As frustrated as people are/were with Iraq, they instinctively
understand there’s absolutely no equivalency between us and
the terrorists; between those who kill the innocent and
those who kill those who kill the innocent. Comparing our
mistakes to the the sins of madmen is a lie, and films
based on lies fail the first test of filmmaking: the
suspension of disbelief.
WaPo: Gee, Why Are All These Anti-War Films Failing?
By Dirty Harry on General
Libertas
Nobody ever wants to talk about “Vantage Point”…? Wonder why?
As the box-office deathwatch for Stop-Loss begins, the Washington Post takes a look back and wonders why, why! everything Hollywood’s producing about the war is tanking (well, except one movie no one wants to talk about):
<<< After five years of conflict in Iraq, Hollywood seems to have learned a sobering lesson: The only things less popular than the war itself are dramatic films and television shows about the conflict.
A spate of Iraq-themed movies and TV shows haven’t just failed at the box office. They’ve usually failed spectacularly, despite big stars, big budgets and serious intentions.
The underwhelming reception from the public raises a question: Are audiences turned off by the war, or are they simply voting against the way filmmakers have depicted it? …
Steven Bochco, the celebrated TV writer-producer who created “Over There,” says it’s difficult to create a drama about a war when viewers are witnessing the real thing in real time. “In hindsight,” Bochco says, “my general feeling is that people were seeing horrific images [from the war] on TV every day on the news, and it was depressing, and it was very realistic.” With that as backdrop, he says, a series about the war “was more than people wanted to take in.”
Bochco suggests that Americans feel “a certain sense of powerlessness” about the war’s direction that may fuel their indifference to dramatic portrayals of it. >>>
When I talk about Hollywood and the people who cover it being completely out of touch with the audience, this is what I mean. This is why George Clooney is the King of Hollywood even though he doesn’t put butts in seats. This is why a dozen pro-defeat films have failed. This is why more will fail.
The biggest mistake Hollywood made was concluding that public frustration with a lack of success in Iraq (though that’s diminished with the surge) meant there was a desire to see us lose the war in Iraq. Unlike the hard-left, Americans do not want to lose the war. We understand the stakes both for our country and the 25-million Iraqi people who gambled their lives on us. Almost all of these movies say we can’t win, or don’t deserve to win. This may entertain anti-American liberals, but not decent people.
Worse still was Hollywood’s odd conclusion that public frustration with Iraq somehow translated into a desire to see the troops denigrated. With the exception of the hard-left, Americans revere the military, most especially the people who serve in it — most especially the front line troops. Even when a war’s going bad American affection for the military remains high. Americans also look back in disgust at the treatment of Vietnam veterans and don’t want to see it repeated. Among others, In the Valley of Elah, Redacted, Home of the Brave, Grace is Gone, and too many of these documentaries defame the men and women who protect us. Decent people find that disgusting, a lie, and aren’t going to enrich the ungrateful industry doing it.
Hollywood also confused frustration with Iraq with a desire to see films where America is portrayed as no better than our enemy. Rendition, Lions for Lambs, The Kingdom, A Mighty Heart, Munich, and most documentaries attempted moral equivalency arguments. As frustrated as people are/were with Iraq, they instinctively understand there’s absolutely no equivalency between us and the terrorists; between those who kill the innocent and those who kill those who kill the innocent. Comparing our mistakes to the the sins of madmen is a lie, and films based on lies fail the first test of filmmaking: the suspension of disbelief.
The one war film the left doesn’t want to talk about (including the Washington Post) — the one film about the current war that isn’t a humiliating flop, and can even be called a modest hit, is Vantage Point. A pro-American thriller with a heroic U.S. President and secret service agent up against a brutal Islamic enemy. We’re the good guys, they’re the bad guys, politics are left at the door, and audiences are showing up. Vantage Point isn’t even a very good movie but people are hungry enough for some old-fashioned pro-American heroism they’re putting up with a shoddy script and tedious first half. This is almost as glaring an omission in the Post story as the first five-seasons of 24.
This isn’t rocket science, and everyone playing dumb about the failure of Hollywood’s anti-American, pro-defeat surge isn’t at all convincing. Good Americans love this country. They respect our troops and know our mistakes don’t belong on the same scale with terrorist atrocities. These films are failing because they’re based on lies and thanks to New Media word’s getting out to audiences before they’re suckered on opening weekend.
Play dumb all you want, Hollywood. Play dumb all you want, liberal media. You know why these films are failing and so do we: Hollywood’s on the wrong side. But if they don’t want to make heroic films about the war, that’s okay, because watching these anti-American films humiliated at the box-office weekend after weekend has been just as entertaining.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 25th, 2008 at 4:54 am
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