Al-Samarrai is a fourth-year undergraduate student.
By Hakam Al-Samarrai
War-hungry equals patriotism, eh? Is that what we should all
believe? Should we all be thinking one thought ““ united, all
hungry for blood?
What we as a human race have long touted as a grand line of
separation between us and other species of the animal kingdom is
our ability to reason and think beyond pure instinct. So tell me
… what would a purely instinctive animal do when attacked? They
would attack back. So revenge through war, terrorism or any sort of
aggression ““ no matter how it may be justified ““ is an
instinctive act and does not speak to our abilities to think and
reason.
Saying this does not make me any less patriotic either ““
if anything, my ability and willingness to say this makes me a more
patriotic and more American person for it, much more so than those
who are so narrow-minded as to say “love it or leave
it.” There are many things that I love about the United
States, but that does not mean that it is without its faults, for
nothing is perfect. We have to be open enough to criticize our own
faults, and then work to amend them.
One great form of social and introspective criticism that I have
long enjoyed is film. Film has the ability to take you to places
that you’ve never been, show you sites you’ve never
seen, and sometimes, if made well enough, experience something you
have never experienced ““ or never wanted to experience.
To try and label Hollywood as either pro- or anti-military is
ridiculous, because Hollywood (in most cases) is not comprised of
only one solitary voice; both in and outside of Hollywood there is
very little that can be reduced to such black and white terms.
Ben Shapiro seems to be as disillusioned with the film industry
as he is with world politics, because he thinks that Hollywood can
be labeled as anti-militaristic (“Pro-military films prove
opportunistic,” Daily Bruin, Dec. 3). Perhaps he’s not
as much of a movie-goer as I am, and perhaps he does not appreciate
different point of views and opinions, a fundamental part of what
this country was founded on. A movie is not a good movie just
because it’s pro-military or pro-America. No, there has to be
a lot more in a movie for me to like it, and the message in the
movie ““ if it has one ““ must be one of value.
To think that pro-military movies are rare, as Shapiro does, is
comical. I could list plenty of movies that could be characterized
as pro-military. For example, look at “Mars Attacks!”
Throughout the movie, Martians take advantage of American pacifism
led by Jack Nicholson. Then there is also “The Fifth
Element.” Bruce Willis plays an ex-military taxi driver who
saves the world by blowing up aliens, evil greedy businessmen and
more, all in order to stop pure evil from taking over the
world.
Now you may think that those are a little too far out, but what
about “Starship Troopers?” The movie was anti-war,
taking a satirical look at war and a human race looking for revenge
against alien bugs that attacked the Earth. Nonetheless, I’m
sure many people took it to be a pro-military film ““
“The only good bug is a dead bug!” and “Kill them
all!” are the general themes that characterize the film from
the pro-war view that some Americans fell into after the terrorist
attacks ““ purely instinctual and selfish.
There are plenty of pro-war movies and anti-war movies ““
to say that either one is more popular in Hollywood is pointless,
because both have significant supporting demographics, which make
the films lucrative to produce.
There is more value to get out of a film that claims the United
States is an
“exploitative-horrible-capitalistic-disgusting-pig-country”
(as Shapiro would label it) than the pro-military films he boasts.
Perhaps Shapiro never knew that Oliver Stone, writer and director
of “Platoon,” actually served as a soldier in Vietnam,
unlike directors Steven Spielberg or Michael Bay, who respectively
made “Saving Private Ryan” and “Pearl
Harbor.”
If all you want is a bloated ego, which will lead you to be more
selfish and narrow-minded, then by all means skip out on movies
like “Platoon,” “Born on the Fourth of
July,” “Dr. Strangelove” and “Full Metal
Jacket,” which may make you think a little, and go watch a
high-budget movie like “Pearl Harbor,” which in all
likelihood cost more to produce than helping the homeless veterans
in the United States get back on their feet.