Ken Lammers, my favorite star of CLTV, posts about a new movie called “Stop Loss.” Not only haven’t I seen the movie, but frankly I’ve never even heard of it until I read Ken’s rant. This isn’t surprising, since I generally stick to movies with subtitles, like most New Yorkers.
Ken notes that Stop Loss arrived in theaters DOA, making about $1.6 million on its opening day, which isn’t enough to cover the bill for the crew’s iced green tea. The official explanation for this huge failure is
Paramount wasn’t expecting much because no Iraq war-themed movie has yet to perform at the box office. ‘It’s not looking good,’ a studio source told me before the weekend. ‘No one wants to see Iraq war movies. No matter what we put out there in terms of great cast or trailers, people were completely turned off. It’s a function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict in a dramatic way because the war itself is something that’s unresolved yet. It’s a shame because it’s a good movie that’s just ahead of its time.'”
Oh baby, Ken is not buying into that spin.
AAAAAaaaarrrrgggggg!!!!! You’ve got to be kidding me!
It’s not a “function of the marketplace not being ready to address this conflict.” It’s a function of the fact that you idiots made a movie about a man who is deserting.
For context, Ken has been named “Most Erudite Lawyer in Virginia,” so when he says “AAAAAaaaarrrrgggggg”, he ain’t just whistling Dixie.
Ken’s problem with this movie is fairly straightforward.
To those of you from Hollywood trying to push these movies: You have no credibility. Every single movie you make comes across from an anti-war point of view.
What about all the good, uplifting stories about people getting killed and maimed? How come there’s never anything about that? Don’t they get Fox News out there on the left coast?
Ken explains why it is that Hollywood won’t make Iraq war movies that bring joy to families “who live in the Tweens (the flyover lands between NYC and Cali.)” Like me (just east of that hotbed of knee-jerk liberalism and land of a thousand Starbucks, Manhattan).
I just wish that Hollywood would stop making the anti-war, anti-U.S. movies. I know they won’t; I’ve heard the Jon Stewart manifesto,
The films that were made about the Iraq war, did not do as well. But I’m telling you, if we stay the course, and keep these movies in the theaters, we can turn this around. I don’t care if it takes 100 years. Withdrawing the Iraq movies would only embolden the audience. We cannot let the audience win.and I believe that Hollywood will continue to make movies of this sort to live out their Vietnam era mindset and to tell us ignorant sots out in the hinterlands what we should think.
Naturally, I have enormous respect for Ken’s judgment on stuff like this. After all, he is a TV star and know about the”behind the scenes” stuff that regular guys like me can only learn about when guys like Ken let the cat out of the bag. I’m hearing you Ken. I’m getting the message. You don’t have to spell it out for me, brother, because I’m hearing ya.
But I do have one question. I apologize in advance for it, because I know it’s just my dumb, naive, outsider ignorance showing, but I’ve got to ask.
Don’t we, like, have to win or accomplish something before we make a movie that’s pro-war?
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I remember an interview with one soldier who said he was inspired to join up after 9/11 and, like a lot of pro-war “fighting keyboarders” was inspired by the movie Red Dawn.
He then talked about one day realizing that his favorite movie involved a band of brothers using guerrilla tactics to expel an invading and occupying enemy.
Glenn Greenwald has an interesing video up of a Charlie Rose interview of 2 Iraqis who both describe wanting the U.S. out ASAP, even describing the U.S. as resorting to tactics Saddam used, such as paying the “awakening councils” to police their own neighborhoods.
They Iraqi’s also describe a basic mistrust of U.S. forces stemming from our past support of Saddam and the shifting goals of the invasion in which the Oil Ministry was heavily guarded but the national museum ignored. They also describe simple things like Saddam’s being able to provide electricity compared with the U.S. promise to first get the oil revenue flowing and then use the funds to provide electricity. Five years later, as they describe it, the oil flows but the electricity is not at the level it was under Saddam.
While they describe hating Saddam, they both also describe seeing the U.S. as foreign occupiers, not liberators.
The video link is below:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2008/03/26/iraq_debate/index.html
“Don’t we, like, have to win or accomplish something before we make a movie that’s pro-war?”
Fair enough. How about a pro-soldier, pro-US, pro-win because regardless of how we got in there, it’s better for everyone concerned than losing movie then? I’m not sure pro-war movies have actually ever been that popular. People aren’t generally pro-war. However some understand it is on occasion necessary and like many hard or uncomfortable things in life are willing to pay to occasionally see or read a commentary, discussion or opposing positions on the subject, if presented fairly and at least some of the time in balance with their own views.
I wasn’t around during WWII but I don’t think Hollywood put out a stream of anti-US, withdraw we’re defeated, soldiers are creeps or crazy crap during the war. Maybe they didn’t put out too many ‘pro-war’ movies until after the war, but they put out plenty of pro-US, win the war, support our troops propaganda.
An anti-US, anti-war, anti-soldier movie is just as much propaganda and it seems to be about all Hollywood is able to muster.
Hmmmm imagine family, friends and community not wanting to see their own smeared so unfairly and so completely? Not wanting to pay for the privilege. Gee I can’t understand that.
This is not Vietnam where the perception (not the reality) is the soldiers aren’t serving by choice. These men and woman chose to take on this thankless task of serving. Besides I’m not sure draftees would be treated so thanklessly by the public today. We learned a lot about how not to treat our soldiers from that experience. At least out here in fly-over land we did.
But back to the meme, if there was some balance, yes some of the anti-war and specific movies about individual soldiers who’ve failed themselves, their service and country, in the worst kinds of way, might have more of an audience. Even when this war was at it’s most unpopular, there was little desire on the movie going public to see our soldiers trashed wholesale. Or country either for that matter.
It’s not that the people aren’t yet ready to deal with the Iraq war. It’s that Hollywood hasn’t even tried to deal with it fairly. That’s why no one is going to see them. Or we could just be dumb ‘ol hicks who haven’t been properly indoctrinated… errr… educated yet.
No. I’ll bet its because they don’t have sub-titles.
Markets and the economy are tightening. The cost of doing everything is going up. Can Hollywood continue to put out only crap people are unwilling to pay to see, to make only a point that people don’t agree with? Perhaps that’s what it will take to get them to produce a ‘pro-war’, pro-US, pro-soldier movie or two, with someone besides the usual suspects in the staring roles… if for no other reason than to make a buck during hard times… but I’m not holding my breath waiting.
You make some good points, though I think the comparison of Iraq to WWII falls a bit flat.
Why is it all the “dumb ‘ol hicks” want somebody else to make movies that comport with their sensibilities? Are there no “dumb ‘ol hicks” who can make the movies they want to see? Why is that vast “middle America” sitting there complaining instead of doing something about it?
Strong performances from the young cast make a compelling case that the US govt is failing its soldiers, but the film’s a little too much of a blunt instrument.
Though it is very message oriented and a little sloppy at times, I found the subject to be really interesting and the opening war scene will blow you away 🙂