There were 2 obviously liberal characters and one obviously conservative character. The movie is really about decisions
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godfather17 — 16 years ago(January 26, 2010 08:15 PM)
why should they? being a soldier is the opposite of smart. if your a soldier you follow orders. they dont think for themselves. and if they do, its even worse because they might actually disagree with what there doing but they do it anyway. there going against what they know is right.
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lighttrix — 17 years ago(January 01, 2009 11:30 AM)
"Would it be too much to ask Hollywood to make ONE film about an admirable, smart, heroic soldier? Just one?"
Saving Private Ryan?
Band of Brothers, i admit this wasn't a film, however it was produced by Spielberg and Tom Hanks. -
GMEllis625 — 17 years ago(January 02, 2009 08:49 PM)
"We Were Soldiers" does portray Mel Gibson's character as heroic ("First foot on the field of battle; last foot off"), but the overall message of the movie is the futility of war, especially the Vietnam war. "Saving Private Ryan" also has as its main theme the futility of war. That's the liberal view of war, (as in "what if they gave a war and nobody came?"). The conservative view is that war is occasionally a necessary evil, and we are at our most altruistic when we sacrifice American lives for another county's (or people's) freedom. After we discovered the atrocities of the holocaust the cry was "Never again!" yet we suffer genocide and oppression every day because we don't believe those causes to be worth the lives of our soldiers.
The last pro-America war movie was probably "The Green Berets" the last lines of which are between John Wayne (Col. Kirby) and the young Vietnamese boy (Hamchunk) as the boy asks "But what will happen to me?" and Wayne replies, "You're what this is all about!" I think it would be wonderful to release a re-mastered DVD of that movie and include an epilogue on what happened after we abandoned the Vietnamese.
It is quite natural for Hollywood to be more liberal than mainstream America, and Hollywood can serve a valuable role as our collective conscience. It is unfortunate when so many of their efforts are aimed at directly affecting public policy (and "Lions for Lambs" was just such an effort), and even worse when they sacrifice the story and entertainment value of the movie to do so. The good news is that when they do screw up the movie it usually loses money, as happened here. -
Starchie28 — 16 years ago(April 01, 2010 04:57 PM)
"We Were Soldiers" does portray Mel Gibson's character as heroic ("First foot on the field of battle; last foot off"), but the overall message of the movie is the futility of war, especially the Vietnam war. "Saving Private Ryan" also has as its main theme the futility of war.
This is completely wrong. Neither movie was making a statement about the futility of war. We Were Soldiers was about an epic battle in Vietnam and the events that led up to it, and Saving Private Ryan was about America's entrance into the WWII, and the sacrifices. It made no attempt to show that those actions were futile, just that they had human consequences, some good and some bad.
I guess it's simply too difficult for you to see this through your "Hollywood is liberal" clouded mind. Of course you're also promoting The Green Berets as an example of a movie that gets it right, when it's been roundly criticized for many reasons, including its tendency to present a completely biased, pro-war viewpoint in direct opposition to what was actually going on at the time. -
GMEllis625 — 16 years ago(April 01, 2010 09:04 PM)
You are certainly entitled to your opinion; obviously I disagree.
I am curious how you can say that The Green Beret presents "a completely biased, pro-war viewpoint in direct opposition to what was actually going on at the time." How do you know what was actually going on at the time? -
TheGunman — 15 years ago(September 12, 2010 10:14 PM)
Saving Private Ryan was about America's entrance into the WWII, and the sacrifices. It made no attempt to show that those actions were futile, just that they had human consequences, some good and some bad.
All the images show how brutal and futile war really is. It's about how destructive it all is to the people who fight it. It certainly is an anti-war film, and Spielberg has said so. -
cyguration — 10 years ago(July 02, 2015 02:02 AM)
All the images show how brutal and futile war really is. It's about how destructive it all is to the people who fight it. It certainly is an anti-war film, and Spielberg has said so.
To be fair, there's no such thing as an honest pro-war film. Real war is brutal, futile and grizzly. If you really want to win a war, you kill the leaders not the pawns.
Any "pro-war" movie is likely just propaganda, like Call of Duty. Glorifying the glitz and adrenaline of "fighting the good fight".
Real war is just a larger scale gang fight where both sides justify the need to kill each other.
If there's an honest pro-war film out there then it's just a nationalized color-and-stripes version of a pro-gang film (although, I don't think I've ever seen a pro-gang film or know of one that exists). -
jmorrison-2 — 16 years ago(November 09, 2009 07:18 PM)
"There are soldiers who have done multiple tours in Iraq, been injured, and then requested to go back and serve moreamazing individuals".
Amazing individuals, indeed. Many of these soldiers want to go back because they want to be with their buddies, and they want to help ensure that they all get home safely, not because they believe in the "cause". -
Shteve3 — 16 years ago(September 13, 2009 08:53 PM)
I agree with you and you reminded me of this video that I saw a clip of on Fox News the other day. I put the link below. I also felt that even if they had given a fair representation of the conservative side that it still would have felt unbalanced because it seemed the rights had to defend themselves the entire time against the lefts and liberals weren't wrong about anything and they knew all the answersas usual. I did like how Streep's boss tried to put her in her place though.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiQJ9Xp0xxU
I think beep just happens, but that's just me. -
owenandowen — 17 years ago(December 13, 2008 05:26 PM)
Usually when someone says it's balanced, and that they are conservative to add "validity" to their point is full of Sh*t. this film is not balanced, and the fact that it tanked at the box office so badly, just makes it even funnier.
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erikriveros — 16 years ago(September 10, 2009 10:00 AM)
i could not agree with the op more!
now, please keep in mind i tend to lean more towards the GOP views on things (especially in matters of nat'l defense) and voted republican the last three timesbut i am also a huge fan of film in general but my one constant gripe is the liberal leaning in all moviesso we got a movie that touches on war themes in the middle east in the present day, oh yeah, my liberal alarm bell was ringingr.redford directing, oh boy, liberal bell going bananasmeryl streep, liberal bell exploded
HOWEVER, after watching this i did not take it to have the typical liberal spin that all other hollywood movies take.not at all! what i did find is that there is something for everyone regardless of your political affiliations
streep was the yang to cruise's yingthe way cruise discussed the hipocritical role of the media in covering the war, the errors made in flashing 'mission accomplished' signs on aircraft carriers, the importance in acknowledging the fact that this enemy is a new kind of enemy that must be dealt with differently but MUST be dealt with
streep - the liberal reporter - calls her own medium out when she returns to her boss and says, we all knew what was going on and we did nothing (which i think we can agree is the underlying theme of the movie)
cruise was not portrayed as two faced, or a liarstreep's revelation upon reading the caption underneath one of cruise's office photos was merely that cruise might (would) use HIS new war strategy as a jumping off point to the presidency one daythat does not mean he was two faced at allhis strategy would only be a good jumping off point IF IT SUCCEEDEDso he believed in what he was doing and there is every probability that it was going to succeed.
as for the boys junior year plan.i'm on the fence here about which way the film is learningas we know they had three options for all juniors..joining the army was just one of thembut if, during their presentation, they dropped down a letter saying they joined the peace corp, that'd've been a very boring ending.yes, going to war and suffering the ending they did, seems to be the liberal poster for not joining the armybut i don't knowthese boys joined up for the most altruistic of reasons.
oddly enough, in RL, the boys' junior year plan would be a better one than in the movie
i was very pleased that this movie was not the usualno, it wasn't a great movie, but i did enjpy it, and i enjoyed that it actually made me see another side of things, and i'm a stubborn jackass.
it is better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it -
cplum5wh — 17 years ago(May 29, 2008 07:10 PM)
Because sometimes when conservative values are placed out in the open, they seem to lack foundation. Whether or not its the result of the Senator supposedly being a liar, I'm not so sure. His position resonates which much of America -and his reasoning was pretty clear -how many times has American tucked in its tail and whimpered back home after receiving a scratch? Isn't this the best time to take a stand, and refuse to loose? Its not like conflicts will get any easier.
If anything, I figured the movie had a conservative sense to it, and I found myself starting to agree with the Senator. His position and mindset was so clearly laid out that even if one didn't agree, you couldn't help but understand it through and through. I found the 'opposing' viewpoints to be too subtle, intellectual and vague to get a concrete grasp. I kept wanting to ask Streep, "Well, what would you want us to do instead? Stay, or leave?" She probably would have responded exactly the same way she did to Cruisejust sort of mumbling nothing of value.
While two of the 3 main characters were liberal, I do think Cruise was able to communicate his point of view such that there could have been 10 other people, and the conservative message would have still been more understandable. -
RightersBloc — 17 years ago(June 02, 2008 03:09 PM)
The movie is really about decisions and doing something instead of nothing.
A part of the movie was in fact devoted to that message.
The devil is in the details.
Watch it again while pretending to be totally bi-partisan. Tell me then you don't notice the (not so)subtle innuendo aimed at furthering this lame liberal sentiment. -
nigelgtx — 17 years ago(March 06, 2009 09:48 AM)
This movie got lousy ratings, and now I see all kinds of bashing comments
I for one, really enjoyed this movie, it had a good combination of action, drama, great actors (even if you don't like cruise, there was Redford, Pena, Berg, Streep)
Very interesting topic, I don't find it was conservative or liberal, this movie sort of show both ends of the story. -
erikriveros — 16 years ago(September 10, 2009 12:08 PM)
i could not agree with the op more!
now, please keep in mind i tend to lean more towards the GOP views on things (especially in matters of nat'l defense) and voted republican the last three timesbut i am also a huge fan of film in general but my one constant gripe is the liberal leaning in all moviesso we got a movie that touches on war themes in the middle east in the present day, oh yeah, my liberal alarm bell was ringingr.redford directing, oh boy, liberal bell going bananasmeryl streep, liberal bell exploded
HOWEVER, after watching this i did not take it to have the typical liberal spin that all other hollywood movies take.not at all! what i did find is that there is something for everyone regardless of your political affiliations
streep was the yang to cruise's yingthe way cruise discussed the hipocritical role of the media in covering the war, the errors made in flashing 'mission accomplished' signs on aircraft carriers, the importance in acknowledging the fact that this enemy is a new kind of enemy that must be dealt with differently but MUST be dealt with
streep - the liberal reporter - calls her own medium out when she returns to her boss and says, we all knew what was going on and we did nothing (which i think we can agree is the underlying theme of the movie)
cruise was not portrayed as two faced, or a liarstreep's revelation upon reading the caption underneath one of cruise's office photos was merely that cruise might (would) use HIS new war strategy as a jumping off point to the presidency one daythat does not mean he was two faced at allhis strategy would only be a good jumping off point IF IT SUCCEEDEDso he believed in what he was doing and there is every probability that it was going to succeed.
as for the boys junior year plan.i'm on the fence here about which way the film is learningas we know they had three options for all juniors..joining the army was just one of thembut if, during their presentation, they dropped down a letter saying they joined the peace corp, that'd've been a very boring ending.yes, going to war and suffering the ending they did, seems to be the liberal poster for not joining the armybut i don't knowthese boys joined up for the most altruistic of reasons.
oddly enough, in RL, the boys' junior year plan would be a better one than in the movie
i was very pleased that this movie was not the usualno, it wasn't a great movie, but i did enjpy it, and i enjoyed that it actually made me see another side of things, and i'm a stubborn jackass.
it is better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it
it is better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it