Charlatan

That's pretty much what I was getting at... Naiveté isn't quite the right word, you are right. What I am trying to get at is that these films do not spring from a vacuum. They are a fairly accurate reflection of the culture from which and for which they are created.

Propaganda aside films rarely challenge preconcieved notions (those that do are either called art films or win Academy awards ). In other words, I don't know that flilms create ignorance so much as reinforce it.

The rape of Nanjing is a good example by they way. You should check out Japanese director, Seijun Suzuki's film Nikutai no mon (Gate of Flesh) and Shunpu den (Story of a Prostitute). Both reflect the soul searching that was going on post war Japan despite their government's official denial of Nanjing.

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"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

xepherys

To reinforce one of my points above... in the news today:

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=1621902

kutulu

Maybe the public will see the abuses in AG and really start to believe the severity of what happened there and actually take some action but I'm not optimistic. The whole issue was so effectively swept under the rug and dismissed as the equivalent of frat pranks by the liars in government and the Rush and Sean types. I don't recall sodomy and murder being parts of frat initiation.

Although I don't want to see Americans hurt because of it, the military has brought it upon themselves by trying to cover up and distort the truth. I strongly believe that if they had come clean with the full details of what happened and took a hard stance on punishing, convicting, or dishonorably discharging every single person who knew anything about it and did nothing than we could have turned it in our favor.

We could have sent a strong message saying this shit does not represent us and we will not tolerate it. Instead they chose to act like it's no big deal.

reconmike

I for one could care less how the Turks view this movie and it's portrayal of American combatants. Let them believe that Americans mow down civilians for sport and profit, it is not like they aren't being taught that in their daily lives anyhow.

10 million dollar budget? Wow the helicoptor chase scenes must be spectacular.
I bet it is a shoe in for best picture at this years Omar's.

If you are an American and this epic motion picture bothers you then you need to get some priorities in order, like making sure that when you are on the phone you have your tinfoil hat on so President Bush doesnt listen to your phone sex conversations.

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Where is Darwin when ya need him?

ubertuber

I think I understand why you say this, but I disagree.

Our current leadership has attempted to paint a picture that the WTC bombings, the Cole bombing, 9/11, and the Iraqi insurgency are the work of people who "hate our freedoms", as if the tension between Islamic extremists and the Western world was a sort of abstract principal-based war akin to the cold war. To be honest, this seems a little far-fetched. There's a sort of black-and-white us vs. them mentality involved in this picture, and it is part of what predicates the entire "war on terror" approach. It also doesn't treat the people who are acting against us as the complex individuals that they surely are. While talking about "terrorists" and "terrorism" as people and acts that have grown in response to prompts from the outside is definitely out of fashion, I think understanding the motivation of people who are trying to kill you has to come before getting them to stop killing you. The only other way is a contest of brute force - kill them dead before they do us.

I think, at least in part, that our antagonists view themselves as reacting to definite provocation. Whether or not we think this is true or justification enough is moot - after all, bullets fired and bombs exploded in error are just as deadly as those with just cause. Further, I postulate that the provocation these people are responding to is not as simple as one or two events in which they feel their group (whether ethnic, religious, or national) was wronged by the US. I think it is the sum of many small provocations which have added up to an enormous grievance. US-Israeli policy (for better or worse), US relations with oil-based regimes (think Saudi Arabia), the use of other countries' political struggles as pawns in the cold war (think Afghanistan), the aftermath of colonialism (think Iraq, and though we weren't the colonial power at work, we've inherited the mantle of Anglophonic empire from the Brits), US destabilization of regimes (think Iran), our military presence (think Saudi Arabia again), our willingness to act in concert with unsavory proxies (think Pakistan), and the constant onslaught of our culture (think about our media's relentless and overwhelming influence) add up to a substantial influence, and I haven't even mentioned religious/ideological differences yet. At best we are seen as meddlesome, at worst as outright invaders. As tactless as this phrase may seem here, to refer to death by a thousand papercuts is outrageously apropo. A real war on terror would be waged on the influences that create terrorists, not just the people who become them. To reduce ourselves to attempting to kill them faster than they kill us is to fight a dumb war with smart bombs - we're working hard for little result, if not against our own long-term interests.

For this reason, the fact that a movie like Valley of the Wolves — Iraq is received so popularly (in Turkey!! not like we're talking of Syria or Iran here) troubles me. The fact that we consistently export an image of ourselves and of other nations that is almost as unbalanced also bothers me. I'm not offering a solution here (too complex for me at this point), but I am commenting on the atmosphere. I think it's worth paying attention to.

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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam

trickyy

what movies are you talking about? the matrix? i don't see many movies, but it seems most of the "bad guys" have an english accent at the very least.

Willravel

Didn't Patriot Games finger the president as the bad guy? Aren't there plenty of decent movies that make our our military, or our politicians, or rogue agencies as bad guys? How is this movie even news?!