nosed tactics with his soldiers. Well, here's a little secret – I'd rather have Nicholson, the villain, out defending my butt than pretty boy Cruise. Hollywood, on the other hand, would not, begetting the question: Do these people realize that their right to make movies is defended by soldiers like the one Nicholson portrays?

And these are just a few examples.  From Vietnam movies, such as "Platoon" and "Apocalypse Now," wherein our soldiers are nothing but drug-addicted, back-stabbing screwballs, to Korean War films such as "M*A*S*H," where the Army is a running gag, Hollywood has made a career out of dumping on the military.

But what about "Saving Private Ryan?" "Men of Honor?" "Pearl Harbor?" These are just exceptions to the rule, unfortunately. Hollywood producers finally looked into the audience and saw that many people actually like the military, and there's a huge market for pro-America war films. Thank goodness for the free market, or we'd never see anything backing up our fighting men and women.

But the American public will continue to be subjected to "spit on the military" films as long as producers can make any money at all. And many Americans will be shaded by the constant barrage of toilet-bowl filmmaking, turning against our military.

Americans can stop the garbage streaming out of Hollywood by continuing to show strong support for the military. Those men and women overseas, in Afghanistan, in Saudi Arabia and around the globe, are protecting the land you stand on. Every fundamental right you have as an American you only have because soldiers are putting their lives on the line for you.

So when Hollywood reverts to its universal tenets of anti-militarism, America as an exploitative-horrible-capitalistic-disgusting-pig-country, don't go to the theater that night. Go out and rent "The Caine Mutiny," "Patton" or "Saving Private Ryan." Don't support the attacks on our military. They stand between us and oblivion.

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Author: Ben Shapiro
Web Address: http://www.dailybruin.ucla.edu/db/articles.asp?ID=17632
Copyright 1999-2000 ASUCLA Student Media

[Live free or die]

OUTSTANDING! This is the kind of stuff that needs to be said.

[Kermit]

Gene Hackman's "Behind Enemy Lines" and Robert Redford/Brad Pitt's "Spy Game" are playing right now. Anybody see either one? Any good?

[LarryLied]

This especially needs to be said at universities in California. As Ben Shapiro is doing. Bet he gets a lot of flack.