left wing movies

[billc]

The cook could have been anyone, they specifically made him an Iraq war vet. Is that a coincidence. They didn't make him an iraq vet. who came home and lived a regular life. He isn't even in the original book. He is completely made up and put in to the story.

 

[granfire]

I know Blade96, there are all types of people in the military, and war gives the bad ones opportunities to do really bad things. My point is, we have a current war on our hands and almost all of the films set in this war show the american soldiers as crazy, criminal or victims. I extended the search out and asked for some ideas about movies that may show the U.S. in a positive light and some have shown up, while some are a little dubious.
I don't think that all movies about the military have to be positive, but movie after movie showing the American soldier as crazy, criminal or a victim is something I noticed.

Another one The General's Daughter, The plot: a generals daughter is found dead, naked and staked to the ground at a military fort. The general is up for a big promotion and John Travolta is tasked with finding the killer. The plot point meant to throw off the viewer to who the real killer is, is that when she was at the Premier American Military academy, West Point, ( Go Army) she is raped by 4 or 5 senior cadets, left naked and staked to the ground. Her father tells her to deal with it because he doesn't want to embarass the military and he doesn't want it to effect his career. Not another example of good soldiering.

Granfires sarcastic point about Universal soldiers unwittingly helped to show my point. Dolph Lundgren is committing war crimes in vietnam in the movie. This is a B-level science fiction movie and they still throw in the crazy, criminal vietnam war vet.

Another one, Cadillac man, now this one I would have to check on. The Tim Robbins character I believe is some sort of vet. He goes into a car dealership with an assault rifle and explosives to kill the guy he thinks is sleeping with his wife. Remember, this is a comedy about a shady car salesman, and Tim Robbins is a vet. Once again, I would have to check to be sure.

You forgot 'Deer Hunter'

 

[billc]

Thanks Granfire, that is another one.

First Blood with Stallone. That was a movie based on a book. The actual character in the book is less innocent and the sherrif is less bad.

 

[granfire]

The point about these leftist movies as you like to call them is that war is not a gallant adventure.

 

[billc]

I have tried to see wether the Tim Robbins character in cadillac man is a vet. but it doesn't say in any of the info. on the movie.

 

[billc]

No, its not a gallant adventure Granfire, but with the bad examples of soldiers there are far more examples of good men and women doing the right things in the middle of that chaos. Like I have said, I am not looking for every movie to be a glowing portrayal of soldiers. I have noticed that too often, the worst stereotypes of the military are shown, often gratuitously, as in American Beauty and True blood.

Coming Home, a left wing movie mentioned on the list, Bruce Dern comes home not quite right after leaving for the war as a gung ho soldier.

Not to leave our reserve forces out, "Southern Comfort", the national guardsmen on a weekend drill, blow up a cajuns home, and commit random indignities on the locals, until the locals start to hunt them down. Fred Ward goes in to kill a prisoner, and one of the soldiers goes crazy.

 

[billc]

And for our peacetime forces, "the great Santini" a film about an obnoxiuos, mean Marine Corps. pilot who mistreats his entire family and is generally obnoxious. A famous scene: At a basketball game for his son, the son is fouled by another player. Robert Duvall, the great Santini, tells his son that if he doesn't punch out that player, he will have to walk home. Also, when the son beats the great santini in a basketball game at home, the great santini bounces the basketball off his son's head saying, " 1,2,3, Cry." bounce the ball off the head. "1,2,3, cry..."

 

[billc]

danother two films, Doom, and Zorro.

Doom, yeah, just a bad movie in general but the special forces soldiers accept an order to murder all the civillians on Mars to cover up the problem.

Zorro, I know, it is about California under Mexican control, but, in a movie with all Spaniards and Mexicans, who is Antonio Bandera's primary villian? An American, former union army officer, who we know is a former union army officer because he wears the uniform throughout the entire movie. He kills Bandera's brother, and is about to murder hundreds of mexican mine workers before he is killed. (Catherine Zeta Jones was really great looking in this movie by the way.)

 

[CanuckMA]

I saw First Blood, and read the book. The overwhelming message I got from both was the crappy treatment the 'Nam vets got coming home.

Doom was based on a video game dude.

 

[Empty Hands]

I saw First Blood, and read the book. The overwhelming message I got from both was the crappy treatment the 'Nam vets got coming home.

The clear message of every single movie I can think of that portrays vets or soldiers as crazy or criminal is that it was the horror of war that did that to them. Next to them, there are usually plenty of sane, normal soldiers for contrast.

Of course, that isn't a message that the War Cheerleaders like, so it gets turned into "leftists hate soldiers!"

 

[elder999]

Saving Private Ryan, Band of Brothers, were about the war everyone likes, for now, WW2 and remember the scene where our guys were about to kill the german prisoner and were only stopped by Tom Hanks. Band of Brothers, a good pick, again, WW2 the last good war, for now, But Tom Hanks went on to do the Pacific where he then went on to say to the world press that we fought the Japanese simply because they were different and implied that it was like what we are doing now.

Methinks you missed the point....again....:lol:....... Here's what you said:

I would have to say yes, movies about the military today are majority left wing. Can you name a recent, say last 20 years, movie focusing on the military that didn't show them as rapists, nutjobs, and murderers?

and those are two, regardless of what Tom Hanks had to say later, or which war they were about.

We Were Soldiers, good pick. It did portray our guys in a good light. Mel Gibson was involved in that one so that was the reason for that.

Actually, if there's a 'reason for that," it's that it's the true account, based upon the book by the same name, written by Lt. Gen Harold Moore-the Mel Gibson character (then Lt. Col)-about the first major engagement of the Viet Nam war.

Crimson tide, a racist sub commander is all set to launch missles because he is too stubborn to listen to reason. A miss.

Actually, the racist angle was really nuanced-it was more about the conflict of following orders in those situations-unlike the people manning land based missiles, who are tested to be not particularly introspective or thoughtful, so that they're more likely to just launch after authentication, submariners are supposed to think-this was the conflict: what one officer thought vs. what the commanding officer saw as an authenticated order, and one which, when received, initiated a communications blackout.

Simple human conflict-and not one that portrays the military "in a bad light" at all-it just demonstrates that the men making such decisions are..........well, men, and fallible.

Letters from Iwo Jima, and Flags of our fathers, didn't see, although humanizing the Japanese at Iwo Jima, was one criticism I read about pertaining to the film. Also, Both films were by Clint East wood, a libertarian if not conservative guy, much like mel gibson.

Again, movies based on factual material-you're right, it has a lot to do with the director's artistic vision-but way less to do with his politics.

Japanese aren't human? How ironic that you claim to do iaido, of all things......

Great Raid, another film made by a conservative. A good film that portrayed our guys in a good way.

What leads you to believe that John Dahl is "a conservative?" Certainly not the rest of his work.

A few good men, portrays marines as brutal, ignorant, and religous zealots? Not a good pick for your point.

That's part of why I left it out: crime procedurals by their very nature are going to portray military personnel acting like men-that is to say, brutal, ignorant and zealous.

Rules of engagement, another one that shows a moral equivalence between our guys and the killers in vietnam, but at least it did show the people with guns in the crowd at the end.

See above-and, weren't our guys "the killers in vietnam?" :lol:

Three Kings, a boring, bad movie that once again showed america in a bad light, as well as showing our guys in a less than flattering way.

None of those people were nutjobs-at least, no more than the rest of us-rapists or murderers. This was, essentially, a heist movie set in a war zone: an American tradition of sorts, since we are a nation of outlaws, bent on getting away with it.

It also shows all the characters deciding to do the right thing.

Wind Talkers, showed a policy of shooting the wind talkers that military historians claim did not exist. Only saw parts of this movie.

The code talkers did have bodyguards-to keep American soldiers from mistaking them for Japanese and killing them. Otherwise, though, the movie fits the criteria: portrays the military in a positive light and made in the last 20 years-you know: what you said.:lol:

Taking Chance, a nice movie, but as I pointed out on the plane, anti-war cover, and the story is about the death of a soldier in the war. Soldier as victim, as I have pointed out in the past.

Water is wet. Women have secrets. Soldiers die.

Just the facts......

Jar head, didn't see it, got bad reviews, some reviews pointed out a poor portrayel of our guys in the first gulf war

Nope. Just guys portrayed as guys.

How about all those uplifting movies about the war against islamic terrorism.

Restrepo, Gunner Palace. You know-documentaries

 

[Tez3]

Bill does Iaido? He Pmd me that he does Kali.

 

[billc]

Didn't see either Restrepo or Gunner palace, but I did hear the Restrepo film maker interviewed on the Dennis Miller show. Yes, notice how restrepo, was made by someone living with the troops (don't know how Gunner palace was made or what it was about) and how they are portrayed in the film, at least according to the film maker. It is the non-documentary films about the war that are lacking.

Also, three kings, when Walhberg is being tortured it was sort of showing some poor guy caught in the middle of something, bush and Hussein, and being blamed for what was going on. the one guy wasn't very bright, and Clooney was a con man in uniform.

Another one, an oldie, Day Of the Dead, Soldiers are going nutty during a Zombie apocalypse, a really great movie, troops are shown in a bad light.

For our British friends, 28 Days Later, 28 days into the outbreak a small group of British soldiers has been broken to the point that they imprison a woman and an underage girl to be used as sex slaves, as the officer in charge apoligizes by saying that he had to do it because he had to give his men something to live for. Or some such rubbish. Oh, and they try to execute Cillian Murphy, the scarecrow from The Batman Begins, because he takes offense to the enslavement of his female friends.

American T.V. with a British twist, On the show House, with Hugh Laurie, Dr. House's father is R. Lee Ermie, a mean, demanding marine whom House hates. He hates him so much that house is happy to find out that his mother cheated on the father, and so the mean marine is not really houses's dad.

 

[elder999]

Bill does Iaido? He Pmd me that he does Kali.

What his profile currently says:

• About billcihak Primary Art and Ranking iaido

could be he does both....I dunno....

 

[billc]

I did Iaido 6 years before switching over to Kali.

 

[billc]

I know in the last version of Doom that I played, you were not charged with murdering civillians to cover up and contain the situation on Mars.

My iaido instructor's teacher was Dr. Gordon Warner, who lived in Japan before WW2, fought the Japanese in the U.S. Marines, losing his leg in the process, and then returned to Japan after the war and lived their till his death. In fact, We were told he carried a Japanese sword with him during the war that was given to him by one of his teacher's in Japan.

 

[billc]

remember in Crimson tide at the moment where they are waiting to see if they can make contact and clairfy their orders, and Gene Hackman goes into the story that the Lipizaner Stallions are born white or some such thing. I don't know if the movie was from a book, but that was unnecessary to the movies plot at that point, and was another shot at the Hackman character.

 

[elder999]

American T.V. with a British twist, On the show House, with Hugh Laurie, Dr. House's father is R. Lee Ermie, a mean, demanding marine whom House hates. He hates him so much that house is happy to find out that his mother cheated on the father, and so the mean marine is not really houses's dad.

DNA testing in that episode proved that his father was, in fact, his father, and he mourns him.

 

[billc]

I stand corrected on House, it was on in the background and I remember him taking the Dna sample. The description of his father still stands though.

 

[billc]

Another positive movie, Independence Day, but the director refused to make a sequel because George bush was in office.