gina, i'm glad you responded, as i enjoy the mental gymnastics. based on our foreign policy for....oh..........the last 200 years, i would imagine that every nation on earth , except england and maybe france, would hate america, and be reasonable in doing so. we're imperialists unless it's expedient, like most of our middle east policy for ages. i haven't read sardars' book, but if the title is any clue, i'd have to say i would agree with it's thesis. i try to keep my mind as free from ethnocentrism as i can. i suppose this movie (which again, i watched until shortly after the slaughter scene, when i knew where it was going, and switched it off, as based on the direction and performances, i knew it had been done better) can be, depending on your worldview, viewed as anti muslim. it's like a work of art that we both might be familiar with. are andy warhol's campbell soup cans and marilyn monroes a a satiric comment on "modern american commercials and morays" , an artist laughing at his audience, or something else ? in the case of this movie, i saw (i did look in for the resolution after i switched it---thanks imdb for running times) a movie about the decisions people are faced with in hostile environments----there was a scene before this where the sam jackson character shoot a vietnamese officer, because, ( i think), the vietnamese officer wouldn't call off an attack on sam jacksons company. if it were a vietnamese officer shooting an american for the same reason, i would still see it the same way. if it was an iraqi commander faced with similar circumstances against an american citizens, it's still be the same...FOR ME. we all frame things differently, based on who we are, and have been, not to mention the simple fact of looking at an event and seeing that it represents one thing to you and something else to the guy next to you. but as i say, if were from the a middle eastern or vietnamese point of view, i'd still see it as a story about "the rules of engagement", literally. as such, that's why i favor "rule 303" from one of my 20 favorite movies, "breaker morant". if it's my life or yours in ANY situation, i will do whatever is necessary to avoid martyrdom. having said that, i can see where a person would view this as movie which slurs muslims, if that's what you're lookng for. remember, movies are products, and this was made for a (not too bright) american audience. do you think it would have any chance of commercial success if it were about a vietnamese officer who killed an american officer and slaughtered a large group of americans who, maybe, were leaving saigon under heavy fire ? movies of this financial stature are made to sell tickets, though i presume this didn't do so well. i'm a lot closer to your mindset vis a vis americas' foreign policy, but i just don't see this weak movie as being about how awful muslims are. got any more movies you wanna debate ?
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15 years ago
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bobbyt1962
15 years ago
gina , i do assume you know that i don't think much of the movie, as i mentioned, i didn't watch too long after the slaughter--though i did check the running time on imdb and went back for the resolution, but it's still not much---definitely not a "piece of art" , nor a soul searching debate. just a movie you watch the beginning of at 4 in the morning and switch when you know there's not much to it. but on the other hand, if you think it's a recruiting ploy, i don't agree. is "kalifornia" a recruiting ploy for serial killers? not for me. recruiting for anything, even amway, generally focuses on the good side to the exclusion of the bad, to induce a "sale" . shooting weapons at other people, and getting shot at probably appeals to a small percentage of male teens, and not much else (though that group, i believe, is the largest group of ticket buyers). i am certainly aware that america is an all time imperialist---if i haven't mentioned noam chomsky---i usually appreciate his point of view on matters like american imperialism. we've worked over almost every place in the world at one time or another. back to the movie....my "racist? what are you smoking? " is not meant to imply i can't be reasoned with (i hope). as i have stated previously, i thought the theme to be more along the lines of the "interpretation" of a specific event....paticularly because the first scene (the killing of the vietnamese officer) seems to set the stage for my interpretation of it being a "what to do" type movie (again, a bad one, though). every culture has its' own ways of thinking and so on, so i can appreciate how strongly that you feel that the depiction here is racist. i'm gonna sign off now, but like a bolt of lightning in my mind, a favorite movie i haven't seen in years popped into my head.....a passage to india......but i'm still gonna go now. but please don't think that all americans support the imperialism that has made so many (silent) enemies for us. and what does "get sorted"mean? never heard that..
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