I just read today a commentary about movies: did you know that almost all of the nominees for best foreign film at this year's Oscars dealt thoughtfully with the subject of the clash of values between Moslem and Western communities?
And not a single nominee for Best Picture did. Even the recent films, like "The Hurt Locker", that dealt indirectly with Islam didn't bother to explore Islam very much at all.
2011-03-20
I have observed many, many times how the most militaristic Republicans seem to have almost never actually served in the military--John McCain being a notable exception-- but then, real Republicans still don't like him.
Someone told me that Ronald Reagan served. I couldn't believe it so I checked. By golly, it's true. Reagan was a captain... eventually... in the cavlary. And then in the Army Air Force Motion Picture division. He never left California, except to go to New York to raise war bonds. But then, during election campaigns, he seemed to remember events from the movies as if they had really happened. Or maybe he realized that he was in a movie, about a long-ago, far-away, dreamy America of white picket fences and crime-free small towns... and look-- there's Opie.
Suggestion for Democrats: try to add an amendment to any bill that takes away collective bargaining rights that no executive or manager with the same organzations, institutions, or companies, can earn more than 4 times the highest wage of the lowest-paid 25% of employees.
The US release of this movie was delayed for more than a year by the terrorist attacks on the USA of 11 September 2001. The producers were concerned that it would be seen as anti-American. [IMDB Trivia on "The Quiet American" (2002)]
Think about that. In America, the free, the land of liberty, where we don't censor the media, where people are not imprisoned for their thoughts-- well, they didn't used to be--, and which never tires of singing their patriotic hymns, a movie about American involvement in Viet Nam was held out of the theatres and almost shelved completely because it would be seen as anti-American.
A number of thoughts spring to mind.
1. Did the producers (Miramax) believe that, given the right time and place, the film would not be seen as anti-American?
2. Isn't the entire point of the film that American involvement in Viet Nam was a disaster, for democracy, for freedom, for humanity? Isn't pointing out the hypocrisy of American values in this particular historical situation sort of "anti-American"?
3. Can't Americans take criticism? Well, not all of them. The Republicans and the Texas State School Board would basically like to just shut those critics up, purge them from our school books and legislatures, and ban them from the airwaves.
4. Why is Miramax, a private company, cow-towing to this minority opinion?
I don't actually believe that most Americans support the idea of banning a film because some segments of the population simply don't want to hear criticism of U.S. attitudes (because "The Quiet American" is more than criticism of policy: it's criticism of attitude). But that minority who do support the idea can screech very, very loudly. That's why the Republicans have been winning so many battles with Obama lately: they just start screeching.