Ben Shapiro Shapiro is a second-year
political science student bringing reason to the masses. E-mail him
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Hollywood is taking a commercial break ““ from bashing the
military. Not because Hollywoodites finally realized the error of
their ways, and not because Sept. 11 woke them up. We
couldn’t hope for that kind of drastic turn-around.
For the time being, Americans won’t have to swallow
another psychedelic anti-military script about Gulf War soldiers
being abducted by David Duke and the U.S. military for gnarly tests
involving a great deal of sex and pot. The demand for that kind of
garbage is down, and Hollywood is feeling the pressure. When times
are tough, the calls for pro-American movies finally penetrate the
Berlin Wall-thick skulls of Hollywood moguls.
Illustration by JARRETT QUON/ Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Unfortunately for those ’60s-style hard rock,
die-before-I’m-30, Hollywood types, patriotism is an
“in” thing nowadays. This means that all of those
movies ripping the military ““ like “The Thin Red
Line” and “A Few Good Men” just won’t cut
it at the moment. So the movie industry is doing an about face,
meeting public demand for pro-military movies. Hollywood is
quitting the anti-American propaganda business for now, but
don’t hold the grand clearance sale yet ““ this is just
a breather.
Think back just a few short months to the kind of movies rolling
off the Hollywood production line. Remember “The Thin
Red Line?” The movie nominated for best picture in 1999?
It revolved around the invasion of Guadalcanal in World War II, a
monumental effort by the U.S. military, which was fighting in
guerrilla warfare circumstances. To make an excruciatingly long
story short, the main character, played by John Cavaziel, begins
and ends the movie swimming with the fishes ““ only the first
time he is alive. The movie sends a subtle, yet strong,
anti-military message, claiming that World War II was useless in
the same way as Vietnam ““ a ridiculous claim when you
consider America was fighting the Axis power, the most powerful
force of evil seen in thousands of years.
Let the waves of time continue to wash away the years. It is
Nov. 6, 1998, opening night for “The Siege,” a
well-made movie starring Denzel Washington and Bruce
Willis. Washington plays an FBI agent, and Willis plays
““ you guessed it ““ a general in the Army. Willis is out
to get a terrorist cell in Manhattan, and nothing will stop him. He
locks up all the Arab-Americans in the city, throws away the key,
tortures terrorists and has an all-around good time before being
locked up by Washington. The movie is a propaganda piece promoting
the “victimized” terrorists, putting down the Army, and
showing that the real “danger” in the world is the
military. It is Willis, the one who actually attempts to locate
terrorist cells and kill terrorists, who is the horrible, sadistic
villain of the piece. The terrorists are just misunderstood
people.
Now let’s look back to the paradigm of anti-military
movies. Think back to 1991, the opening weekend of “A Few
Good Men,” starring Tom Cruise as an obnoxiously hissy yet
determined lawyer striving to indict Jack Nicholson, a hard-nosed
general, for the accidental death of a soldier during what can best
be described as a hazing ritual.
In the film’s climactic scene, Nicholson cuts loose,
screaming at Cruise: “You want me on that wall ““ you
need me on that wall!” And this statement is absolutely
true. While good old Tom is off drinking and playing softball,
Nicholson is out defending the country. Yet Cruise righteously
berates Nicholson for his hard-nosed tactics with his soldiers.
Well, here’s a little secret ““ I’d rather have
Nicholson, the villain, out defending my butt than pretty boy
Cruise. Hollywood, on the other hand, would not, begetting the
question: Do these people realize that their right to make movies
is defended by soldiers like the one Nicholson portrays?
And these are just a few examples. Â From Vietnam movies,
such as “Platoon” and “Apocalypse Now,”
wherein our soldiers are nothing but drug-addicted, back-stabbing
screwballs, to Korean War films such as “M*A*S*H,”
where the Army is a running gag, Hollywood has made a career out of
dumping on the military.
But what about “Saving Private Ryan?” “Men of
Honor?” “Pearl Harbor?” These are just exceptions
to the rule, unfortunately. Hollywood producers finally looked into
the audience and saw that many people actually like the military,
and there’s a huge market for pro-America war films. Thank
goodness for the free market, or we’d never see anything
backing up our fighting men and women.
But the American public will continue to be subjected to
“spit on the military” films as long as producers can
make any money at all. And many Americans will be shaded by the
constant barrage of toilet-bowl filmmaking, turning against our
military.
Americans can stop the garbage streaming out of Hollywood by
continuing to show strong support for the military. Those men and
women overseas, in Afghanistan, in Saudi Arabia and around the
globe, are protecting the land you stand on. Every fundamental
right you have as an American you only have because soldiers are
putting their lives on the line for you.
So when Hollywood reverts to its universal tenets of
anti-militarism, America as an
exploitative-horrible-capitalistic-disgusting-pig-country,
don’t go to the theater that night. Go out and rent
“The Caine Mutiny,” “Patton” or
“Saving Private Ryan.” Don’t support the
attacks on our military. They stand between us and oblivion.