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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
 Posted - 06/18/2009 : 5:57:07 PM
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BT, the problem with your logic is that support for the Iraq conflict only began to drop in 2006 after the Samarra golden mosque bombing and the all-out breakout of civil war. Since a majority of Americans did support the Iraq war in 2003, 2004, and 2005, why were no likeminded movies greenlighted by Hollywood then? Likewise, support for the war in Afghanistan was even stronger during those years, not just in the US but internationally, so why exactly did the studios back away from making any pro-Operation Enduring Freedom films during that timespan?
Then the business of numbers comes into play. You compare the budget of an anti-war movie costing 5 to 30 million dollars while insisting that a pro-war film would cost upwards of 200 million dollars. Why exactly couldn't a pro-war film cost only 5-30 million dollars? Just tell a personal story about the people involved, rather than depicting the broader conflict itself, as did the lefty anti-movies did, and then you don't have to spend the extra hundred million bucks. But Hollywood's not doing it. Again, why?
Then again, it's a mistake to restrict this thread to focus only on "war" films. The initial post centered on counter-terrorism films in general. Really, what's the danger in giving the OK to a James Bond film with a terrorist as a bad guy? How come Jodie Foster only rescue her child from kidnappers if the villains aren't Middle Eastern? People don't mind watching a terrorist blow up Gotham City so long as the terrorist is wearing clown makeup? (And a nurse's skirt... and a wig... but I digress.)
Lastly, with all due respect, it's rather absurd to hedge on whether or not 9-11 is an unpopular subject. Come on-n-n-n-n! People don't mind paying ten bucks to see a movie about the World Trade Center crashing down, or a hijacked plane crashing into the ground, both based on real events, but they don't want to see any even remotely pro-war movie because the wounds from the real-life conflict are still too deep? Puh-lease. |
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BT
Preeminent Apostolic Prelate of the Discipleship of Jabootu
USA
168 Posts |
Posted - 06/19/2009 : 2:58:36 PM
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Zombie, I'm leaving work in about 10 minutes, so I can't go through all of your points, but I'll simply start by saying I think your memory of the public perception of the Iraq war is a bit off, at least chronologically. If the war were still popular in 2004, let alone 2005, Bush would have won the 2004 election by a LANDSLIDE. He won that election DESPITE Iraq, not because of it (well, that's not exactly true, I think a lot of people fell into the "don't change horses in midstream" category).
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zombiewhacker
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
USA
1475 Posts |
Posted - 06/20/2009 : 4:20:19 PM
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Just addressing that one point, my recollection might be off by a smidgen, depending on which opinion survey poll you read. Certainly by 2006 the country had gone full negative. Examples that my meager Google skills were able to pull up on the fly:
[url]http://www.gallup.com/poll/1633/Iraq.aspx[/url]
Was going to war in Iraq a mistake?
Year Month - Yes/No
2003 Mar 24-25 23/75
2004 Jan 12-15 42/56
Here are the numbers right before the 2004 election:
2004 Oct 29-31 44/52
Here, briefly in 2005, it tips the other way
2005 Jan 14-16 52/47
Then over the next few months later it seesaws back and forth again:
2005 Feb 25-27 47/51
2005 Jun 24-26 53/46
2005 Jul 22-24 46/53
2005 Sep 16-18 59/39
2005 Dec 9-11 48/50
Then in 2006, as I said, it finally shifts heavily toward the negative, pretty much for good.
2006 Jul 21-23 56/41
Okay, so much for Gallup. Here's the Pew Research Center on July 21, 2005:
[url]http://people-press.org/report/251/more-say-iraq-war-hurts-fight-against-terrorism[/url]
"A growing number of Americans believe that the war in Iraq has undermined the U.S. struggle against terrorism. Nearly half (47%) say the war in Iraq has hurt the war on terrorism, the highest percentage expressing that view since the war began in March 2003. Nonetheless, public support for an immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq, which had risen steadily since last October, has leveled off. And despite the public's doubts about the war and its impact on the war on terror, Americans have not given up hope for a successful outcome on Iraq..."
"However, bottom-line support for the war has not eroded, even in the face of intensifying violence in Iraq. Roughly half of the public favors maintaining U.S. forces in Iraq until the country is stabilized (52%), and about the same number support the original decision to go to war (49%). The issue of whether to set a timetable on the U.S. military involvement in Iraq also splits the public almost evenly 49% say the U.S. should set a timetable, while 45% disagree."
Iraq war's effect on War on Terror has Helped/Hurt/No Effect
October 2004 45/40/6
Feb 2005 44/41/7
July 2005 39/47/7
More polls:
[url]http://www.pollster.com/polls/us/issue-iraq-rightormistake.php[/url]
So maybe I should modify my earlier statement and say that war enjoyed majority support in 2003, dwindling to plurality support in 2004 and 2005, and only then did the country go negative on the war in 2006. But a plurality of, say, 45% in a country of three hundred million people still adds up to at least 130 million Americans. That's a lot of butts to be planted in theater seats. If you can sell movie tickets to even a fraction of them at $10 a pop...
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