Troop Bashing: Hollywood's Favorite Sport
September 2nd 2007 17:04
Giving us the most compelling reason to date to diss a Dallas sports team, billionaire Mavericks owner and producer Mark Cuban has teamed with America-hating director Brian De Palma on a new troop-sliming film called Redacted. In the latest installment of Hollywood Hates America, those who've possibly benefited the most from this great country in terms of wealth and fame, thank the ones who make their freedom possible by creating a movie that focuses on the heinous crimes of a tiny minority, instead of the valiant heroism of the vast majority. If Cuban and De Palma really wanted to bring "truth" to the screen, why didn't they depict on film the genital mutilation, honor killings, stonings and rapes that Middle Eastern women routinely suffer at the hands of radical male Muslims? Why not create a little "context" by featuring Saddam's rape rooms? Or the brutality of the Taliban? Irony -- not to mention patriotism -- is lost on these people.
As Debbie Schlussel noted, this is not De Palma's first foray into military-bashing. In 1989, he directed Casualties of War, a movie about five American soldiers fighting in Vietnam, four of whom kidnap and rape an innocent Vietnamese girl. Schlussel also pointed out that the film starred Sean Penn, another recipient of American prosperity who has made quite a name for himself among the world's most despicable human rights violators, from Saddam Hussein to Hugo Chavez. Perhaps in preparation for his "Jeff Spicoli" role in the 1981 film, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Penn smoked a little too much pot, resulting in irreparable damage to his brain. Or perhaps, in lock-step with his fellow ivory-tower dwellers in Hollyweird, he's completely out of touch with reality.
De Palma, much like master propagandist Michael Moore, makes no bones about his motivation for making this disgusting film: “The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people,” he told reporters after a press screening. If he wanted to be completely candid, he could have also admitted that his movie, in the tradition of Fahrenheit 9/11, is a thinly-veiled attempt to affect the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. If De Palma were really after authenticity and the liberals much-celebrated "nuance," he would have balanced the film by highlighting some of the many good things that resulted from the USA's removal of Saddam: Free elections, Iraqis dancing in the streets, a prospering and peaceful Kurdish north and the rebuilding of infrastructure, schools and hospitals all over Iraq.
But none of that would fit De Palma's narrative of American troops as monsters and America as the world's biggest enemy.
In a post entitled, The Man Behind the De Palma Smear: Mark Cuban Declares War on the Troops, Pat Dollard writes:
According to a source close to Cuban, the decision for Magnolia to develop, finance and distribute the film was personally made by Çuban. Cuban has a full producer credit on the film, and DePalma shot it on HiDef video at Cuban’s request, in order for it to qualify as fodder for Cuban’s hi-def cable channel. So far neither he nor DePalma have explained how they can be “bringing the truth of the Iraq War to the American People”, as Louie DePalma has said, when neither of them have ever been to Iraq, filmed any of “Redacted” in Iraq, or spent one minute with any soldier in Iraq. Clearly they are only bringing you their imagined propagandists’ reality of Iraq. Both had the opportunity to go, both declined. They have chosen the cowards’ path in a quest for legitimacy as spokesmen for the Iraq war, and as such both have failed in that quest. Indeed, they are left standing as laughingstocks. Their reach has exceeded their grasp. Cuban is a jet-set, armchair “Iraq Truther” who made sure not to have his private jet stop anywhere near Iraq. But he and DePalma are more than anxious to bring you the “reality of the Iraq War."
Once upon a time, Hollywood's most talented never forgot that they were Americans first and foremost. From Clark Gable to Elvis Presley, wildly successful and wealthy celebrities answered the call to serve their country and preserve the freedoms of western civilization. They believed it was their sacred duty to give back to the nation that had given them so much. Somewhere along the line, patriotism (along with class and decorum), went out of fashion in Tinseltown, to the detriment of America and the rest of the world.
Tinseltown patriots are ostracized, while vile dictators are revered as great leaders. And instead of pro-Military movies like Sergeant York, Americans are presented with a steady diet of anti-American, anti-Iraq War, anti-western civilization propaganda. As American and Allied soldiers engage a savage enemy in the gravest conflict of our time, Hollywood's spoiled, overpaid and dangerously clueless power players defiantly provide aid and comfort to radical Islamists. Perhaps they should engage in another favorite celebrity past-time, psychotherapy, and uncover the reasons for the "transference" of evil from those worthy of the title to those who fight for Hollywood's right to unfairly malign them as animals.
As Debbie Schlussel noted, this is not De Palma's first foray into military-bashing. In 1989, he directed Casualties of War, a movie about five American soldiers fighting in Vietnam, four of whom kidnap and rape an innocent Vietnamese girl. Schlussel also pointed out that the film starred Sean Penn, another recipient of American prosperity who has made quite a name for himself among the world's most despicable human rights violators, from Saddam Hussein to Hugo Chavez. Perhaps in preparation for his "Jeff Spicoli" role in the 1981 film, Fast Times At Ridgemont High, Penn smoked a little too much pot, resulting in irreparable damage to his brain. Or perhaps, in lock-step with his fellow ivory-tower dwellers in Hollyweird, he's completely out of touch with reality.
De Palma, much like master propagandist Michael Moore, makes no bones about his motivation for making this disgusting film: “The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people,” he told reporters after a press screening. If he wanted to be completely candid, he could have also admitted that his movie, in the tradition of Fahrenheit 9/11, is a thinly-veiled attempt to affect the outcome of the 2008 presidential election. If De Palma were really after authenticity and the liberals much-celebrated "nuance," he would have balanced the film by highlighting some of the many good things that resulted from the USA's removal of Saddam: Free elections, Iraqis dancing in the streets, a prospering and peaceful Kurdish north and the rebuilding of infrastructure, schools and hospitals all over Iraq.
But none of that would fit De Palma's narrative of American troops as monsters and America as the world's biggest enemy.
In a post entitled, The Man Behind the De Palma Smear: Mark Cuban Declares War on the Troops, Pat Dollard writes:
According to a source close to Cuban, the decision for Magnolia to develop, finance and distribute the film was personally made by Çuban. Cuban has a full producer credit on the film, and DePalma shot it on HiDef video at Cuban’s request, in order for it to qualify as fodder for Cuban’s hi-def cable channel. So far neither he nor DePalma have explained how they can be “bringing the truth of the Iraq War to the American People”, as Louie DePalma has said, when neither of them have ever been to Iraq, filmed any of “Redacted” in Iraq, or spent one minute with any soldier in Iraq. Clearly they are only bringing you their imagined propagandists’ reality of Iraq. Both had the opportunity to go, both declined. They have chosen the cowards’ path in a quest for legitimacy as spokesmen for the Iraq war, and as such both have failed in that quest. Indeed, they are left standing as laughingstocks. Their reach has exceeded their grasp. Cuban is a jet-set, armchair “Iraq Truther” who made sure not to have his private jet stop anywhere near Iraq. But he and DePalma are more than anxious to bring you the “reality of the Iraq War."
Once upon a time, Hollywood's most talented never forgot that they were Americans first and foremost. From Clark Gable to Elvis Presley, wildly successful and wealthy celebrities answered the call to serve their country and preserve the freedoms of western civilization. They believed it was their sacred duty to give back to the nation that had given them so much. Somewhere along the line, patriotism (along with class and decorum), went out of fashion in Tinseltown, to the detriment of America and the rest of the world.
Tinseltown patriots are ostracized, while vile dictators are revered as great leaders. And instead of pro-Military movies like Sergeant York, Americans are presented with a steady diet of anti-American, anti-Iraq War, anti-western civilization propaganda. As American and Allied soldiers engage a savage enemy in the gravest conflict of our time, Hollywood's spoiled, overpaid and dangerously clueless power players defiantly provide aid and comfort to radical Islamists. Perhaps they should engage in another favorite celebrity past-time, psychotherapy, and uncover the reasons for the "transference" of evil from those worthy of the title to those who fight for Hollywood's right to unfairly malign them as animals.
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