Free Republic

Skeptics of AmericaÂ’s engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq have frequently drawn comparisons to Vietnam as a reminder of the futility of far-flung military interventions. Rarely do they mention the Philippines, the site of one of our first forays into nation-building. A recent film, however, uses that mostly forgotten war as a backdrop for a meditation on the wisdom of sending Americans abroad in search of monsters to destroy. Written and directed by John Sayles, Amigo, which arrived in a handful of American cities last month, is set in 1900 amid the three-year Philippine-American War. In the spring of 1898, shortly...

A columnist for Another Newspaper has described John Sayles’s Silver City as "a Bush-bashing work that is more than Bush-bashing." Yes, it’s also brain-bashing. Like all Sayles’s movies, that is, it has a message — a message to which all the events and characters of the film obviously owe their existence and of which they are mere illustrations — and this message is used as a blunt instrument with which the director belabors his audience from beginning to end. It is not a pleasant experience. I have had this feeling of disgust before on coming out of Sayles’s movies, but...

SAN FRANCISCO — "Bourne Supremacy" star Matt Damon (search), "Lost in Translation" actress Scarlett Johansson (search) and other celebrity artists are donating their talents -- not just their cash -- to an online effort to unseat President Bush. The Internet political group MoveOn.org on Tuesday premieres 10 new anti-Bush ads created by award-winning directors and starring popular Hollywood actors. An independent group not connected directly to Democratic candidate John Kerry (search), MoveOn has promised an unconventional approach to the election.

Aug 12, 3:55 PM (ET) COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) - John Sayles plans to screen his new movie - a political satire that takes aim at President Bush - in cities in Colorado next month. Sayles filmed "Silver City," about a man running for governor of Colorado and a disgraced investigative reporter, in Denver and Leadville last year. The movie will be shown Sept. 9 at the Kimball's Twin Peak Theater in Colorado Springs. Screenings also are scheduled for Denver, as well as Santa Fe, N.M., to benefit local and national nonprofit groups. "That will be incredible," said Kimball Bayles,...