Posted on 08/05/2007 3:59:25 PM PDT by PJ-Comix
Perhaps we should have expected this but apparently The Bourne Ultimatum which opened this weekend is chock full of liberal proganda. So who is making this charge? Some vicious rightwinger with an axe to grind against liberal Hollywood producers? Nope. This is the claim of a liberal movie reviewer, Anthony Kaufman, who wrote the following in his Huffington Post blog, Jason Bourne: An Anti-Cheney American Hero?
A stinging rebuke against Cheney-esque black ops and torture tactics, Universal Pictures' The Bourne Ultimatum is more than just a heart-stopping international espionage thriller: It is Hollywood's most direct attack against the Bush Regime since George Clooney's one-two punch of Good Night and Good Luck and Syriana. If those more "sophisticated" dramas preached to the choir about our deteriorating civil liberties and oil-fueled overseas obsessions, the third film in the mega-successful Bourne action franchise offers up a picture of corrupt clandestine leadership for all to see -- where every Matt Damon fan can also enjoy high-powered American government officials as arch-villains committing treasonous and reckless activities without oversight.
In case we have any doubts that The Bourne Ultimatum is a liberal fantasy, Kaufman "reassures" us that it is:
But is the film really a liberal fantasy, where the bad CIA leaders get punished for their penchant for waterboarding, "experimental interrogations," "rendition" and the manipulation of American soldiers' minds with intimidation and humiliation? It sure seems so, as bullish Rumsfeld-like strategies are depicted as inept, while the sensitive, sympathetic touch of Joan Allen's CIA head Pamela Landy is shown as the most effective way to combat renegade forces. If conservatives like to label Tinseltown as leftwing, The Bourne Ultimatum should do little to assuage their concerns.
Thank you for that admission of Hollywood being leftwing, Anthony. At least that is something that most in the media won't admit. Kaufman finishes his review with an admiring look at a scene involving "moral complexity" chock full of nuances that a John Kerry would love:
Then again, perhaps the film allows us to have our blood-soaked cake and eat it, too. Matt Damon's Jason Bourne is a guilt-ridden CIA assassin, who glowers and suffers every time he swiftly strikes a rival down. But as audiences, we still bask in his every murder. Even though Bourne hates being a killing machine, I suspect audiences like it very much. After all, that's the chief source of the movie's thrills. I'd bet director Paul Greengrass (who showed some sensitivity towards depicting the 9/11 terrorists as human beings in United 93) intentionally tried to offer some moral complexity to a scene where Bourne strangles to death an obviously Arab enemy assassin. But how many people will pick up on that? Or will they just whoop and holler with the rising body count?
Most likely, no matter how hard Hollywood tries, most of the audience will overlook the obvious liberal propaganda of The Bourne Ultimatum and "whoop and holler" over the "rising body count" action. Something similar happened with another recent movie, Shooter, starring Mark Wahlberg. It also featured the standard leftwing proganda including a portrayal by Ned Beatty as an absurdly charicatured EVIL rightwing senator who practically drooled bile all over himself. So ridiculous in the propaganda department was Shooter that one of the few good guys in the FBI wore a Che Guevara T-shirt when he was off duty. Therefore be prepared for another leftwing proganda onslaught if you see The Bourne Ultimatum. The physical action, as in Shooter, is good but you will have to put on your political proganda filters in order to keep from groaning out loud.
I’m still not over hollywood screwing up the last Tom Clancy movie, I think it was the Sum of All Fears. With Damon’s buddy Ben Affleck.
Making Mao proud.
The word “sedition” used to mean something. But, then, these are the times in which we’re living.
I can’t stand Affleck. Politics aside I just don’t think he’s a good actor. As for Damon he’s been good in the Bourne movies. And he was great in The Departed. What a great film.
Having seen the 1st two Jason Bourne movies, not for one moment did I interpret what I saw on the screen as being anti-Republican or a slam on Cheney.
BTW, it was fabulous!
Drop the "Regime" stuff, pinkos liberals.
This guy must have a very boring life.
I can’t wait to see this movie. The Bourne movies are among my favorite.
This is a movie about fear - a government's fear of its citizens and citizens' fear of their government. It's a movie about surveillance, with people being watched at virtually every moment. Finally, it's about philosophies in collision, about how much safety can be bought at the price of freedom and about the kinds of personalities that gravitate toward the totalitarian mind-set.
When is Hollywood going to realize that they lose more people than they gain when they insert their liberal political propaganda in movies?
they’ve got that stupid “shaking camera” garbage nearly the entire film... it was nearly unwatchable ...
LOL - I swear it appeared that the beat the crap out of and then strangled the arab with a Koran. I just did not see this much overt Liberalism in this one. There was the byplay between the "good" and "evil" inside the Agency, but the idea of catching rather than killing that Landy exibits at least offered the chance for more information (that the others did not want her to have.)
Another looney leftist. Didn’t Matt blame everyone for “global-warming”?
It was not stop action, sit on the edge of your seat kind of stuff. I liked it, altho I did think it was pretty PC. But I’m so used to the from Hollywood, it’s like water off a duck’s back.
Is this the last of the series?
susie
We saw it yesterday afternoon. It was two hours of fantastic entertainment. Well worth it.
Hehehe, I thought it was just because I’m old that I have a difficult time following that kind of camera work.
susie
I am shocked that anyone would be shocked. MI-3 was the same.
HA!
I still haven't seen that film, and avoid it like the plague even when it's on the boob tube.
When is Hollyweird gonna learn how to not screw up a good story?
The Departed was a good flick. Glad Markie Mark took him out in the end.
I just happened to catch Shooter on DVD today. I remember it occurring to me that this is the insane mental image that the Left has of us. It's all complete BS, but that's what they believe.
So ridiculous in the propaganda department was Shooter that one of the few good guys in the FBI wore a Che Guevara T-shirt when he was off duty.
Ned Beatty's character differs from Che chiefly in the fact that Che was a real murdering thug.
I had to wear hip waders to get through the insane lefty propaganda- but I enjoyed the movie all the same. I enjoyed it mainly because they got the firearms stuff mostly right, for a change, and portrayed a Marine in a positive light.
Look what they are doing to “24”. Now they want a woman President so they can help Hitlery and now they are greening it up. I won’t be watching and I was a diehard fan.
I am still pretty angry how they put a left wing spin on “Clear and Present Danger”.
I hope Gary Sinise plays John Kelly in “Without Remorse”
“300” is the best pro-America movie I have seen in long time.
Look what they are doing to “24”
After the woman president, lets expect a gay president or vp.
I hate that. Oh well. It'll be another run of JJ The Jet Plane on my new LCD my grandkids got me for birthday :0-)
They completely destroyed it. It was awful.
“BTW, it was fabulous!”
I saw it Saturday and loved it. Did you catch the little continuity error at the end with the Sig and Glock?
From this story it doesn’t sound like they stayed too close to the source material, which is a shame. Ludlum’s books are excellent.
There are antagonists (that's bad people, for Democrat lurkers) in every story. Some people just see a bad character and their BDS screams Bush!
Maybe the specific reference to waterboarding, if there is one in the new movie, is a slap at Cheney. I'm going to see it to watch stuff blow up.
Police are donut eating dim bulbs, who carry two extra throwaways bent on killing and/or framing minorities.
Cowboys are portrayed as twangy southern village idiots bent on nailing their 12 year old female cousins.
And this year, to top it all off, "24" has gone green; it's productions are now carbon neutral, Jack will take on global warming, and the series will sport a woman president, named Helena Roseanne Clifton!!!
Gotta love Hollywood!!
Waterboarding was referenced in Syriana as well. It was a method used by the Chinese on the Falun Gong.
Matt Damon and George Clooney are supporting Obama for prez.
I saw it the same way you did.
Seems to me that the plot indicated that the Administration was unaware of the assassination (by Bourne) of US citizens and the rogue, high level CIA officers bragged that they ordered the killings themselves.
Obviously a section of CIA engaging in insurrection. There is not a HINT that the White house is involved with the bad guys.
And, yeah it is good. I enjoyed the Quran , your windpipe scene.
Team America: World Police.
Although, I thought he was motionless in the water too long to have regained consciousness and swim away.
I’m going to go see it this week. I loved all of the Bourne books, and the movies have been OK. I haven’t noticed liberal propaganda in the first two so far. Instead, my complaints are:
1. Matt Damon just does not fit my mental image of Jason Bourne. He looks more like a baby-faced kid trying to be tough. Bourne, in the books, was smooth and ruthless. He was also a chameleon, able to shift into different personas instantly, and altering his looks frequently. Damon pretty much stays Damon throughout.
2. Carlos (The Jackal) was one of the greatest villains ever created. The whole conundrum swirling around in Bourne’s head in the first book — “Am I Carlos? Am I the Jackal?” — was gone, as were Carlos’ ingenious moves, always seemingly a few steps ahead of his adversary. Carlos took up at least the number of pages in the first and third books as Bourne himself, if not more. Totally frustrating for the movies not to include this crucial character.
3. The herky-jerky camera work in Supremacy was annoying.
As much as I think Matt Damon is NOT my idea of Jason Bourne, though, Ben Affleck was an even more egregious assault on my idea of Jack Ryan!! Harrison Ford did an admirable job, but Affleck? Geeze. Sum Of All Fears was ruined, in my opinion.
I liked Clancy’s Debt Of Honor and Executive Orders, too, but I’m sure Hollywood won’t make those — especially the viscerally satisfying ending in Executive Orders. The Bear And The Dragon is one that Hollywood can rightfully skip — The Bore And The Draggin’ was more like it. Yeesh. Bad novel.
"Madness? This is FREE REPUBLIC!"
*kick*
Having enjoyed the first two, I expect I will like this one too.....the reviews are great.
I saw the movie but I didn’t see the propaganda. Somebody had to be the bad guy or guys. It is the third movie in the series. The CIA warriors, off the reservation has been known all along.
It was an exciting movie that was well written, directed and acted.
But I like him in this character...
..The newest version of James Bond he's not...but Bourne, yeah.
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