Did anyone else laugh at this??
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jondoe888 — 15 years ago(November 03, 2010 03:24 PM)
And someone made an excellent point - millions want to come here. It's not a perfect country, yet better lives can be found here. And with all our crime, safer lives can be found here. Maybe.
People come over here to work 3 crappy jobs, so their children will be Americans, and can get a good job and their own house, so their children can go to college.
(I know - many countries are so bad off that any country looks better to them) -
jondoe888 — 15 years ago(November 03, 2010 03:20 PM)
Wood plays a 'good guy'. He's from the mid-west, the farm belt. He's not sophisticated, but he's not dumb.
Abey is the 'real victim'? Did we see the same movie? We don't know her involvement in the trafficking. She obviously knew about it. We don't know her reaction to Carlos telling Jes about the dolls. She could have been the mastermind. She was surely part of the deal - how else would she know about the money, which she planned to use to buy the house in Vancouver.
Carlos was a trafficker. He maneuvered Jes to the woods to rape her - likely to kill, too. I didn't buy his 'I wasn't going to hurt you' line at all. But he may have needed her to carry the drugs, and was just going to rape her unless Abbey planted the drugs.
And you've never seen Woody's other works, where he plays hard as nails? And yes, some people are that nerdy in real life.
And Jes' lying - what was she to do? She killed a guy, deep in Russia - and his drugs were now in her suitcase. There is NO WAY she could admit to that!
Finally, the funny line. It's easy to laugh at. I'm sure it was intended to be so. I'm not real proud of what my country does around the world, but any of us might have said this. YOU might have said something similar, suddenly finding yourself in an unbelievable situation, held be gangsters. It's like 'no atheists in the foxhole' - when all hope is gone, you grab for anything. We ARE used to being protected here (yet are used to our own crime and astounding murder rates). (and yes, we know the oceans won't protect us from terrorists and home made bombs)
So I don't believe the line was seriously intended - except to show Woody's small world-view. -
Sylphadora — 16 years ago(June 23, 2009 05:16 AM)
Thanks for the replies!!
I was curious to know, because Joy and Jessie seemed to take their comment very seriously, and I didn't know how believable that is. I mean, I don't know if an American would really say that in a situation like this, as if the your enemy knowing you're American were any help or made you untouchable. I laughed at that because I thought it was a bit nave of Roy and Jessie to think that, that them being Americans was going to be a deterrent to Grinko and his corrupt colleagues, but knowing that it's not very realistic I suppose it should be considered a slip of the scriptwriter. -
rkb12 — 15 years ago(May 14, 2010 12:22 AM)
Yeah, to answer your question, I laughed as well and I am American. It was definitely meant to be funny. Or at least it should have been. I'm sure there are some Americans, though very few, who might actually think that they are untoucable becuase they are American. These would be very confused individuals who have a lot to learn. That is why the line is laughable; becuase some Americans would actually think this and they are so stupid for it. And, this is a little besides the point, but I don't think people who take a trans-Siberian train trip are the kind of people who would think such a naive thing. Typically Americans desiring to take such a journey would be more educated and open-minded than that (blunt I know, but I am just sayin it like it is).
Also, the person who said they were "American too" but from the continent and not the counrty is silly. Do Canadians and Mexicans really say that? Do they get offended when people say American meaning from the USA?? Becuase that just seems ridiculous. If that is how you feel you should call yourself North American. I mean really, if we are being so correct, then you are North American. And this actually points to the fact that the statement doesn't really make sense at all because there are two American continents. There is South America and Noth American. So, I guess I was assuming that you were from Mexico or Canada, and I might be wrong. But when you said THE continent, I assumed you are talking about the same one that the USA is on. Point being, you just shouldn't be difficult and snarky by pointing out that you are American too when you in fact are not from the USA, which was clearly what the original poster was talking about.
And to the person who said that the US is much better than the other person's countryyou suck. Go to your hole and don't come back out. You are the type of American that gives the rest of us a bad name. I apoogize to all of you non-Americans out there reading this. We are not all so arrogant. And no to all of you bleeding heart American-exceptionslist conservatives, I am not saying that I don't love my country, I am just saying that I don't necessarily think that it is the BEST in the world. And even if you do happen to think so there is no reason to throw that in other people's faces. Others may think that their country is the best in the world and they are entitled to that opinion. They don't need to go around rubbing it in our faces. How many other countries have you lived in anyway? What gives you the right to judge other countries without living in them, and seeing what they are really like. You can't just take what you see in American media as the absolute truth. I challenge you to actually test out your ridiculous theory. All countries have their fine points and their less than fine ones. There is NO NEED to say one is better than the other. -
LiveTogetherDialAPhone — 13 years ago(June 05, 2012 11:25 PM)
The "America the Continent" is more a cultural perception than anything else, and it's clear to me that the poster who said that is from somewhere in Latin America. In Latin America, the perception is that North America and South America are not separate continents, but one continent together - "America", simply put. They're taught that "American" means everyone who lives in each country from Canada south to Chile and Argentina, including the Caribbean islands.
To make matters more confusing, many people from Latin America think that United States citizens call themselves Americans out of an arrogant colonial mindset, not simply a different cultural perception. They think we call ourselves American as a way of saying we're better than every other nationality in the single continent of "America," or that we think we own everyone else. In reality, it's just about language - We call ourselves Americans because we come from "The United States of AMERICA," and "America" by itself has no larger meaning in our culture ("North America" and "South America" are separate continents to us and the idea of a united "America" comprising both of them is not part of our everyday speech). -
andrea-kathleen — 15 years ago(July 08, 2010 11:54 PM)
I definitely laughed at that comment myself.
I took a school trip to Russia and during the orientation, the director of the group taught all the non-Russian speaking students to say "I'm an American" in Russian. This is one of the things they were supposed to stay if a Russian started shouting at them and they didn't understand. Of course it sort of makes sense in that context - it's supposed to imply "I don't speak Russian"
But we still ALL laughed at that. I don't think MOST Americans are ACTUALLY that naive (though some certainly are.)
Then again, we were a group of students choosing to spend all our extra money on a trip to Russia. I'm not sure if that makes us a good cross-section of America.
But, on the other hand, doesn't the detective later kind of sat the same thing? When the other guy wants to shoot the husband doesn't the detective repeat "They're Americans."
Did anybody see that movie 'Hostel'? I think they paid extra to torture the Americans. I guess most American directors just think we are worth more.
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Screen-7 — 16 years ago(September 28, 2009 08:03 PM)
They said something like: "You can't do this to us, we're American!!" I watched this in Spain and here the audience laughed at that line, and I think it wasn't supposed to be funny.
I think it was supposed to be humorous but in an "insider" way.
Like how some conservatives don't realize that The Colbert Report is actually mocking them. It makes it all the funnier knowing that. -
buddy6102 — 16 years ago(September 29, 2009 10:48 AM)
As an American I can tell you that we are truly spoiled by our Constitution. We've never had to worry about our homes being invaded or being "questioned" by corrupt police officers. Most of us have never known poverty, starvation or desperation. Things like kidnapping, organized crime, and human trafficking are federal crimes and they rarely enter our personal radar and if they do it's only on the news and we are only shown how the FBI has "broken it up". Never that it's ongoing.
But as my wife, who's from Mexico City, says all the time, "Gringos never think that anything bad can happen to them."
So yeah we chuckled a little bit but kinda understood it.