Make Believe
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/25/AR2010022506161.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2010022603133
On a purely gut level, I suppose I have a certain amount of sympathy for the soldiers and their criticism. But they, and all of us, have to remember the simple facts pointed out in this article: Hollywood exists, and only exists, to entertain - nothing more. And they've (or most of 'em) been quite up front about it. They're paid liars and exaggerators. So are all other entertainers - jokesters, satirists, novelists, poets, songwriters, playwrights, etc.
I never watched Remember the Titans, because I knew it was a pack of lies and would just piss me off, (and I find sports movies catatonically dull). I ahd no interest in being entertained that way, and ignored it. So I gotta say to folks: relax. Remember, I don't think there was a single movie made about WWII for close to 20 years that was in any way accurate, (No blood, no severed limbs, all members of the Allies are super-intelligent and brave saints, etc.). And since then, the resulting crop has found new ways to be flawed, (we now live in the fantasy world of the entire German Army being made up of "Good Germans", just doing their job, and hating hitler - pardon me while I vomit).
It's just Hollywood, nothing more, (which is to say, not a lot). I guess the problem isn't so much with what the entertainment media puts out, so much as how much of it the populace seems eager to take as gospel truth. One is reminded of the (true) stories of people eagerly telephoning the Coast Guard, beseeching them to rescue Gilligan off that damn island. The soldiers of Iraq, and anyone else, should stop complaining about how stupid Hollywood is, and focus on how stupid WE are.
On a purely gut level, I suppose I have a certain amount of sympathy for the soldiers and their criticism. But they, and all of us, have to remember the simple facts pointed out in this article: Hollywood exists, and only exists, to entertain - nothing more. And they've (or most of 'em) been quite up front about it. They're paid liars and exaggerators. So are all other entertainers - jokesters, satirists, novelists, poets, songwriters, playwrights, etc.
I never watched Remember the Titans, because I knew it was a pack of lies and would just piss me off, (and I find sports movies catatonically dull). I ahd no interest in being entertained that way, and ignored it. So I gotta say to folks: relax. Remember, I don't think there was a single movie made about WWII for close to 20 years that was in any way accurate, (No blood, no severed limbs, all members of the Allies are super-intelligent and brave saints, etc.). And since then, the resulting crop has found new ways to be flawed, (we now live in the fantasy world of the entire German Army being made up of "Good Germans", just doing their job, and hating hitler - pardon me while I vomit).
It's just Hollywood, nothing more, (which is to say, not a lot). I guess the problem isn't so much with what the entertainment media puts out, so much as how much of it the populace seems eager to take as gospel truth. One is reminded of the (true) stories of people eagerly telephoning the Coast Guard, beseeching them to rescue Gilligan off that damn island. The soldiers of Iraq, and anyone else, should stop complaining about how stupid Hollywood is, and focus on how stupid WE are.
posted by mendip at
1:12 PM
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