"Buffalo Soldiers"...Hollywood military-bashing at its finest.

Fetal Films ^ | various

[Long Cut]

Studio: Miramax
Director: Gregor Jordan
Writer(s): Eric Axel Weiss and Nora Maccoby
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Scott Glenn, Ed Harris, Anna Paquin, Leon, Gabriel Mann, Elizabeth McGovern

Release Date: July 25th, 2003

Notes: Production began on November 6, 2000 in Berlin and other parts of Germany and wrapped in February 2001. Currently scheduled to be released sometime in the first quarter of 2003; originally scheduled to open on July 19, 2002. Based upon the novel of the same name by Robert O'Connor.

Plot Summary: Set just before the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, this is the story of a criminal drug culture among U.S. Army soldiers, focusing on Sgt. Ray Elwood, the clerk to the battalion commander, Colonel Berman. What Ray doesn't know is that there is an investigation working its way in his direction, even as he is falling in love with the daughter, Robyn, of the soldier, Sgt. Lee, of the man who's tipping the investigation off about Ray. (Upcoming Movies) - Andrew Molinaro

Updates:

4.23.03 According to the Los Angeles Times, Miramax has pushed this film's release back again, this time to space the film from the recent controversies about patriotism that are hounding people like Janeane Garofalo, the Dixie Chicks and Susan Sarandon. (Yahoo! Movies) - Andrew

[Long Cut]

In the 1940's, how many patriotic, pro-military films were made? Even after WWII ended, for DECADES afterwards, movies and TV shows extolling the American Fighting Man in that war came in droves. Even comedies based on that war, such as McHale's Navy, Kelly's Heroes,and Operation Petticoat NEVER denigrated the individual Soldiers and Sailors they depicted, nor did they trash or slander them.

The Viet Nam war changed all that. The ONLY pro-war film made during that time, The Green Berets, was mercilessly trashed and laughed at by those self-appointed "sophisticates" of the time, who preferred to focus on its technical glitches and either laugh at or ignore its message. For the most part, American military men and their lives were depicted as dark, corrupt squalor.

The 1970s were little better: here again, the U.S. military was depicted as having two types of people in it; the drugged-out, half-crazy grunt only steps away from slaughtering a dozen people in a store, and the corrupt, money-and-power hungry (but usually bumbling) officer. Witness the aforementioned M*A*S*H* and others, such as The Last Detail or The Deer Hunter.

While the Reagan '80s saw some better works, they also saw the production od Platoon, possibly one of the worst slanders of the military yet seen. It was clear, however, that the bulk of the movie industry had to hold its nose to depict ANY positive portrayal of the military.

And now? We are in a war, an actual, shooting, ongoing world war, one in which our own nation was attacked and unarmed civilians murdered by the thousands. A war in which American troops are engaged in several regions at once;and by all accounts are performing as heroically and as well as any of their fathers and grandfathers. Great deeds of gallantry and honor are being performed even as we speak here, and America is wreaking havoc with our enemies all over the world. Yet, amid all this, AND amid the resurgence of flag-waving patriotism and military support in Middle America, Hollywood's Heroes see this as a fine time to release...THIS:

It should be a loud wakeup call to those selfsame Middle Americans who are the movie industry's most valued customers as to what that industry REALLY thinks of them and their values. And, of course, what it thinks of their children, husbands, brothers, sisters and other loved ones(who come overwhelmingly from that segment of society) who are right now rewriting the definition of heroism and sacrifice, yet again.

Look once again at that poster, at the young actor (Joachim Phoenix) with the cynical smirk in it. He is in his 20's, is healthy and fit, and has absolutely NO intention of ever donning his country's uniform in her time of war, or of even doing movies and shows to support her efforts or her troops. Instead, he takes a role that previous actors would have probably punched out a producer for even offering them. His smirk is not forced; nor is it faked...he (and MANY others like him) really think that way. That is, that they are better and smarter than those who currently are in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, and others too secret to mention. That he and his friends have it all figured out, and that those sons and daughters of America who fight for it are suckers and fools.

I guess this is why I am so incensed by this...I was just curious about this film, having read what I did in The Wall Street Journal. I might have passed it by completely; but that image of that FACE of his...when I have seen and trained hundreds of other, FAR MORE determined and honorable young people who even now are in Harm's Way, pushed me beyond my limits. i hope and pray that, with this thread and the word spreading it will accomplish, that the box office wipes that smirk off his simpering, cowardly, arrogant face, and off those of his employers, for a long, long time.

Thank You, from an American Sailor.

LC

[Soaring Feather]

Thanks LC, no one says it better than you IMHO.

[SAMWolf]

I hope and pray that, with this thread and the word spreading it will accomplish, that the box office wipes that smirk off his simpering, cowardly, arrogant face, and off those of his employers, for a long, long time.

Amen, Long Cut, Amen. Excellent writing.

[Long Cut]

Ping, for your perusal.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Hollywood bashing the military PING

Then we have what the Commander-in-Chief has to say about the men and women in the military.

Excerpt from the Remarks by President Bush in honor of Independence Day
United States Air Force Museum, Dayton, Ohio | July 4, 2003

"...Our nation is still at war. The enemies of America plot against us.
And many of our fellow citizens are still serving and sacrificing
and facing danger in distant places.
Many military families are separated. Our people in uniform do not have easy duty,
and much depends on their success. Without America's active involvement in the world,
the ambitions of tyrants would go unopposed, and millions would live at the mercy of terrorists.
With Americans' active involvement in the world, tyrants learn to fear, and terrorists are on the run..."

I want YOU
to e-mail a service person today!




Please Thank someone in the military for ensuring our Freedom.
Take a moment and Thank a Service Man or Woman.
Just Click on the graphic to SEND an e-mail.

[TEXOKIE]

Thanks for the ping, Ms Feather. I heard this movie discussed on Gordon Liddy's show last week. Reprehensible, from what I heard. I most certainly will NOT be going to see it! I am proud to say that so far, I have not ever watched "Apocalypse Now," "Platoon," and that other movie called "Deer Hunters--Deer Slayers-- Deer Something."

Someone above was commenting on the 180 degrees Hollyweird has turned since the 40's....it WAS the suberversion of our art by communists in key positions as envisioned by the House Committee of Unamercian Activities.....(*NOT McCarthy!) My apologies if I got the name of the committee wrong. They knew that there WAS an attack going on in artistic circles, but that is a very difficult thing to fight in a free nation. Education is always the way to win hearts and minds, and will be the key to winning back our art and culture. I think the winds are change are blowing (Blow THAT in the wind, Peter Paul and Mary!) and there is hope. But we still have a big fight in front of us for our culture and very lives.

[Long Cut]

"Yeah, it was deliberate and McCarthy was proving that the Communists were moving into Hollywood..."

Ann Coulter, in her most recent book, Treason, makes the suggestion that it was Communist influence in H'wood at the time that helped all those movies get made...the Nazis were, after all, fighting Stalin as well as us, and our victory ensured his. An example of both America and the Soviets having the same goals, for which the Soviets' minions in H'wood worked. After that, all bets were off and so were the Leftists' gloves.

[Yasotay]

Having been in the Army (and in Berlin during the "Fall of the Wall") during that time both as enlisted and an officer here are my thoughts....

- the Army (as with America) did have a HUGE drug problem BUT for the most part, the Army beat it (unlike America)

- like every institution, the Army has it's problems BUT unlike most organizations the Army will take steps to CORRECT it's problems

- the movie will be a poor attempt, with terrible timing, to be a modern Catch 22 ... and will do very poorly

[TEXOKIE]

"after the 1950's, the Leftists in H'Wood (supported of course by the Communist Party) became dominant..."


OOOOPS.....that oughta teach me to read the thread before commenting...I certainly have echoed your points here! So a hearty "hear hear!!" to your post 19

[Long Cut]

"- the movie will be a poor attempt, with terrible timing, to be a modern Catch 22 ... and will do very poorly"

I hope so, Soldier, I hope so. As for the drug problems, IIRC, the problem was well on its way to being solved by then, as the "zero tolerance" policy and the drug testing was in place since 1981 or so, at least in the Navy.

Note also that the plot summary from IMBD that I posted above refers to the Phoenix character as a "conscript", i.e. a draftee which in 1989 was impossible for a Private.

Gives you ANOTHER idea of how they view us...their stereotype is drugged-up draftees running scams, like Hawkeye Pierce. They don't even know or care that it's been an all-volunteer service since 1972, and that drug use has been met with dishonorable discharge since Reagan.

[Soaring Feather]

Thank you dear Texokie for your comments.

I have not seen several of the pictures you mentioned either. I was, am a huge John Wayne fan. He was an American!! Too, the films of our beloved, former President Ronald Reagan. A great American!!

[Ragtime Cowgirl]

Just what we need...a shooting war in progress now, and Hollywood's Heroes want to portray us as a bunch of dope-smuggling, heroin-using, arms-dealing clowns.

I am beside myself...

America will join you, Long Cut. This is an outrage - and entirely predictable.

[SouthernHawk]

These jerks are nothing but over paid PRETENDERS.

They wouldn't know the truth if it fell on them! Our Military deserves better.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

I'm one of those rare people who do not go to the movies.
I don't even rent videos. If it's not on TV I don't see it.
The only exception I made in the last 5 years or so
was when We Were Soldiers was released.
THAT was worth while seeing for many reasons.
I'm fed up with the bias that the media and Hollywood show.
Give me old classic sit coms any day of the week!

[Soaring Feather]

Yes, sir been there done that. Hope it helps.

[SAMWolf]

Take over the entertainment industry , the press and academia and you have access to almost 100% of what Americans are taught, see and hear. it's been a long process but IMHO I believe the Socialists and Communists have suceeded.

Hopefully the Internet and Talk radio are having an effect of turning it around.

However, based on Court decisions in the last few years I think they have the Courts too.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

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[zip]

Congratulations on the birth of "mini-cut".

I'm sure that the great leftist, Ed Harris, loved acting a movie that is anti Military. I hope this movie flops.

[Old Sarge]

Take over the entertainment industry , the press and academia and you have access to almost 100% of what Americans are taught, see and hear. it's been a long process but IMHO I believe the Socialists and Communists have suceeded.

(SNIP)

However, based on Court decisions in the last few years I think they have the Courts too.

FRiend, I agree with you.

There are days that this job gets kind of hard, knowing that once again, your nation's not behind you.