Hollywood Go Home

As has been noted by many movie and political columnists, there are a bunch of anti-Iraq war film coming out. Not suprising. Hollywood has a pack mentality.

I occasionally see the artists behind these works discussing the politics of the films, and alas, it's as fatuous as you'd expect. So don't think I'm specifically picking on Brian De Palma in analyzing his recent remarks. It's just that they were linkable. Equally silly comments by, say, Robert Redford in People, weren't.

His film, Redacted, is about gang rape and murder committed by U.S. soldiers in Iraq. (If you feel a sense of deja vu, it's because De Palma had a similarly themed movie about Vietnam called Casualties Of War.)

The movie is an attempt to bring the reality of what is happening in Iraq to the American people

The reality of the war is our soldier are risking their lives to bring freedom to Iraq. Gang rape and murder by our military is rare, while outrages from the other side are common.

The pictures are what will stop the war.

The war has gotten highly unpopular without much help from movies.

In real life, I feel helpless to stop these horrible things that are happening,

Well, it's quite possible horrible things, worse than what we've seen, will happen if we leave too early. No reason to feel helpless about that--we can stop it by voting against people who demand quick withdrawal.

It is un-American to criticise the government... Personally, I am not scared.

Pretty much everyone criticizes the government. What some of the critics don't seem to like is being criticized back.

As far as not being scared, that's because critics of the war have nothing to be scared about. Now if you tried to criticize the other side as viciously, you might have something to fear.

I am the man they love to hate. I am sure they will say; 'It's another De Palma misogynist saga'.

Because when it comes down to it, it's all about De Palma.