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Prankster
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Canada
727 Posts |
 Posted - 03/15/2008 : 10:03:21 AM
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This tangent came up briefly in one of our threads a few weeks ago. Can't be bothered to dig it up again, but over at Chud they're starting a whole dicussion about one of the points we were talking about, namely the question of whether it's actually possible to make an anti-war war film:
[url]http://chud.com/articles/articles/14034/1/THE-WEEKEND-DISCUSSION-IS-THERE-SUCH-A-THING-AS-AN-ANTI-WAR-WAR-FILM/Page1.html[/url]
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Check out my online comics at [URL]http://www.phantasmictales.com[/URL]! |
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Terrahawk
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
644 Posts |
Posted - 03/15/2008 : 1:56:11 PM
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I tend to agree with the author of the article. Reading through some of the comments, I think some of the authors are missing the point. Let's say you show some movie where the general in charge is a complete idiot and yet the men selflessly and heroically follow orders. Most guys aren't thinking "Gee, war is awful because the old men in charge are stupid, self-serving, etc..." No, most guys are thinking "What could have been achieved if they had decent leadership" and about the honor and comradarie of the men.
This commenter worries me with this comment:
quote:
i watched mash every day after school when i was in high school... ...it tought me what i needed to know...
- Si desea pulse 2 para español, encontrar un país diferente. - |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 03/15/2008 : 7:24:40 PM
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I suspect that the antidote to everything he "learned" from watching MASH would be to spend a few months in North Korea as a common peasant, preferably within eyesight of the bright lights and bustling freedom of South Korea.
Speaking as a soldier, I did not find the Normandy invasion scene of Saving Private Ryan to be "fun", as the author wrote. "Stunned" would be more the way I would describe my reaction to it. Even now. I was watching it in the theater with another artilleryman and one of us murmured to the other one something along the lines of "Jesus Christ..."
I think that is the reaction most any adult would have, but I must say that I later watched it again with another soldier and his wife in a military movie theater on post and there were two idiots behind me laughing. They laughed when the soldier took a round in his helmet, took it off to look at it, and then was shot in the head.
I suppose there is just no accounting for emotional immaturity in the young. It is probably the reason wars are a young man's business. It is undoubtedly the reason entities like the Nazis, Communists, and the jihadists aim their recruiting efforts at the youngest generations. Older people just aren't that...stupid. The simple routine of getting up, eating breakfast, going to work, coming home, going to sleep and having the weekends off has a lot of appeal that is just sometimes not apparent to people under 30 years old.
As to whether or not you can make an anti-war film, yes, I think you can. Fortunately, audiences will be very subjective in how they interpret a film. Often at odds with what the director intended. And when the director forces his vision with too heavy a hand, to insure that audiences "get it", the movie will usually do poorly at the box office.
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 03/15/2008 : 7:51:37 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Citizen Carrier
Speaking as a soldier, I did not find the Normandy invasion scene of Saving Private Ryan to be "fun", as the author wrote. "Stunned" would be more the way I would describe my reaction to it. Even now. I was watching it in the theater with another artilleryman and one of us murmured to the other one something along the lines of "Jesus Christ..."
My father was in that wave that took Omaha Beach. It may be harder for me to watch that scene and think about that than for him. Although, he refuses to watch Private Ryan, and most other WWII films in general anyway. "I remember it too well," is his attitude. "I don't need reminding."
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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Pip
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
333 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2008 : 6:57:07 PM
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I don't understand this "anti-war" stuff. Has anybody here ever met someone who was "pro-war" in the abstract? I'm not talking about being pro-war or anti-war over one particular conflict or area of the world, but just "pro-war" in general. Everybody I know is anti-war. Conservatives and liberals and objectivists alike. Nobody who isn't (a) a boy (or with the mentality of one) or (b) a psychopath *wants* war for just the sake of wanting war. I get annoyed with people who think they're the cat's jammies because they're "anti-war" in the abstract and just because I support this or that military action--despite the fact I support it for x,y and z reasons--then I must be some salivating warlover who is "pro-war" in the abstract.
Claiming to be "anti-war" in the abstract is like getting snooty and claiming your against breathing carbon monoxide. Like, who isn't?
Nobody here is like that. I'm just saying.
Pip |
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Sardu
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1126 Posts |
Posted - 03/16/2008 : 8:12:33 PM
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The thing that I really love about anyone that is "anti war" is that they will argue that point until they are blue in the face, never realizing that they are in fact engaged in the very kind of thing they claim to want to eliminate- just on a smaller scale. War is just a big big conflict, and conflict cannot be eliminated from human society. Not unless we rebuild society on the model of the ant colony, which dictators have certainly tried but with little lasting success.
Any sane military leader knows that peace is worth killing people for... *g*
"Meeting you makes me want to be a real noodle cook"
--Tampopo |
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