Five Days at the End of the World

City Journal ^ | Autumn 2008 | Andrew Klavan

[Lorianne]

My visit to Afghanistan, and the War on Terror movie that Hollywood would never make ___ was on my way to Afghanistan because of the movies. Really. Movies like Brian De Palma’s Redacted; In the Valley of Elah, written by Paul Haggis; and Lions for Lambs, starring Robert Redford—movies about the War on Terror in which our soldiers are portrayed as rapists or post-traumatic murderers or naive fools roped in by warmongering neocons. I went because of the movies that didn’t get made, too—the movies that never get made—movies in which the heroic U.S. military defends our nation’s principles of liberty against a low, violent, Islamofascist miscreed. I wrote about these films in City Journal (see “The Lost Art of War,” Winter 2008) and in the Los Angeles Times. I attacked Hollywood for wallowing in outmoded European ideologies and for resurrecting imagery left over from movies about Vietnam.

Then, after a while, I started to ask myself, “Hey, wait a minute. How do you know what a movie about the War on Terror should look like? What would your movie look like, big mouth? What kind of story would you tell?”

My articles had attracted the attention of a Civil Affairs officer in the Army reserves, When I told him what I was thinking, he invited me to visit him there. First I would join his unit for battle training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina (see “Braggistan in the America of the Imagination,” Summer 2008). Then I would be embedded with it for a couple of weeks in Nuristan, one of Afghanistan’s least developed provinces.

[Old Sarge]

I don’t think De Palma and Robert Redford and Paul Haggis are bad men. They’re certainly entitled to believe what they want. But when they make these movies during wartime, when they endanger these soldiers and their mission, I think they’re doing something bad—something wicked, really. They are aiding and abetting the enemy’s Information Operations. And they ought to stop.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight...

[ConservativeMan55]

bttt

[Skid Marx]

I’m at work, but I got pulled into this story anyway. Well worth it, excellent writing. City Journal is a gift.

[pray4liberty]

I don’t think De Palma and Robert Redford and Paul Haggis are bad men.

The Road to Hell is paved with good intentions.

[united1000]

Thanks for the post. Worth the read.

[Karliner]

Shesh, what a windbag. At least it was positive toward our troops but he was too patronizing.JMHO

[neverdem]

Thanks for posting.

[SunkenCiv]

...was on my way to Afghanistan because of the movies. Really. Movies like Brian De Palma’s Redacted; In the Valley of Elah, written by Paul Haggis; and Lions for Lambs, starring Robert Redford -- movies about the War on Terror in which our soldiers are portrayed as rapists or post-traumatic murderers or naive fools roped in by warmongering neocons.

Thanks neverdem.