Bella to Anti-War Movies: Show Me the Money!

Culture and Media Institute ^ | 10/29/2007 | Kristen Fyfe

[Varda]

Yes. The movie provides all the context for the end that’s needed. I’m assuming you’ve seen it. It ends with two characters proposing the same violent thing. However, the American proposes to take action to preserve the ability to live life as expressed in the very beginning of the film. The villain proposes to do that thing for an entirely different purpose. Who does the American want to kill? ...all Muslims (no his friend who dies is Muslim), all Saudis (no the Saudi prince is on his side). The people the American wants to kill are the Jihadis. The Jihadis for their part want to kill all Americans and American life (as demonstrated by what they blow up in the beginning of the movie). The only people the good guys kill are terrorists. The only people the bad guys kill are innocent people.

So in the end when both sides propose taking the same course of action the difference is that one side (Jihadis) targets good and the other side (Americans) targets evil.

[Varda]

post #61

[bassmaner]

Was Harry Truman a fascist when he imposed strict wartime censorship during the Korean War?

[M. Dodge Thomas]

Boy, that one is sure in the eye of the beholder.

My take away from that scene not that thee was moral equivalence, but that that this is not only an ideological conflict but also a blood-feud, and likely our children and theirs will be still be fighting it a generation hence.

[discostu]

But it doesn’t necessarily mean to link the two as identical on all levels. The obvious link, that we and they have the same goal of killing every last member of the opposition, doesn’t necessarily link the motivations. And motivations are the difference in wars between the good guys and the bad guys. The Axis and the Allies had the same goals, but for different reasons, and the reasons are why the Allies were the good guys. Same thing in the WOT, they want to kill us because we’re not them, we want to kill them because if we don’t they’ll kill us. There’s nothing wrong with a movie linking the two and reminding audiences this is a fight to the finish.

[puroresu]

The 'Code' was an inconsistent joke with no punchline.

The code was certainly excessive. However, there are those (such as Spencer Warren & Lawrence Auster) who believe the code was at least partly responsible for the Golden Age of great Hollywood films. By putting a halt to gratuitous sex and violence, writers and directors were forced to actually come up with some superior material.

[puroresu]

They Were Expendable is as patriotic as any film ever made. It was melancholy because it was set during the early days of the war in the Pacific, when the Japanese still had us reeling. No one expects Hollywood films to show us winning battles we actually lost. Some of us are just sick of a steady stream of films depicting America as evil and our troops as psychotic murderers. They Were Expendable showed the sacrifice our soldiers made in that war, but it didn't depict our boys as the bad guys and treat the war as an insidious plot by imperialistic American politicians.

[My Favorite Headache]

Agreed. With Good Vibrations blaring in the back. I like the movie..not the best...but cool.

[StarCMC]

Very interesting.

Can anyone who has seen this movie tell me if it’s appropriate for a 13yo?

[Borges]

There was still plenty of violence in films back then it was just treated lightly...dozens of people falling bloeelessly from a handgun which fires an endless stream of bullets...

[karnage]

You make a good point about it being a fight to the finish. I guess I am hypersensitive to this stuff because, working as a conservative in Hollywood, the relentless leftism and anti-Americanism of so many of my colleagues gets tiresome after a while. I just didn’t like the implication of the link between the heroes and villains. Would have preferred that Foxx said, “We’ll get them all,” instead of “kill them all.”

[don-o]

Can anyone who has seen this movie tell me if it’s appropriate for a 13yo?

It is. As long as they understand what abortion is.

[Salvation]

I really want to see this movie!

[topher]

Today they have increased the number of cities that Bella will be released this week.

Also, they have announced cities that the movie will open on November 16, 2007.

[topher]

Today it was announced that Bella will open at 19 more cities November 9, 2007, and it will open at 30 more cities on November 16, 2007.

The number of cities for these dates will only increase or perhaps stay the same...

Important to get the word out about these cities...