Why the Hollywood Left Hates Bruce Willis

FrontPageMagazine.com ^ | Friday, March 7, 2003 | By Norman Tines

[LRS]

And the leftist Hollywood scum has actually got the nerve to talk about stopping a supposed new round of McCarthyism????????

[TaRaRaBoomDeAyGoreLostToday!]

Duuuuuh because maybe he has a brain and thinks for himself.

[battlegearboat]

What you taukin' 'bout Willis!

[Under the Radar]

Film of the Week: 'Tears of the Sun'

By Steve Sailer
UPI National Correspondent
From the Life & Mind Desk
Published 3/6/2003 3:15 PM

LOS ANGELES, March 6 (UPI) -- For decades, Hollywood saw Africa as a sunny setting where white folks like Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn or Robert Redford and Meryl Streep could enjoy outdoor adventure and romance. As anti-colonialist sensitivities hardened, however, nostalgic portrayals of glamorous and benevolent settlers have become politically unacceptable.

Meanwhile, in the real world, the more the colonial era fades into the past, the worse the news from Africa gets. Massacres, corruption, famine, and now disease dominate the few column inches the newspapers devote to Africa.

Not surprisingly, filmmakers have responded, like most of us, by largely losing interest in Africa. Thus, it was surprising to see ads touting a new Bruce Willis action drama set in Nigeria.

"Tears of the Sun" begins with fictional but unfortunately believable CNN coverage of a coup by the northern Muslim Fulani tribe, followed by massacres of the southern Christian Ibos in the horrific tradition of Rwanda and Sierra Leone.

Willis plays the leader of a Navy SEAL commando unit sent to evacuate a beautiful lady mission doctor. After seeing the carnage first-hand, Willis violate his orders and help her Ibo refugees walk to the Cameroon border. The SEALS find Muslim soldiers ethnically cleansing an Ibo village and annihilate them. Then an elite Fulani force chases them through the jungle. At the end, there's a really big explosion.

And that's about it. "Tears of the Sun" has one of the most minimal scripts I've ever seen. About 80 minutes into the two-hour movie, for example, there's a plot development where we learn why they are being followed. It's not well crafted -- no attempt was made to prefigure it -- but I thought to myself, "Hey, at least it's a plot development. Something is better than nothing."

"Tears" resembles a slow, despondent remake of Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Predator." In that minor classic, a similar crew of commandos is also stalked through the tropical forest, but by a vacationing hunter from outer space who intends to mount Arnold's stuffed head over his interstellar fireplace. He's a genuine sportsman (sportsalien?) who at the end strips off his superweapons and honorably challenges Arnold to duke it out man-to-monster. Too bad "Tears" doesn't have any human characters as fleshed out as "Predator's" space monkey.

Remember when Bruce Willis was funny? In recent years, his underlying sadness seems to have been winning the battle with his wit. The once arrogant wisecracker has become ever more self-effacing onscreen. I don't know whether this stems from newfound moral wisdom or clinical depression, but I fear Gloomy Gus can't give too many more charisma-free performances like this one and remain a huge star.

The rest of the cast is also glum, with the most memorable performance turned in by a violently yawning baboon.

Reports from the set in Hawaii indicate that Willis and Antoine Fuqua, the director best known for 2001's powerful "Training Day" (for which Denzel Washington won the Oscar), were at loggerheads over script and tone. Fuqua and Willis seem to have compromised by simply eliminating everything that they couldn't agree upon.

Fuqua wanted a downbeat depiction of genocide demonstrating the need for Western interventions. The film ends with Edmund Burke's famous line, "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." In contrast, Willis wanted it to be more entertaining.

Fuqua appears to have come out on top, since "Tears" is certainly not entertaining.

Still, Fuqua, who is black, is an interesting filmmaker because he ignores white Hollywood's stereotype that blacks are automatically more virtuous than whites. Fuqua's "Training Day" was refreshing because the corrupt policeman was black and the innocent one white (in contrast to the recent cop flop "Dark Blue").

Fuqua's dour film fails to convey the engaging cheerfulness and vivacity of Africans. By portraying the Ibos only as generic tragic victims, it doesn't help us care about them. Scenes of Fulanis slaughtering Ibos just made me want to think about something else. Only the most saintly of humanitarians can avoid falling into despair over Africa.

Instead, the continent's enduring appeal has been to more macho souls -- hunters, pilots, farmers, even mercenaries, many of whom can't seem to stay away from Africa.

"Tears" did not make me want to dispatch American boys into African wars. Yet, sometimes a little force can help humanity.

Consider the coming famine in Zimbabwe. A friend of mine with much experience organizing covert military operations says that, if given a moderate investment, he could put together a mercenary force to remove the catastrophe's main cause, racist President Robert Mugabe. My friend, though, would just wind up in the dock of the International Court in The Hague. So, he asks, why bother?

-0-

"Tears" is rated R for strong war violence, some brutality, and language.

[vannrox]

.


"...It is about that Bruce Willis, more than any of his contemporaries, has defined the modern American hero: an average everyman who has undying love for his family; a flawed man who struggles with his weaknesses; a man whose heart is large and instincts strong; a man who exudes masculinity and a competitive spirit that assist him in eventually conquering the "bad" guys; the guys that leftists fantasize about prostrating themselves in front of..."

My favorite Bruce Willis movie is "Unbreakable". Where he is just an average Guy. But he has a purpose. And he discovers the purpose...that is to help his fellow man.

Unbreakable: Most superhero films start with the premise that the superhero is already a superhero, no questions overly asked. The few explanations for their behavior we do get come in limited flashbacks: The Joker kills Bruce Wayne's parents, Wolverine is tortured by scientists. None of these flashbacks ever explain the process. Why did Bruce Wayne choose to dress like a bat and hunt down the bad guys underground, instead of becoming, say, a police officer and being normal? Why did Wolverine decide to use his mutation for the forces of good, instead of using it to rob people impressively?

This question is the premise of M. Night Shyamalan's new picture, Unbreakable: just what brings the superhero to the decision to fight for good instead of hiding his powers or using them for evil? Is this a harrowing decision or an easy one?

The film surrounds the life of David Dunn, played by Bruce Willis. He's pretty much a beaten down man: his dreams of football, which he was excellent at, crushed by an injury in a car accident and now works as a security guard at his old stadium; his wife sleeps in a different room and he discusses moving out; his child seems lost and screwed up, in desperate need for a strong male figure in his life.

On his way home to Philadelphia after a job interview in New York, the train derails and everyone except David is killed. David, who was leaning against a window, hasn't a scratch on him.

While trying to find out the meaning, the whys, the hows of this event, he is found by Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), a crippled man who has suffered his entire life from being far too breakable; a genetic disease renders his bones brittle and delicate - his childhood classmates called him "Mr. Glass" for all his broken bones. Elijah is an avid comic book fan - he owns a gallery which sells rare prints and drawings by comic artists - and is convinced that David is a form of real life superhero. He believes that comics are like hieroglyphics in that they pass on exagerrated stories from the past, and aren't completely fiction, and David is his proof: a man who is unbreakable, a man of steel. After all, if a man could be born with a genetic defect making him infinately brittle, couldn't one be born with a genetic defect making him virtually invincible? No one would notice, because who thinks it is strange when a child is never sick or injured? It is only considered strange when one is constantly sick, and Elijah's question, "Have you ever been sick in your life?" starts to gnaw away at David.

To go on too much longer about the plot would give away too much (as Elijah's mother says when handing him a comic book: They say this one has a surprise ending), but suffice to say the emotional pull in this film is strong. David's struggle to deny and then finally accept his fate as being unbreakable is a convincingly real one: he looks so ordinary, and tries so hard to find examples of him being injured or sickly in his life, you know this is not a title he wants and would rather go back to being a security guard and living his small life.

It's completely fascinating, an aspect of the superhero film usually ignored en total - we're supposed to take all this struggle and realization for granted, and it's spellbinding to have the struggle given to us.

The relationship between David and his wife Audrey, played by Robin Wright Penn, is also good: a lump grows in your throat during the flashback to the car accident.

All the way to the end, the film grips you emotionally; that being said, it's not a heavy film in the way The Sixth Sense was. Humor is strong in this film, from the witty allusions with David in his long security rain coat, looking very much like a cape, to his son convincing him to lift more and more weights to prove he is a superman.

The only problem with this sense of wit comes in at the end; while I'm not going to spoil anything, the "Where are they now?" captions at the end of the film were inappropriate for the overall darkness of the story. It gave it a comic book feel, which despite being a film indebted to the comic book writer, is not right - Shyamalan seemed to be willfully avoiding comic stereotypes in order to make the film feel like something that could honestly occur.

In a way, you feel a bit taken by the flippancy of the captions - it is an ending that proves that, while David is physically unbreakable, emotions are a different matter, as all superheros eventually come to realize, and the audience goes on that short journey with him.

The chemistry between Willis and Jackson is superb. Neither are playing a particular stretch - Bruce Willis is everyman, Samuel L. Jackson is an eccentric - but both are plaing the type of roles they are best at, and both shine.

Willis is an extremely underrated actor, or perhaps just an actor that has made awful choices (Hudson Hawk, anyone?), and hopefully his work with Shyamalan will prove him as talented.

Shyamalan himself shines once again, with a tightly paced, realistic script and fascinating, beautiful direction: the picture of Philadelphia he paints in both Sixth and Unbreakable isn't exactly flattering (in fact, it's downright dreary and creepy), but boy does it work to build suspense. Obviously someone whose seen The Haunting original and a lot of Hitchcock flicks, he understands that the creepiest, most suspenseful part of any suspense or horror film is that which isn't fully explained or shown, and works this tension to the fullest effect.

His pallett of colors tends to run towards greens, blues, and blacks, all fantastic colors to build a spooky atmosphere, and his overall direction shows a sense of self-assurance that is lovely to watch in the age of trying far too hard.

It's fun to go back once the film is over, like The Sixth Sense, and try to spot all the foreshadowing to the ending. The foreshadowing isn't quite as seamless as Sixth, but you won't spot it unless you try to look for it. Overall, this was an extremely good film, enjoyable and engrossing, one that should garner both Willis and Jackson deserved acting nominations come Oscar time, and don't be surprised if they win, particularly since they've been passed over before. Shyamalan has proven himself a very good bordering on great director, and I can't wait for his next one.

[Vigilantcitizen]

Bump and copy.

[Semper Paratus]

The line is not quite right. The line is: "Yippie-kai-yay, motherf***er."

We need Bruce for the post Blix wrap-up today.

AAAHHHNNNTTTT! Sorry Hans, wrong answer.

[A2J]

"Yipee-kai-aye"

[finnman69]

I just re-watched the Die Hard series and The Fifth Element....so much fun.

Die Hard - The Ultimate Collection

[finnman69]

FYI

Tears of the Sun was originally suposed to be the next Die Hard movie.

[Hazzardgate]

12 MONKEYS is his best film.

[general_re]

Personally, I thought that Hudson Hawk was one of the funniest movies that I've ever seen...

You and my wife - she loves that movie. Personally - and don't take this as an attack on you - I thought that it sucked s*** faster than a shop vac in a septic tank.

On the other hand, I do like Bruce, and I'm more than happy to give him credit for the good movies he's made - "Unbreakable", "Sixth Sense", "12 Monkeys", "Pulp Fiction", and so forth. If we ever happen to stop by your place, by all means pull out "Hudson Hawk" - you'll make my wife happy, and you two can watch it while I go and kill myself ;)

[buffyt]

I plan to go see it. Bruce Willis bump.

[buffyt]

It is really interesting to watch SIXTH SENSE a second time after you know all the details... interesting indeed! Good flick.

[katana]

Great director, M. Night Shamyalan. Same guy who directed Unbreakable and Signs.

[BlueLancer]

...and don't take this as an attack on you ...

WAAAAHHHHH! You don't agree with me! You're picking on me! I'll sue! I'll put the habeus on your grabbus!

WAAAHHHHH!

Now, on the other hand, you did have the good sense to marry your wife, obviously an intelligent and highly-sensitive woman.

[JFC]

YEAH, we get to go to a movie this weekend.

We do support Bruce Willis. Someone should foward this on to his press agent.

However, I do remember seeing on a tabloid a few months ago a picture of Demi and Bill Clinton, indicating they were seeing each other. Demi was never one of my favs. But I knew Bruce was one of us.

[lawgirl]

News has it that he called President Bush to offer his service to the military in any future invasion of Iraq

And thereby follows in the footsteps of other Hollywood greats and honorable men Cary Grant, Bob Hope, Jimmy Stewart and many others.

WE DO need to support his movie. You can BET that Hollywood notices who is a box office star and who isn't. Don't think that your $8 won't make a difference- it will!! ESPECIALLY if accompanied by a quick email to the studios telling them why you did or, especially, did NOT see a film. George Clooney is feeling it- his last two movies BOMBED. Even O'Reilly suggested it might be because of his political stand.

[Future Snake Eater]

"Zed's dead, baby. Zed's dead."

[ewing]

Great music in the film 'Last Man Standing' by Ry Cooder.