President-elect Obama’s election and inauguration is a victory for wisdom in the war against ignominious hate. President Obama will inherit a nation which, by the unwavering commitment of President George W. Bush, has taken the steps necessary to stop Terror Inc., in its tracks. Hollywood Studios which, let us not forget, remain on Al Qaeda’s hit list, have continued to produce films of protest to the former President’s war policies and defamatory to his character. They thrive and get rich by hating him. Rather than support our President and our troops, rather than vilifying our enemy, Hollywood has in the main chosen to vilify those sworn to protect it. Hollywood has indeed changed. Let’s compare Hollywood’s response to WWII to its response to 9/11 and our war effort.
Classic and contemporary Hollywood feature films about America’s heroic contribution to victory in World War II are legion. My favorite three classics are “Casablanca,” the splendid “Victory at Sea” (NBC TV), and “The Longest Day.” During, and for some time after World War II, most American filmmakers celebrated the American fighting spirit which, once awakened, crushed Nazism, defanged the Imperialist Japanese and corralled Communism. Then, American film critics were generally supportive. A glance at reviews published about “Victory At Sea,” contemporary with the series’ release in 1952, are illuminative. The New York Times praised the series for its “rare power”; The New Yorker pronounced the combat footage “beyond compare;” Harper’s proclaimed that “‘Victory at Sea’ [has] created a new art form.” The New York Times, The New Yorker, and Harper’s sing praises of war! The horror, the horror.
American feature films about World War II and the American film critics’ responses reveal a radical shift in Hollywood.
With the bold exception of “Flight 93,” in which our heroic American fighting spirit shines, Hollywood films mock our war effort and worse. Warner Brothers’ “Syriana,” indicts American foreign policy and business interests as co-conspirators responsible for the murderous animus directed at us by otherwise benign leaders. In “Three Kings,” or “The Three Amigo’s Do Iraq,” George Clooney and his men must, as did Caballeros’ Dusty Bottoms, Lucky Day, and Ned Nederlander, decide whether they will take the money and run or stand and fight for the hapless souls they were duty bound to rescue. The Clooney platooney courageously decide to help their wards escape, to IRAN! (God, if you happen to read this essay, please, if I ever pray for help, whatever you do, don’t send George Clooney!)
“World Trade Center,” directed by that Ozymandian pillar of Hollywood morality Oliver Stone, offers up Americans as proud victims able to take a hit, pick themselves up, dust themselves off and in the end, survive. The heroes of Stone’s film are cops and firefighters. They are without doubt real-life heroes each and every time they put on a uniform and report for duty. It’s in their blood and they should be celebrated for it. The caveat here is that it took the destruction of two giant skyscrapers and the savage televised murder of thousands for truculent Hollywood liberals like Stone to acknowledge their heroism. Many people who’ve seen “World Trade Center,” including New York Times’ critic, A.O. Scott, who used “public tragedy,” to describe 9/11 in his review, left the theater feeling understandably sad. But public tragedies include plane crashes, hurricanes, tornadoes, the death of a beloved leader, etc. 9/11 is more than a public tragedy, it was a beastly and cowardly act of war! Where is the celluloid rage! Where are the celluloid heroes who will kill those who design to kill us?
“World Trade Center,” reviews appearing in national newspapers differ sharply from those written for “Victory at Sea.” They demure. The New Yorker magazine’s Film Critic David Dentry, praised “World Trade Center,” but only after constructing a blast proof wall between himself and conservative commentators who are waxing eloquent about the film. Richard Schickel of Time opined “‘World Trade Center’ is…a hymn in plainsong that glorifies that which is best in the American spirit.” Newsweek’s David Ansen wrote, “…’World Trade Center’ celebrates the ties that bind us, the bonds that keep us going.” What has kept us going is the quality of “rare power,” which The New York Times ascribed to “Victory at Sea.”
We have to be more than tough victims, we have to be righteous victors.
The national buzz surrounding the releases of “Flight 93,” and “World Trade Center” has been characterized by the question: “Are we ready to revisit 9/11?” Just three years after Pearl Harbor, in 1944, Spencer Tracy as General James Doolittle was flying across motion picture screens with Van Johnson and Robert Mitchum en route to bomb Tokyo.
Where are our celluloid heroes when we need them?
One’s jumping up and down on daytime talk show sofas proclaiming that psychiatry is a pseudo science. Another helped hapless Iraqis, probably Sunnis, escape to Iran! One other, who would not fit into a tent let alone fatigues, roams about lambasting the very institutions which afford him the liberty to make millions discrediting them. I don’t think we’ll see an “Inman, Where’s My Mosque,” movie on Egyptian, Iranian, or Saudi movie theater screens soon. Movies are forbidden in Saudi Arabia.
Then, Humphrey Bogart, Ernest Borgnine, Richard Burton, Clark Gable, Kirk Douglas, Henry Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Sal Mineo, Gregory Peck, and John Wayne volunteered for screen action. Laurence Fishburne, Cuba Gooding Jr., Tom Hanks, Denzel Washington, and others have portrayed World War II heroes as well. But the stars have not come out for this war. Where are Ben Affleck, Pierce Brosnan, Matt Damon, Johnny Depp, Robert De Niro, Paul Giamatti, Samuel L. Jackson, Edward Norton, Sean Penn, and, again, Fishburne, Gooding, Hanks, and Washington? At the Ivy having lunch?
A sign once stood in a snowy Rocky Mountain meadow at the main gate of Camp Hale, Colorado – the training camp for the 10th Mountain Division, America’s first ski troops, citizen soldiers recruited by the National Ski Patrol! On this white sign there was a bold black caricature of Adolph Hitler. “WE’VE GOT A DATE WITH THIS SON OF A BITCH, LET’S BE ON TIME!” was the caption which ran in big bold black letters next to Hitler’s mug. Sadly, tragically, realistically, history has asked our nation on another date with destiny. Will Hollywood pacify us in order that we might behave like good victims or inspire us to fight for victory?
The boogie-woogie bugle boy of company “C” is playing his tune, Hollywood. Reveille! Reveille!
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.