Iraq war is hell on the bottom line at the box office

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | November 23, 2007 | Joe Garofoli

[Homer_J_Simpson]

Jabbar Magruder is an active duty Army National Guard sergeant who served 11 months in Iraq. He was hoping that stateside Americans would get a glimpse of what the war was like when several dramas featuring the Iraq conflict either in the foreground or the background hit theaters this fall.

Snip.

But to some Iraq veterans, like Magruder, who have tried to raise awareness about the war's perils, the apathy represents a larger disconnect many Americans feel toward the war. Implicit in the Redford, Streep and Tom Cruise film "Lions for Lambs" is a challenge to filmgoers to become impassioned about the war.

Snip.

"I thought that with the casts (of these films), at least a portion of America would go to see them," said Magruder, a 24-year-old who is taking premed classes at California State University Northridge and is the Los Angeles chapter president of Iraq Veterans Against the War. Like many soldiers, he joined the service out of a sense of duty and, because his family had limited financial means, to pay for college.

[Homer_J_Simpson]

If the Los Angeles chapter president of Iraq Veterans Against the War isn't a good source for reporters writing about veteran opinion on the subject of Iraq then I don't know who is. Unless perhaps it's one of the half million or so veterans who aren't part of that organization. But I guess this reporter couldn't find any of them.

[goldstategop]

The MSM wouldn't know the meaning of patriotism if it chomped them on their rear end.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." - Manuel II Palelologus

[redstateconfidential]

Jabbar?

[Uncle Hal]

Hollywood does not get it. Americans do not to see anti USA movies that make our military look like war criminals. Plus that is not what we are. If they would bring out some movies that make our soldiers look like heroes, then maybe people would go see them.

[bolobaby]

*sputter*

I can’t believe this tripe. Gee... maybe the films failure has to do with apathy towards the moonbat leftist line???

[SandRat]

If Hollywood instead of Hollywierd would produce a film that was about the soldiers, their heroics, and their big hearts, rather than the rehashed Vietnam Anti-War trash; it would be different.

Unfortunately we don’t have Hollywood any longer only Hollywierd.

[Clara Lou]

And the movies are just bad ones, to boot?

[VOA]

Iraq War on America's Warriors is hell on the bottom line
at the box office

This "Truth in Journalism" correction provided free of charge to
Free Republic.

[Brilliant]

Hollywood has no credibility these days. The public wants entertainment, but Hollywood portrays it as history, or perhaps opinion. It certainly doesn’t pass as entertainment these days.

[SeaDragon]

But to some Iraq veterans, like Magruder, who have tried to raise awareness about the war's perils, the apathy represents a larger disconnect many Americans feel toward the war. Implicit in the Redford, Streep and Tom Cruise film "Lions for Lambs" is a challenge to filmgoers to become impassioned about the war.

A larger disconnect??? Please, maybe people are just tired of the Hollywood hype. Come on! Give us a break from these idiots.

[rdl6989]

That’s an interesting name isn’t it.

[DGHoodini]

Yet more enemy propaganda from the pervert filth traitors of the LA Slimes. They’d burst into flames if ever forced to tell the truth.

[kingu]

Tell you what, Hollywood, you put out a film that documents the incredible roll-over of the Iraqi army, the creativity in bringing amphibious vehicles through the desert to cross the Tigeres river and surprise Republican Guard units, and ends with the Iraqi people cheering as the statue of Saddam is toppled, I’ll pull out my fifteen bucks and go see it.

We can’t lose a war we won /long/ ago.

[Vision Thing]

In another great example of reality being greater than fiction, The Surge is working on two fronts: Not only is it making ho-wood's anti-war fantasies look ridiculous, but it's also making believers out of Iraqi refugees who are finally returning home: 100,000’s of Iraqis Enthusiastically Return Home.

[DGHoodini]

OOoops! Meant SF Chronicholes.

[nkycincinnatikid]

“Jabbar?”
Well, maybe his folks just couldn’t find a name in the Bible or whithin the Greco-Roman-European area that suited him.

[freeangel]

Wahoo! Let’s hear it for the sound of hollywood whinos being flushed down the toilet where they belong.

[The Duke]

...a challenge to filmgoers to become impassioned about the war.

I'm not sure I want to be sitting in the middle of a theater full of "impassioned" viewers.

[Man50D]

Hollywood does not get it.

Oh they get it. With all due respect,people who say they don't get it are the ones who don't get it. Many Hollywood types and like minded people don't think of themselves as Americans. They consider themselves socialists. it is paramount for them to attempt any means possible, including trying to demoralize our military, to replace our democratic form of government with a strong centralized socialist form.

[Forward the Light Brigade]

What about that Bruice Willis Movie he can’t get anyone to make because it show US troops as heroes rather than wacked out murderous nut jobs? Make that movie and see if people come. Maybe Hollyweird needs a 9-11 to happen on Melrose Drive before they will start to see red, white and blue again.

[james500]

"Despite A-list casts - including Robert Redford, Meryl Streep and Tommy Lee Jones - and generally good reviews, war-related dramas tanked this fall at the box office"

Joe Garofoli is in a Lefty alternate reality. Lions got panned for being way to boring and Redacted got panned for pretty much everything, as in no redeeming qualities.

But it's not bad movies that are the problem at the box office, it's stupid apathetic Americans.

"America doesn't want to deal with Iraq, period," Magruder said. "There's just apathy."

Thank you for your service, Jabbar. But I think you don't understand Americans.

[kempo]

I don’t see how people like Redford can look a GI in the eyes.

[Man50D]

democratic form should read democratic republic.

[Bringbackthedraft]

Hollyweird has to make a gory slash and gash Iraq war movie showing the AQ Jihadists slicing off heads and blowing up children. Buckets of blood splashed all over and then they’ll get more viewers. (Ever notice that the horror movies always have torture scenes, but you never see them using panties over their victims heads.) Where are the John Fords of today? Where are the movies like Wake Island, Battan, Air Force, Flying Tigers, Guadacanal, Objective Burma and Gung Ho, that were made 3 generations ago. More important, why don’t we have Frank Capra and a “Why we Fight” series? The Hollywood left seems to want to produce films more like “Mission to Moscow”(circa 1942).

[Man50D]

I don’t see how people like Redford can look a GI in the eyes.

I doubt he does.

[bray]

Get this guy a crying towel. America just isn’t full of treasonous cowards like him. Loved the lie about generally good reviews, it got slammed by the critics. Loved the crying though, poor lib.

Pray for W and Our Victorious Troops

[VR-21]

"Unless perhaps it's one of the half million or so veterans who aren't part of that organization."

That's all you needed to say Homer. You are right the hell on. One creep per half a million is an acceptable ratio.

[joebuck]

"Despite A-list casts - including Robert Redford..."

A list? I doubt anyone under 25 knows who Redford is and I further doubt many under 30 could name a single one of his (ancient) movies. He's a dinosaur has been.

[imahawk]

Hey redford, you might need to put some ice on that.

[james500]

I would suggest that Redford is not a good actor because he’s pretty much the same character in every movie.

Robert Duvall, on the other hand, can believably assume very different characters depending on the role.

[Billthedrill]

Yep - the movies are tanking and it's the audience's fault. Right.

Couldn't be because they're crappy movies no one wants to see. No way.

[joebuck]

"I would suggest that Redford is not a good actor because he’s pretty much the same character in every movie."

Yep, he's a movie star not an actor.

[navymom1]

For once, just once, I’d like to see a movie that doesn’t show the evil guy as A. Republican B. Conservative. C. Christian D. A right wing nut job or D. A conservative republican right wing Christian nut job with a red neck.

For once, just once, I’d like to see a movie that doesn’t denegrate conservative principals or the people who espouse them.

For once, just once, I’d like to see a movie that doesn’t poke a jab at President Bush or Republicans or Conservatives or Christians. And I’d like to see a movie where the heavy is a Liberal Environmentalist Whacko. Or a Liberal Democrat in Congress or a Derranged liberal High School teacher.

For just once, I’d like to pay for a movie that doesn’t insult my beliefs, my religion, my political party or my Country and its military.

Think it’ll ever happen? Doubt it. They couldn’t even make Transformers without the gratutious slap at GW Bush.

Lord, I hate Hollywood. Okay fine, hate is a strong word, but I really do feel intense dislike for those egotistical arrogant, pampered and catered to on each and every whim, elitest pigs.

[Congressman Billybob]

The newspaper, the reporter, and the so-called source are all political bigots who want the US to lose its second war in its history. They want that. Their survival depends on it. Our survival, on the other hand, depends on the opposite, on an American victory which we are now clearly capable of achieving.

Congressman Billybob

Latest article, "The Descants of LIfe"

A Freeper in Congress? Click here. Act now.

[nkycincinnatikid]

You are soo right. Fifty million people would go see that movie..... in the first week.

[pcottraux]

Well, to be perfectly honest, I think a great deal of it may have to do with the fact that people by and large go to movies to ESCAPE problems going on in the rest of the world. We have plenty of outlets of news, via internet, radio, TV, etc. that are talking about the war in Iraq all the time. I just think a lot of Americans go to the theater for recreation, to GET AWAY from all that.

Although I also do agree that most honest Americans are unwilling to go pay to be preached to about how evil their own country is and watch the fine men and women of the military be slandered.

[Bahbah]

Make a film about the incredible courage and decency of the American military and you will make a mint. Just make a film about who they and those who support them really are and you will rake in the bucks.

[Cogadh na Sith]

But Hollywood supports the baby-raping, grandma shooting, cowardly, redneck, uneducated, emotionally damaged, killbot toops!

[gaijin]

1942: "Corporal Iwasaki perches his carbine on the Tarawa berm his troops have jumped over, pausing to wonder into our outstretched mics, 'America puzzles me --why do so few people want to see great flicks like, The Treacherous Defense of Pearl...?! I'm baffled..."

[been_lurking]

to replace our democratic form of government with a strong centralized socialist form.

Were that to happen, they would be the first to be sent "to the camps".

You give them far too much credit for brains. They are mostly a bunch of delusional high school or college dropouts. They barely have two extra brain cells beyond minimum life-support requirements.

[American in Singapore]

Maybe Hollyweird needs a 9-11 to happen on Melrose Drive before they will start to see red, white and blue again.

I think God is trying (the Malibu fires).

[17th Miss Regt]

Maybe Hollyweird needs a 9-11 to happen on Melrose Drive before they will start to see red, white and blue again.

Nope. They would still be only a third of the way there. If a 9-11 happened on Melrose Drive they will just continue to see start to see red, red and red.

[flat]

IT MUST be pretty discouraging to liberal filmers when they discover, much to their horror, that americans are no longer buyin their lefty spiel....guess they better check the classifieds for alternate employment...

Wise men understand that war is hell but it is also the duty of free men to fight whenever the freedom of men are imperiled and the lifeblood of our nation, ie oil is in peril....

the ‘FREE FLOW OF OIL AT MARKET PRICES’ must be insured. It’s the grease of democracy....

PLUS generally, its a good thing to put a thug out of business sort of as a stark lesson to other thugs i.e. the khadafi treatment.

[infidel29]

"I thought that with the casts (of these films), at least a portion of America would go to see them,"

You can put perfume on a pig, but it's still a pig.

Even if the most beautiful person in the world tells a lie, it's still a lie.

[Man50D]

You give them far too much credit for brains.

Never underestimate your enemy.

[kcvl]

Jabbar Magruder

When return for my deployment I informed that in order to keep drawing my GI Bill I had to maintain my enlistment in the Army National Guard. Or I had to go into an Inactive Ready Reserve drawn no GI Bill, and be put on a big list of the go back to Iraq with any unit any army who needed a Black Hawk helicopter mechanic. No real choice at all.

I am currently the Los Angeles chapter president, a member of the national Board of Directors, a student at Cal State University Northridge majoring in Biomedical Physics, and a sergeant in the Army National Guard until August 2008.

When not repairing Black Hawk helicopters for the California National Guard, Jabbar Magruder conducts counterrecruiting sessions with would-be enlistees.

he serves as secretary of the Los Angeles chapter of Iraq Veterans Against the War, attends antiwar demonstrations and meets with students on college campuses.

[popdonnelly]

This article is such predictable leftist rubbish, that it’s laughable.

[popdonnelly]

I used to be a motion picture fan. Now if I go once a year, it’s a lot. Hollywood has nothing to offer me, and I don’t feel like spending money to support a bunch of leftists.

[HeartlandOfAmerica]

Redford, Streep and Tom Cruise film

I'm not apathetic. I could have gone to see this flick. But knowing the past politics of this trio, I knew it would be nothing but a propaganda piece, so why bother?

[OneHun]

You are absolutely right!  The facts you pointed out are the reasons for me to avoid the movie theaters 99% of the time since the clinton's regime.   The old classics are like refreshments.  At least they were able to show a good story line and not mess it up with leftwing political activism and filthy explicit scenes.