IT PLEASES me no end that Hollywood’s attempts at “educating” the masses have failed miserably. The linked article is replete with lame excuses to explain why no one is paying to see these anti-war movies, leaving out the obvious: The average movie-goer is better-informed about what’s going on in Iraq and the world than idiots like Brian De Palma. The only people who are interested in watching movies that portray U.S. soldiers, Marines, CIA and FBI agents as fools, tools and criminals are elitist baby-boomers, their spawn and the witless reviewers at my newspaper. I guarantee WE will give "Redacted" numerous thumbs up.
Due to their monolithic reading and viewing habits, these morons still haven’t realized that the battles are all but won in Iraq. Sure, the place is a mess, but what Middle Eastern country isn’t. Sure, the Iraqi legislature is having trouble passing key legislature, but their record is still better than that of the current Democrat-controlled Congress in the United States.
This spate of drivel from Hollywood seems a last gasp attempt to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory by limousine liberals and their enablers in the press.
And are they not cynical? Hollywood producers know that only a handful of Americans are going to pay to see a movie about U.S. soldiers murdering an Iraqi girl, but it will play big in Venezuela, Germany and with the British chattering classes.
I repeat: Are you war weary? And if so why? Has your Starbucks cup gotten heavier? Feet hurt from prowling for a cute pair of shoes at the mall?
"Rendition," a drama starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal about the CIA's policy of outsourcing interrogation of terror suspects, has taken just under 10 million dollars at the box office, a disastrous return.
Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis's latest film "In the Valley of Elah," about a father investigating the death of his son in Iraq, earned favorable reviews but less than seven million dollars following its release in September.
Even the action-packed "The Kingdom," starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, fell well below its 70 million budget with around 47 million dollars in ticket sales.
The poor returns do not augur well for more war films due for release in North America later this month, notably the Robert Redford-directed drama "Lions for Lambs" and Brian De Palma's hard-hitting "Redacted," based on the real-life rape and murder of an Iraqi schoolgirl by US soldiers.
