America shuns Hollywood's take on Iraq

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: Guradian Unlimited

Big-budget Hollywood films prove a flop with opponents and supporters of the conflict

Americans may be divided on many subjects but they seem to agree on one thing: they will not buy tickets to see this year's crop of war films. Rarely have film critics and moviegoers, conservatives and liberals, been in such agreement - the big-screen lecturing that underscores Hollywood's approach to Iraq war-related films has rendered this crop of multimillion-dollar movies with top-star casts a critical and financial flop.

Oscar-winning director Paul Haggis's In the Valley of Elah, about a father investigating the death of his son in Iraq, has taken just $6.5m in two months; the political drama Lambs for Lions starring Tom Cruise and Meryl Streep, and directed by Robert Redford, has been called 'the most inert, predictable and unnecessary political film this year'; Rendition, starring Reese Witherspoon and Jake Gyllenhaal, a $50m thriller, has taken less than $10m since it was released in October.

Even films that are not war-themed but touch on Middle East issues have suffered. The Kingdom, starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner, about an FBI squad targeting Saudi terrorists, has made less than $7 million. Prospects for Brian De Palma's Redacted, on general release in the US this weekend, look similarly dire.

Critic Michael Medved said 'it could be the worst movie I've ever seen', but Bill O'Reilly, the Fox News pundit, went much further by urging filmgoers to boycott it. He called it 'vile' and warned that it could get American troops killed. Filmgoers have delivered their own verdict: on limited release to 15 cities last weekend, Redacted took $25,000 at the box office. The story about the rape and murder of an Iraqi girl by US troops appeals neither to conservatives nor to liberals, who say it is bad movie but good propaganda.

Read more: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/world/story/0,,2220421,00.html?gusrc=rss&feed=12

[zonmoy]

1. seems that the people are saying that they will no longer

support lying propaganda masquerading as literature or film.

[seriousstan]

2. Redacted just plain sucked.

[obiwan]

16. I saw 'Redacted". It was a good movie.

Sometimes the truth sucks.

[tabasco]

19. How surprising that you agree with Michael Medved and Billo.

I'm shocked.

[seriousstan]

22. It appears I am in good company. The movie can't cover the cost of popcorn in the theater.

[bhikkhu]

7. lying propaganda masquerading as news, on the other hand,

continues to do quite well.

[zonmoy]

27. sure about that.

would the media be truthful about people no longer believing their news programs and instead going to the internet and blogs for real news.

[mac2]

10. Lies on public media now allowed

Fox won a case in Florida where the judge said, it was OK to lie.

"You can fool some of the people some of the time but not all of the people all of the time." Abe Lincoln.

[shadowknows69]

29. People want this war nice and invisible

"If your government was responsible for the deaths of 100,000 people; would you even want to know?"
-"V for Vendetta"

[patrice]

3. Not Hollywood > Not Iraq: Turtles Can Fly was very good. nt

[ToeBot]

4. So whose opinion do I care less about, Michael Medved or Bill O'Rielly? Now there's a poser! n/t

[Faygo Kid]

5. American people have made up their minds about this war; eventually there will be a great movie made

Michael Medved and Bill O'Reilly notwithstanding, there is a filmmaker who will make a definitive great movie.

We're still waiting for our first definitive great pro-war movie, ever. Maybe the great scientist Rush Limbaugh is also a great director, and will provide such a movie.

[stillcool]

6. couldn't tell by me......

I look forward to seeing..."Rendition" and "Lambs for Lions"..but I don't pay the big bucks to go to a theater..the days of that extravagance are long gone.

[Skittles]

8. I just don't want to see movies about Iraq

they are depressing - doesn't mean I "reject" the message - not at all

[GreenPartyVoter]

9. I think that is exactly what is going on here. No one wants to see ME themed things. It's

too touchy a subject.

[mac2]

11. Touchy

and maybe a bit violent? Not a good escape for a few hours from fear, tyranny, and war. It's supposed to be entertainment. If not it is a documentary.

[jpak]

13. pssshhwawww

An Osama Bullridin' Dirty Dancin' Teen Angst Street Racin' Slasher SciFi Hanky Sniffin' Chicko Michael Moore Docu Thrilah would be absolutleyleyley fucking boffo...

:evilgrin:

[GreenPartyVoter]

14. LOL

[Mz Pip]

12. I am sure they

are important films but I can't handle war movies. Doesn't matter what war. I don't watch them because they depress me.

The only WWII movie I saw was "The Pianist" and I was depressed for days. I don't think I've ever seen any of the Vietnam War movies.



Mz Pip
:dem:

[ozone_man]

15. Syriana (2005) was good.

That's how to make a movie about the Mid East. Anything with George Clooney is a guaranteed winner. Also Michael Clayton. Not Mid East, but a plausible corporate conspiracy, probably Monsanto as the evil corporation. Nobody wants to see something about 911 or a direct war movie. We're war weary and sick of 911. You can get all that from watching Giuliani. A noun, a verb and 911. :)

[rocktivity]

17. Maybe people don't have the extra money to spend on movies

Especially this time of year.

:headbang:
rocknation

[mac2]

20. This time of year

they don't have extra money for gas and heat let alone food.

[grahamhgreen]

18. Hopefully they will do better overseas....

Meantime - please help make my little movie a success (gulp)

Link:

[pretzel4gore]

21. the war's a crime...

movies about it are, no matter the moral, based upon wasted energy, wasted treasure and life. We was used, like bush's toilette papier ie US $100 dollar bills! michael medved and blowjob oreilly are two war crime promoters (Julius Streicher, foxnews mouthpiece during nazi era, was hanged for his work lying about the 3rd reich nonsense- why not oreilly and limbah-humbug and medved and woofie and schneider and all the rest of the ass peddlar press? they SOLD bush and bush's lies to the idiots who bought the lies, who at least are poorer for it, while oreilly and kkkoultergeist etc are fabulously rich thanks to their lies)

[Hardrada]

25. They would have hung Goebbels too but he took poison first.

Hint hint hint to OReilly, woofie et al.

[pretzel4gore]

28. lotsa hanging...

don't think those punks aren't aware that their heads are balls in a bowling alley....lol

[MetaTrope]

23. The most annoying thing about REDACTED is that it was inevitably going to be dismissed as agitprop

when the ACTUAL court case against prime instigator Stephen Green is being kept off the docket for years until Bush is out of office. "State secrets" my ass.

[tech3149]

24. I can't comment on the quality or content of any of the films mentioned

That's only because I haven't seen them. It's not because of lack of desire, it's just I don't have the money to waste. Even though I feel I have a good understanding of the facts, these movies are based upon I accept that they could provide some emotional insight for those that don't search out real news. I think the greater question is what is the target audience for these films as compared to the the junk film entertainment that's on most screens in the country? Without research, I'd figure it to be about a 10:1 ratio.
Medved couldn't lick my balls if he paid me a month's rent, and O'Really couldn't get 20 ft without getting a Louisville Slugger upside his lame-assed head in my neighborhood. I don't give a shit about either of these ass-hats. They're just self-serving, self-aggrandizing fools. Left on their own, they will self destruct without any help.
I would like to participate in any O'Really roadkill photo hoot. Not sayin' just sayin.

[scarface2004]

26. no..we are rejecting the glorification of the military!!

all bush does is revel in military photo ops, glorifying war. the public is pissed off and ain't buying even if the movie is supposedly anti war.

[gatorboy]

30. Are they shunning Hollywood's take or simply don't feel the need to watch anything so depressing?

[Mr_Monday]

31. Too Late

Why weren't they making movies like this one or two years ago when these were super-hot-button issues instead of dead horses? Political Cowardice...

[seriousstan]

33. Why are they "dead horses" now?

[nonconformist]

32. Movies are one of my only escapes

I have to be in a very specific mood to watch movies about the war, a mood which I am in very little these days. I'm well aware things are fricking dire, and constant reminders are not good for my sanity.