Opening Night for "Brothers"Not sure what it is about Hollywood, but when it comes to war movies about Iraq and Afghanistan, they seem to crank out more duds than a Chinese fireworks factory. This latest installment is called "Brothers" and is a remake of a Danish film from 2005 about the stereotypical Marine that comes back home and goes bonkers. Pretty dull and contrived stuff. Here's what Blackfive has to say:
More likely, I think, is the possibility that this is just another Big Hollywood movie that stereotypes soldiers or Marines as angry (because the military is where people go when they can't get into prison!), humorless men (which is why they don't go to college!) who scream a lot, beat up on family members, hate hippies (because they hate their own latent homosexuality!), throw dishes for no good reason at all, and beat up on women and little brothers.It's not that all of the good coming home movies were "pro-war", but rather the characters in them seemed a lot less phony in movies like The Best Years of Our Lives and Born on the 4th of July. I mean, seriously, Tobey Maguire's character is looking like he's auditioning to be the third Bushwhacker in Wrestlemania V.
Maybe if the production didn't look like it belonged on Michael Moore's Youtube page, it might be worth seeing. But until more vets start becoming filmmakers and more involved in the creative arts, I predict we're going to see turd after turd on the touchy subject of the modern veteran. If the VA can actually figure out how to pay out on the GI Bill, perhaps we could have some decent war movies hitting the big screen.
See what the others have said:
14 comments:
I haven't seen the movie yet, so perhaps my judgment based on the trailers alone is faulty....but it sure looked like what I call an anti-vet movie...one that makes our returning veterans seem like there is no way they can sanely fit back into civilian society. In my book, it's the filmmakers who make these movies who are more out of touch with real life.
Hey Nixon, just stopping by to say Heeelllllloooo. I hardly read blogs anymore. Hope you're doing good! Oh and thanks, I wasn't going to waste my hard earned $$ on this crappy movie anyway. :)
LT,
I'll make sure I miss that one.
When we was in the big IZ, a good person sent me TV shows in DVD...thanks to TiVo.
One show I was sent was: "Over There"
We called it "Over Here"
It was so stupid...mostly Nam error stereotyped loosers who went into the Army because they couldn't do anything else.
Fact is, at that time (04-05) the Army and Marines has some of the best people I had ever seen in my life. They were very smart, good thinkers, able to shoot, drive and everything else.
The best way for us to vote on this...don't pay to watch this crap!
I probably could count the non-political, good war movies on one hand. When I saw the trailer for this one I thought it had some potential. Mainly because it seemed like it strayed away from the PTSD angle and stuck with a "oh we all thought you were dead, for like 10 years" angle. Guess not.
I liked "The Beast" as a good A-stan movie. Lots of Russians and T-72's. A little political, but it was all about the big, bad Russians so I thought it was ok in a Red Dawn sort of way.
I Take it Nixon that you've haven' seen the Hurt Locker?
The original Danish brothers was a freaking awesome ass movie. Maybe the awesomeness got lost in the translation to english.
Nix,
Here's a possible reason. WWII was a shared burden across the entire American populace. There is no shared sacrifice and no shared burden during the last 8 years
A vast majority of Americans do not have even a connection to either theater of Operations.
Those making movies are even further removed and none of them today would even come close to dropping a Hollywood career for service. No Vic Mature or Wayne Morris amongst today's stars. No today's Hollywood elite mimic Ronald Reagan and John Wayne and pretend to be in the military in pictures...
But, when the war ended most Americans had a real connection to it and knew something about the military and it's members.
Today's Americans and Hollywooders don't and it shows...
First trailer I saw was Toby losing his shit outside his house...thought, "Gonna have to give it a miss." And listen, slacker, I don't care how busy you are; more frequent postings are needed. I miss the prolific snarkiness of the past.
Anon: The Hurt Locker was unwatchable drivel. Some of the documentaries have been fine, Like "Gunner Palace" and "Generation Kill".
However, "The Best Years of Our Lives" was a fine and poignant war film. Thanks for mentioning it.
Wow. First class comments on a second rate blog. Much obliged! Sorry, I haven't been updating much, but I've been a bit busy.
Lisa
Gunner Palace had the line which sums up Iraq:
"Someone being sympathetic to this? I don't know if I'd be sympathetic if I wasn't in the Army. After you watch this, you're gonna go get your popcorn out of the microwave and talk about what I said, and you'll forget me by the end of this.” ~ SGT Beatty.
Actually I'm going to spoil some of the plot here to make a point about the movie...
Spiderman's character is crazy in the movie cause he was captured tortured by Jihadi's.
Yes it is a Hollywood film that has the balls to show Islamic terrorists as bad guys.
Grungy Gene,
Yes, that was the money line.
(I also liked the soldier on his tank when asked what he liked about Iraq. "Well, they give me this [points at his gun] and I can shoot things." Yep.)
Speaking of Gunner Palace, a new film, How to Fold a Flag, that follows the unit home will be released in 2010.
http://www.howtofoldaflag.com
one that makes our returning veterans seem like there is no way they can sanely fit back into civilian society.
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