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BRING BACK HUAC
Hollywood’s fearless dissenters who will not be silenced have suddenly found their voice:
With support for George W Bush’s war in Iraq at an all time low, some of the biggest names in Hollywood are working on movies that are likely to increase criticism even further.
Those movies include:
Against All Enemies: “[Based on] the book by former anti-terrorism czar Richard Clarke [that chronicled] how the obsession of Bush and other government leaders with invading Iraq led them to ignore warnings of Al Qaeda terror attacks prior to September 11 2001, and then to bungle attempts to capture Osama bin Laden and eradicate his movement.”
Stop Loss: “About a Texas soldier who refuses to return to Iraq and fight.”
Home of the Brave: “Will feature Samuel L Jackson as a soldier who struggles to readjust to life in America after an extended tour of duty in Iraq.”
Noam of the Brave: “Will feature Noam Chomsky as a retiree who struggles to readjust to life in America after an extended tour of duty at MIT.”
Not sure about that last one. Anyway, how come the rush to make all these Iraq-themed movies? Syracuse University’s Robert Thompson might know:
‘With the president at a 36 per cent approval rating all of a sudden a movie that challenges the war is a demographically sound idea,’ he said.
Film makers have bravely waited until as few people as possible would be mad at them. Take a bow, Hollywood!
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.”
~~ Marcus Tullius CiceroStop Floss ... about a Hollywood actor’s tragic inattention to dental hygiene when traumatized by the 2004 election results.
Against All Enemas ...a scary medical documentary alerting to the dangers of the tragic teen disorder Bushemia.
Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 08:19 AM • permalinkThese gutless wimps live in a dream world, where illusion is manufactured to make their bucks. They are so afraid of the reality that they are out of their minds. We need to start calling cowardice what it is. It’s “Better Red than Dead” all over again. They are gutless cowards who will feed us to the crocodiles, in the hopes that the crocodiles will eat them last. This is one of the reasons they detest the military so much; real men scare the hell out of them.
To Heck and Back ... The inspiring tale of Georeg Clooney’s courage under fire in “Three Kings.”
A Fridge Too Far ... Michael Moore’s reaction to the trauma of the 2004 election results
Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 08:27 AM • permalinkThey sound as boring as bat guano. They don’t make anti-war films like they used to. Kubrick made several, his more memorable IMHO were Paths of Glory, Dr Strangelove and Full Metal Jacket. George C Scott in the second was also General George Patton in the magnificent, of course, Patton.
Time for a “Team America” sequel methinks ...
I’m thinking about how I’ll be spending the time I used to spend watching movies.
I like how Hollywood blame declining ticket sales on factors such as piracy and the internet. I haven’t given it much thought, but maybe it’s because they make crap movies?
Posted by Art Vandelay on 2006 04 06 at 08:37 AM • permalinkAn evil part of me sometimes wishes that Al-Qaeda would let off a backpack nuke at the Academy Awards in a misguided attempt to win their culture war. If 95% of celebrities died, the facade would be over and the Western World would surely enter a new golden age. With some notable exceptions, American popular culture is pathetic, reality TV and endless remakes are the most obvious symptoms of a series of wider problems.
I’ve seen so many crap movies that I’ve began to think about Hollywood’s suckiness in Marxist terms. Who really has the power? Those who control the means of production? NO! Those who control the means of attention, those with the greatest opportunities to manipulate the general public. CELEBRITIES! If they all got nuked, soon the proletariat would soon realise that they’d been huffing on the opiate of celebrity worship and refer to the day as “Year Zero”.
Australian films meanwhile are unbelievably bad. I just watched Oyster Farmer on DVD, and to start with, the actors mumbled their ‘Strine’ (Australian accents) so even I couldn’t understand them. Then the hero robs a crayfish co-op of $150,000—but NOT because he’s bad, oh no, he just wanted to pay for the hospital costs of his injured sister. Yeah right! The Australian critics absolutely raved about this great Australian film, geez gimme a break.
How about Cockets Red Glare about the fun-loving Hussein boys? I think that they can get an Aussie academic to script it, although it may take awhile as I understand he uses a manual typewriter.
Posted by andycanuck on 2006 04 06 at 08:50 AM • permalinkThis is actually bloody funny.
Who will watch such films in Australia? The 26 lefties who visit LP, the 12 people who watch the SBS movie show, both the people who watch ‘your’ ABC, Richard Neville and 7.9 trillion of his imaginary Martian friends, and David Heidelberg. The Magronk is probably too ‘tired’ from her ‘exertions’ in fighting of the ravening hordes of thuggishly jackbooted lesbian-burning hoWARdian neoconazis.
meanwhile, every second person will be taking the kids and watching something like Ice Age II (which is absolutely and utterly butt-raping Sharon Stone’s latest dollop of cinematic vomit at the box office, I note gleefully and with much laughter).
People do not go to watch politically oriented films they know are going to preach lefty trendoid sewage to them. It is guaranteed crap and people know it.
Sell Hollywodd film company stock. it is going to tank.
MarkL
canberraAussieJim’s on to something.
I try to explain to my Chinese wife that America’s cultural institutions are in the hands of Gang of Four types—entertainment must always carry the politically correct message (no Islamic terrorists), university orientation and classrooms have been turned into ‘struggle sessions’ where the enemies are identified and forced to confront their crimes (white male dominance), and those who point out the flaws in orthodoxy are branded heretics (‘racists’).
#9 No, they don’t make them like they used to and the reason they can’t is because these people start with a preplanned endstate that gives the viewer only two choices - hate it or love it. It is propaganda, take it or leave it. A classic war movie should make you think about war, it’s genesis, it’s conduct and how it affects us all, now and in the future.
I agree with your three choices, however the best I have ever seen is Das Boot. IMHO it is one of the greatest war movies ever made. And it was made by a German. I’ve watched it four times and I’m still intrigued. It is light years ahead of anything that Hollywood has produced recently and by the look of it, will produce in the future.
In addition to being a great thriller, Das Boot also makes pointed statements about human nature and war, and the visceral eloquence with which they are expressed highlights the film’s power.
Eloquence on any sort from this mob? Sorry, I think not. Pre-planned, dewey eyed, crap
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2006 04 06 at 09:23 AM • permalink8. A Fridge Too Far? Ice, ice baby!
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 06 at 09:23 AM • permalinkGood war movies don’t even have to have much combat in them. Mister Roberts has no battle scenes, but says a lot about wartime service. 12 O’Clock High only has a few and is a classic. These doofs that run the studios today don’t know the first thing about what motivates the average GI, or what makes him tick-I absolutely despise them.
#23: We’re doing our part
http://www.cnet.com.au/hometheatre/tvs/0,39026023,40060264,00.htm
“According to Envisional, a web monitoring company, Australians are responsible for 15.6 percent of all online TV piracy, bested only by Britain, which accounts for 38.4 percent. The US lags behind in third position at 7.3 percent.”
Imagine how much we could have done if Optus didn’t have that 12gb peak/30gb offpeak cap. Not only can we now get the latest American TV shows in HD quality mere hours after they screen (instead of six months), we can do so without the viewer-celebrity trickle down effect.PS: Season 5 of “24”, Season 6 of “The Sopranos” and the new HBO miniseries “Rome” are all fantastic.
Art Van 10
I like how Hollywood blame declining ticket sales on factors such as piracy and the internet. I haven’t given it much thought, but maybe it’s because they make crap movies?
I have to wonder if it doesn’t have something to do with their being, seems like, 60 major movies per year, and comparing the per-movie ticket sales to movies that were released in years of yore, when there were maybe 10 major movies per year.
Or maybe not…Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 06 at 10:11 AM • permalinkAs other commentators have noted, they just don’t make anti-war movies like they used to. Two of the best films about war - I wouldn’t classify them as pro- or anti-war, they’re too good for that - that I’ve seen are Breaker Morant and Memphis Belle.
The former was from the time when Australia made some of the best English-language movies anywhere; alas, days that are long gone. The latter film had a lot of soap-opera in it, but the footage of actual aerial combat was horrifying, tragic ... moving beyond any words I know to describe it.
Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2006 04 06 at 10:15 AM • permalinkAussieJim 11
An evil part of me sometimes wishes that Al-Qaeda would let off a backpack nuke at the Academy Awards in a misguided attempt to win their culture war.
I’m against it. That would considerably reduce my chances of getting a date with Jennifer Garner.
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 06 at 10:17 AM • permalinkQuote machine Robert Thompson of Syracuse is the Mr. Blackwell of journalism.
Posted by chinesearithmetic on 2006 04 06 at 10:22 AM • permalinkHmmmm.
1.
Give a traitor a camera and you have a spy. Give a bunch of traitors a camera and you have Hollywood.
Ok that gave me a much needed laugh this morning. Thanks!
2. Frankly I’ll treat these movies as I have treated all movies for the past 5+ years.
I’ll ignore them.
Posted by memomachine on 2006 04 06 at 10:32 AM • permalinkI wish Hollywood would make up its purported mind…
Bush is powerful enough to crush Basic Instinct 2 like a bug at the box office, so it’s time to start making movies to oppose Bush?
Posted by richard mcenroe on 2006 04 06 at 10:37 AM • permalinkWith support for George W Bush’s war in Iraq at an all time low, some of the biggest names in Hollywood are working on movies that are likely to increase criticism even further.
The problem with that statement is that the low number is for Bush’s handling of the war - a number which includes a large number of conservatives who think he’s not prosecuting it anywhere near agressively enough.
The movies will tank, not because they’re clumsy, preachy and insulting to the viewer’s intellect, but because of a right-wing conspiracy.
Posted by Spiny Norman on 2006 04 06 at 11:13 AM • permalinkAnd one more thing, I hate the phrase “George W. Bush’s war in Iraq”. The last time I looked America was at war in Iraq. Treasonous Hollywierd douchebags (and the idiot prof who gave us the quote) forget that authorization for war came from across the political spectrum. They can call it “the war we oppose in Iraq” but it is more than the President’s war.
“George W. Bush’s war in Iraq” would have been “John F. Kerry’s war in Iraq” had a recent election turned out differently. What movies would these fuckwads be making then?
Posted by Stoop Davy Dave on 2006 04 06 at 11:46 AM • permalinkMy Favorite “anti-war” movies are:
Paths of Glory - Kirk Douglas
All Quiet on the Western Front (1930s version)
The Sun Also Rises (the Hemmingway novel turned film starring William Holden)Yes, and I agree that Das Boot is one of the best films I’ve seen in a while. I’ve watched it 5 times. I love the dance hall scene.
In Das Boot there is a great scene where two Germans are talking in a dance hall after coming back from a U-boat patrol. Some others ae doing a pantomime in back of them.
“What are they doing?” asks the captain.
“They’re making fun of Roosevelt because he’s a cripple.” says the Lt.
“For a cripple, he fights pretty good.”Aussiejim, I love “Rome”, although I could do with a bit more sword play and a little less of the naked women. Oops, did I say that out loud?
Hey, it was Rome. If anything, the show downplayed the violence AND sex.
Posted by Rob Crawford on 2006 04 06 at 01:16 PM • permalinkHey Stevo…I thought Strangelove and FMJ ARE pro-war movies. Just like Clockwork Orange is pro ultra-violence and brainwashing. That Kubrick didn’t know what he was doing. (Eyes Wide Shut, near as I could tell, was primarily about Nicole Kidman getting naked).
#34 Urbs is correct. No such thing as an anti-war flick, at least in the ranks of great, non-hectoring flicks. Simply flicks about war that recognize it is often tragic and flawed by human stupidity. Breaker Morant, for example, has no problem hunting down Boer guerrillas and slaughtering them. His problem arises when Pommie high command becomes politically embarrassed by revelations that he was doing exactly what they wanted him to do.
Great unsung war flick: Cross of Iron. Sam Peckinpaw. James Coburn and Maximillian Von Schell as the conniving staff officer Coburn offers to take “where the Iron Crosses grow.”
Best to Texas Bob and 91b30 in the old neighborhood. Tomorrow marks the third anniversary of the day I entered Baghdad with A Co TF464, 2nd Bge 3ID. Stay good.Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 01:17 PM • permalinkTo elaborate, so Breaker Morant, like Gallipoli and Paths of Glory and most of them, is not anti-war. It’s anti high command. Maybe anti-pointless death ... now there’s a brave position, to be anti the boss and pointless death. Like we’re going to free ourselves of those things anytime soon.
Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 01:20 PM • permalink#49: Also “Command Decision” Especially at the end when Gable was given another bomber command.
Especially appropriate given that Gable was, in fact, a B-17 pilot, who flew combat missions into Europe. I understand that the German high command had a substantial bounty on his head, payable to any German pilot who shot down his plane. I think about this whenever I hear about the “courage” of today’s actors.
Posted by Bruce Lagasse on 2006 04 06 at 01:21 PM • permalinkI’m beginning to think this is an ingenious attempt by Hollywood to get people to watch the movies they really want them to watch, i.e. the expensive, stereotypical Hollywood ones, out of sheer frustration with the rest of the offerings. It’s kinda working on me already…at this rate, my total movie consumption for 2006 will likely be this: X-Men 3.
Thanks Crittenden. This is my third trip back. See what yall get to look forward to?
Yeeehaaa! Lovely place, I can see why they’re so crazy about it. I mean, what’s not to love? Great climate, beautiful scenery, friendly people, excellent food. I’m thinking about buying real estate and maybe retire here.That XO was great in Das Boot too. Kinda looked like Danny Bonaduci.
I agree with everyone who is praising Das Boot. But bubbleheads are different cats anyway. I have a brother in law who was COB of the USS Phoenix before he retired and he loved it. We visited him once in Norfolk and he took my wife and I belowdecks (foreward only, nukes and other secret stuff aft). It was interesting, but afterward I was singing “give me land, lots of land, under starry skies above-don’t fence me in”.
Well then you know, 91B30, no one ever leaves that place. It comes back with you. FYI I was embedded tabloid gutter press. I like your retirement to world’s biggest beach idea Texas Bob but I’m thinking a walled compound on a hilltop in Kosovo. Or maybe become a street person mumbling to myself and my visions in the old city of Jerusalem. Great shawerma!
Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 02:07 PM • permalinkI dunno, you might have a better chance with nuke-mutant Jennifer Garner.
Yeah, but then Stoop would have to fight his way past nuke-mutant Ben Affleck first. I think he’ll have better chances with plain old Ben.
Incidentally, if the Academy Awards nuking could somehow manage to spare Jessica Alba as well, I’d appreciate it.
Greatest war flick/overall flick of all time: The Man Who Would be King. No higher command, no army or war until they make their own, no nothing but audacity aided of course by utter ignorance. And no whining, even at the end. “Who else can say they’ve been where we’ve been and seen what we’ve seen, Peachy?” Superlative supporting act by Billy Fish.
BTW 91B30, #63 responded to #59/60 in the event that wasn’t obviousPosted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 02:14 PM • permalink“Gable was, in fact, a B-17 pilot, who flew combat missions into Europe.” So did Jimmy Stewart, who ended his career as a general in the USAF Reserve.
I’ve sometimes wondered if his experience in the war is what made his performance in It’s a Wonderful Life so compelling: how many times must he have seen or heard his brother fliers praying just to live again?
Another great war film, though it shows no combat at all, is The Best Years of Our Lives. It’s about veterans returning from the war, trying to put their lives back together again. Well worth seeing.
Texas Bob - if you’re ever near Kirkuk, perhaps you’ll meet my son, who’s with the 51st Infantry.
Posted by Urbs in Horto on 2006 04 06 at 02:23 PM • permalinkThe Cynthia McKinney story: A touching film about a gentle AAA* woman of humble origin who, together with her hairdresser, made it into the topmost halls of governmental power. Her tragic end, after she had mounted a protest against wearing an identifying yellow star, is filmed in all its violent glory as she demands to be raped repeatedly by a gang of mounted police, while the police, in desperation, gallop over each other in a bloody attempt to escape.
*AAA=African-Anti-AmericanWell, I see another year of boffo box office in the making (although the one based on Richard Clarke’s book is sure to be a winner—bet Joe and Valerie are jealous…and pissed). Was there a Page 2, because I seemed to have missed the films dealing with Islamofascist terrorism.
‘In the culture war for the American heart, Hollywood is a lot better than Washington at communicating with us,’ he says. ‘Whether these movie are influential or not depends on the movie. If the movie tells a compelling story, it could have an enormous influence on public opinion.’
Yes, that’s what they told us about Bareback Mountin’. And in the end even Hollywood didn’t have the guts to stand behind it. I finally saw, btw, the Oscar winning Crash this past weekend. So, that was the best of the best. Huh.
Das Boot (the German language version) is one of my husband’s favorites, too, but it left me kinda cold. Guess I should give it another look. I love war (especially WWII) movies, though, and one of my all-time favorites is the fairly recent They Were Soldiers. ‘Course producer/director Randall Wallace is a different breed of Hollywood cat. As is Mel Gibson.
Although I’m a big defender of intellectual property rights, anything that hastens the demise of today’s entertainment industry is okay by me. So, pirate away!
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 06 at 03:09 PM • permalinkWell, I’m holding onto my wallet for the sequel to “Against All Enemies”- a film that Hollywierd is dying to make.
Preliminary title-“ARE THEY SHOOTING AT US!?”
Richard Gere as Dick Clarke
Martin Sheen as President Traitor
Sharon Stone as the Beaver(pun intended)Plenty of sword play for RebeccaH
Plenty of naked women for the rest of usAmerican office buildings blown away
American embassies blown away
American military installations blown away
American warships blown away
A brave;“What, are you kidding!?” to the Sudanese Govt’s offer to hand OBL over to President Traitor in the 90’sBlood,gore,action,cowardice and utter cluelessness-and did I mention-naked women
A sure hit!!
Wait! What!! Your’re kidding, of course they’ll…..
Speaking of movies, Lucianne linked to a web site this morning that Blairites (Blairians? Timmies?) might find amusing.
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 06 at 03:45 PM • permalinkI’m waiting for “Lawrence of Eurabia”, wherein a British officer goes en mufti (((;-)> to convince European Muslim to co-ordinate their revolts to aid British interests
Posted by MentalFloss on 2006 04 06 at 04:11 PM • permalinkI’m against it. That would considerably reduce my chances of getting a date with Jennifer Garner.
Well….not if they solely targeted Ben Affleck.
Think about it A) You get to play “comfort the grieving widow” and B) Ben Affleck is dead.
Posted by Quentin George on 2006 04 06 at 04:56 PM • permalinkHere’s a list of someone’s greatest war movies on the web. The list is only for the 20C+, so it excludes a favourite of mine, Zulu. I prefer films that are authentic technically, and to a lesser extent, historically acurate. The nature of film means authenticity cannot fully be achieved. Zulu still has a list of faults according to the useful IMDb ...
The Man Who Would Be King. Man, I haven’t seen that in a while. Not really a war movie, but filled with the kind of adventurous, courageous fighting spirit that enabled her Britannic Majesty to hoist her flag around the world.
The Wind and the Lion isn’t a war movie, either; however, there is an episode where the U.S. Marines (God bless ‘em,!)in a spit- and-polish, by-the-book assault on the Pasha’s palace, overwhelm the Arab garrison. It is sheer American, Teddy Roosevelt imperialism, and Lord!, is it beautiful.
Paco…Don’t forget W&L’s righteous gyrene assault on the pasha’s palace also provided them a opportunity to vanquish a bunch of spike-topped sausage eaters.
Re Dave S and “chickenhawk” remark, it is a testiment to Tim Blair’s excellent antipodean site that it attracts such a broad spectrum from the snivelling Mushtaqs of the world to fine American warriors such as Texas Bob and 91B30.Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 06 at 06:27 PM • permalinkJust to chime in, the last Hollywood flick I’ve paid to see was Master and Commander, more action than war picture, but close enough. No classic, but it’s been a long time since that genre has been produced. And I haven’t seen an Academy awarded best picture since The Last Emperor.
Someone wake me when they start making pictures again. No, on second thought, don’t bother, it ain’t gonna happen. Besides, there are plenty of old ones I haven’t yet seen.
Cheers.
The last latest movie I saw was “Wallace and Gromit: Curse of the Were Rabbit”, and a work colleage purchased it for me in Asia (it’s not a knock off!) for $4.
I only buy old movies (real cheap on DVD), just about all the new ones are ones I wouldn’t keep. And I’d be really pissed paying $14 plus to see them at a movie theatre (and the movies are just too loud now, you’re two feet from the screen and they send you deaf - I guess that’s to drown out the noise from the neighbouring multi-plexe theatres).
Oh, and a follow-up on this post’s heading: Bring Back HUAC. The best (or misunderstood) part of the “black listing” of Hollywood writers and directors in the late ‘40s is that it was a self-enforced industry ban, with a complete agreement and full compliance with the Screen Actors Guild. All these self-proclaimed free speech advocates run around spouting the false meme that somehow the government banned these folks from working—not so. It was a practice Hollywood adopted.
Also, these same idiots usually level these speech suppression charges under the nomenclature of McCarthyism—also not so. HUAC is the acronym for a committee in the House of Representatives who held investigatory hearings in 1947. While “Tail-gunner” Joe McCarthy was a member of the Senate whose infamous Army hearings were in 1954.
I guess it’s just another example of the Big Lie, as employed by the Left, you know, fake but accurate.
My bet. The films will not do much at the box office.
When reviewed on DVD, reference will be made to the film being “shamefully ignored” at the box office with the blame attributed to the:
(a) stifling conformity and conservatism of the Bush/Howard era.
(b) cowed distributors and promoters who didn’t push it for fear of the Bush regime
(c) campaign of ridicule and denigration by the right-wing media/blogoshpere
(d) all or some combination of the above
The Best Years of Our Lives. One of the best war movies ever, and not one battle scene. Pure Americana. Hope, opportunity, redemption.
The Breaker. Love the Bryan Brown character. Classic cavalryman. Killing bad guys and helping out bored housewives.
As a Cold War squid (which was essentially a floating around-the-world beer sampler, Perth, yee haa!), I cannot tell you green guys how much I appreciate what you do you on our behalf. Thanks!
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 06 at 10:45 PM • permalinkIt will be very interesting to see how Harrison Ford is going to botch “No True Glory” by Bing West. He and his son are second and third generation Marines and are very much pro-military! I have not had the opportunity to read the book(it’s about the battle for Fallujah) but I know he is onboard with it. I do know that he has reservations about the ability of the Iraqi Security Forces to come through. That could be the spin-all those lives and these guys can’t hold the peace. Just have to wait and see I guess.
‘The Man who would be King’ is difficult to get - I ordered my copy from Amazon US and changed my DVD codes to enable us to play it. Its just as good as I remember.
‘Jarhead’ was a strange movie, some scenes were very funny. The only part I found hard to believe was when the snipers have an emotional breakdown when they are ordered to abandon their target. Are US marines likely to do this? Even for new recruits, it was interesting behaviour ...
#94 Forbes
Not only that but the HCUA was originally set up to investigate Nazi activities in the late 1930s. The Commie crowd had no objections to it then. And the guys who were blacklisted really were Commies, surprise, surprise.Das Boot is about the best war movie I’ve ever seen. It is so powerful that I have never had the heart to see it again. It is just too overwhelming. You feel that you are there with them on the ocean floor suffocating.
It was Jimmy Steart in It’s a Wonderful Life and he also flew bombers in WWII. In fact he ended up a reserve general in the USAFR.
Another famous actor with a military record was David Niven. He was in the 11th Hussars in the Western Desert, part of the famous 7th Armoured Division.
Posted by Michael Lonie on 2006 04 07 at 01:25 AM • permalinkGot to this thread pretty late—I must say, most of the movies listed here are favorites of mine as well. Got a couple in DVD, looking around for the rest. My thoughts:
12 O’Clock High: Classic. My father (a WWII fighter pilot) loved that movie, but thought the TV series was not so great.
Das Boot: A good movie, but I must admit that it really didn’t move me. Still, my hat is off to submariners of all nations, especially during WWII. That job took guts.
The Man Who Would Be King: God, that is a good movie (war or not), and still on my must-buy list. This is one of the few times I’ve seen Kipling done right.
The Best Years Of Our Lives: I first saw that as a child, and I’ve always remembered it. Very poignant.
Zulu: Another classic, IMHO.
Sadly, I did not buy many Haji movies, thusly shafting those Hollywood idiots. Why not?
First, my buddies shared what they bought (lots); second, most of the selections in my area were knock offs of recent movies, nothing that I wanted to keep; and third, most of those knock offs simply sucked (seriously, who wants to watch shadows walking across the screen and block off Jessica Alba? I ask).
I think the good ones went north into Iraq; being as I was in Kuwait for my tour, my choices on getting good ones were nil.
Frankly, the best quality Haji movies I ever bought were from a vendor inside the Green Zone. Go figure.
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 04 07 at 01:37 AM • permalink“Where Walking Eagle Dares” classic cloak and dagger war genre starring Ward Churchill as himself. Called “Walking Eagle” (so full of it he can’t fly) by his cruel fellow European tribesmen, the young outcast Army draftee volunteers to perform a long term (35 year) mission high into the mountains of Colorado to subvert and ultimately destroy the reputation of an ememy institution of higher learning. Armed only with some mail order degrees and an unmatched sense of victimhood, the mission would be suicidal for someone of lesser means. However, his “stick it to the man” hairstyle, sunglasses and fake AK and his uncanny ability to obfusticate the truth enable him to ultimately succeed by earning a lifelong pension from the government of a country he loves (to hate).
Co-stars Emily P., Dick McEnroe, W. Right, and introducing Paco as his faithful sidekick “Tiger”
Rated R for nudity (Paco!), rampant leftism, and ridiculous Noble Savage references.
From Vanguard Films LTD
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 07 at 01:53 AM • permalinkVotC:
Not to mention Harold Russell, the non-actor who played the handless sailor Homer in Best Years of Our Lives. Remember the scene where he goes after the homefront Nazi in the soda shop? Powerful stuff.
Unavoidable trivia: Russell actually lost his hands in an army training accident. He’s also the only person to win two Oscars for the same role.
Here’s a film that never seems to make it on a “best of” list ... Seven Days In May ... it has Burt Lancaster and Kirk Douglas as the chief protagonists ... I taped it at about 1am one night over 10 years ago, and I captured the following film as a bonus, one unknown to me at the time & with Spencer Tracy, Inherit The Wind. You don’t get those quality type films on “free to air” TV anymore in Australia, not even at 1am.
If you get a chance to view Seven Days In May, I recommend you do so.
#97 post scriptum ... no one has recently taken the thread up ... anyone like this comedy war film ... Dad’s Army?
Re #96, Texas Bob, I confess that I asked myself the same question about Emily. But then I re-read some of her comments, and decided that, in this case, it ain’t the packaging, it’s the contents.
Bleah!
Posted by The_Real_JeffS on 2006 04 07 at 09:28 AM • permalinkStevo-
Burt Lancaster: “Are you familiar enough with the Bible to know who Judas was?”
Kirk Douglas: “Yes, he was a man I worked for and respected.”
Seven Days in May is a great look at civil-military relations and what it means to follow orders. Douglas doesn’t like the order given, but he follows it-Hollywood used to understand how that worked once too.
I love Seven Days in May, the film and the book both of which are in my library. It has that wonderfully claustrophobic paranoia typical of the Cold War films of the era: Fail Safe, On the Beach, Manchurian Candidate (the most excellent original, not that abominable remake).
Another favorite sub-genre of mine is the “life on the home front” film like Mrs. Miniver, Since You Went Away, Until They Sail, Yanks, my personal favorite Hope and Gloryand even Coming Home (yeah, yeah, Jane Fonda—it’s a fine film). And a movie that I don’t think ever got its props, The Americanization of Emily. Dark, funny, ironic. Garner and Andrews never better and James Coburn at his cynical best.
Interesting list, Stevo. #98, A Walk in the Sun, is possibly the first war movie I ever saw. It was the early 50s and I was just a little girl (and probably should have been playing with dolls), but I was bowled over by it and it remains one of my all-time favorites. And here I am today, a childless (by choice) lifetime hawk. I wonder…hmmmm…
Posted by Kyda Sylvester on 2006 04 07 at 11:57 AM • permalink#104: I didn’t know A Walk in the Sun had been made into a movie. The novel on which it is based is fascinating.
Another interesting war film is GI Joe, an early Bob Mitchum movie (1945, I think). Mitchum’s performance is awesome, and the movie struck me as being considerably grittier and more realistic than most war films of the era. It also features a young Burgess Meredith as the real-life war correspondent, Ernie Pyle.
Standing with Man Who Would Be King as one of the greatest war movies/movies of all time:
Seven Samurai.
I started my kid on it at age 8 as part of his indoctrination. Had to read the subtitles to help him keep up. Violence is old school, non gore. Sex is hinted at, a tad awkward but generally age appropriate, full of great life/moral lessons plus useful strategy and tactics. He’s 10 now and asked for it again.
Of course, this is a kid who sat rapt through Henry V at age 8 and asked for that again, so I guess he’s wierd that way.Oh yeah, add Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V to the list. and Braveheart. Mainly for Longshanks defenestrating his son’s boyfriend and of course all that Scottish ultraviolence. (it’ll be a couple of years before the kid watches that one).
Also, the first 15 minutes of Troy, in which Achilles is rousted from his bed of hot chicks, shakes the hangover off, and takes down that big guy.
Posted by crittenden on 2006 04 07 at 02:37 PM • permalinkI believe John Huston directed both The Man Who Would be King and The Wind and the Lion. Interesting. Huston was pretty left-wing in his politics - I think he spent most of his later years living outside the U.S. because it was too right-wing for him. And yet, both of the aforementioned movies are what lefties would call “jingoistic”. Huston plays the material straight, however, with fine results.
96 T-Bob. Emily P: Hot or not? Dunno. I reckon the Emster is somewhere between Katerina Vanden Heuvel and Andrea Dworkin. I understand that’s a big range but…well…you’re a big guy Bob!
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 07 at 07:24 PM • permalinkVanguard Films LTD
Memorandum
From: V
To: StaffSubj: Casting problems
Whaddya mean the new cast member doesn’t do nude scenes??? Who’s idea was this? I mean its a frickin dog suit for crying out loud. FIX THIS!
Also, the two morons you got to play right wing stooges. What happened to Ledger and Gylldenhall? They have experience with this type of material. Re-attack on this.
Oh and the girl. Can we at least try some makeup? The earnest activist urban frump look went out in ‘68. This isn’t a period piece.
And goddamit! Towels! I need plenty of towels. If you clowns can’t figure this out I’ll be getting some new clowns! And Gin! Gilbeys! Jesus Christ!
Regards/ V
Posted by Vanguard of the Commentariat on 2006 04 07 at 07:40 PM • permalink91B30
You couldn’t be more correct. Great stars. Great leading ladies. Great scripts based on great books. A golden age.
One of the unique things about that era was the number of big box office stars in the same movie.
Gunga Din-Grant, Faribanks Jr. and McLaglen
Beau Geste-Cooper, Milland and Preston
Run Silent, Run Deep-Gable and LancasterIt was also a golden age of great character actors in supporting roles. And the leading ladies-yikes!
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