Just damn.
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Posted on 06/28/2005 10:32:17 AM PDT by Cool Chick
"War of the Worlds" Spielberg-esque Message: Don't Fight Terror
By Debbie Schlussel
I'm violating Steven Spielberg's review policy for "War of the Worlds" and telling you what I think ahead of tomorrow's scheduled release date. I saw the movie at a press screening, last night, and was disturbed by the message: Don't fight terror, and everything will work out. (Security was literally tighter than that for going to the White House to meet the President. No purses allowed. Three wandings by security.)
It's bad enough that Steven Spielberg is adding "balance" and factual inaccuracy to the story of the Israeli Mossad's efforts to assassinate terrorists who killed Israeli Olympic athletes--in his upcoming film, "Vengeance" (I've detailed that here). It's bad enough that his message in "Vengeance" is that fighting terrorists and killing them is bad and doesn't work. But his similar message in "War of the Worlds" is arguably worse--because the movie, with fantastic special effects, is likely to be one of his bigger hits.
Spielberg said "War of the Worlds" is a parallel for 9/11 and serves as a "prism" through which to view 9/11, the War on Terror, and our presence in Iraq. The movie makes that very clear. People running from exploding and falling buildings, walls and kiosks covered with "missing" signs and pictures for those looking for lost relatives, people giving blood -- these are all 9/11 references.
But the message is: Don't fight terrorism. It will miraculously go away if you leave it alone and it breaths our air and culture. Puh-leeze. I'm sure Roger Ebert will just love it.
(Excerpt) Read more at debbieschlussel.com ...
I can't wait for this one, supposed to be very good and intense. The political handwringing by Debbie here is laughable. Get a grip lady.
Strangely enough, for Tom Cruise this movie fits in the category of "non-fiction".
I'll trust a FReeper's interpretation of this movie before Ebert or any other critic.
WOAH! Robbins is in this movie?
That nails it. Not going.
So dangerous does Aaron come to view Moses (in this Spielbergian translation) that Aaron kills Moses. "Enough!" cries Aaron has he drives the lance through his brother.
And then -- magically -- Pharaoh dies and the Egyptians are filled with love for the Hebrews, so much that they open their treasury to the Tribe of Israel so as to esrablish plantations in the Land of Canaan.
What a bad dream Steven Spielberg is the naker of.
Not really. The steam ram, HMS Thunderchild got a pretty sympathetic treatment.
In LoTR Frodo prevails to Mt. Doom because of his desire to be rid of the ring, combined with the help from outside in the form of the new king of Gondor coming to challenge Sauron. (Of course even there he's unable to resist the lure of power and poor Smeagol has to take the dive). But Frodo has to go right into the heart of the enemy's power through danger and struggle and temptation.
That's a long long way from "do nothing, relax, and the problem will cure itself, man." That sort of approach was illustrated in LoTR (the movies, not the book) when Pip suggested they just give up and go home and leave everything for someone else to deal with. The closest JRRT himself gets to that is the bit in the Silmarillion where the 'Valar' call the Elves to Aman and abandon Middle-Earth in the first age (but really that sequence is more of a allegorical rejection of Deism IMO).
The 'nature will take care of what man cannot' is a theme in War of the Worlds, but don't extend it to Tolkein's work, please.
"Spielberg said "War of the Worlds" is a parallel for 9/11 and serves as a "prism" through which to view 9/11, the War on Terror, and our presence in Iraq."
So he's saying we should fight the Iraqi terrorists with germ warfare? Wow!
Which was a very similar theme in "Independence Day," where it was a "computer virus," not a virus, that kills the aliens.
Hmmm... so Ray kills someone who stands in his way, and yet remains passive against aliens? Yep, sounds like a Clinton liberal plot to me.
H.G. Wells was also one of the first male feminists. Brilliant, yet decidely kooky.
Just damn.
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Environmentalism takes a hit here, not President Bush. Jackasses wrote themselves into a quagmire again!
Wasn't he also an advocate of free love? Didn't any female feminists ever wonder why so many sex addicted males who don't want to commit to any one woman seem to be feminists and support things like abortion?
Yes I think I knew that but had forgotten. I always liked that film Malcolm McDowell was in, "Time After Time" which was pretty good where he played H.G. Wells.
Out of curiosity, have you actually seen the movie yet? She has, and I'm inclined to believe her that the movie will contain plenty of not-so-subtle political overtones that have little to do with the fictional novel. Spielberg is definitely a leftie, and it would be par for the course for Hollywood.
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