I love war movies. We've had some great war movie threads here. Movies about WWI and WWII and the USA kicking the stuffing out of the Germans. In fact war movies are so popular that Hollywood still makes them to this day. But here's my question. Would you go see a war movie today that depicts the USA kicking the pants off OBL and the Taliban? Would it sell at the box office? Would it be considered unPC to see a move like that? Would the antiwar tree huggers picket it? Would Muslims be uncomfortable? It's just a question, but I don't think we, as Americans would be as open to a war movie today as much as we were 30 - 40 years ago. What do you think?
Tell that to the people that spent $216 million to go see <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> It's probably not a question of if, but when a movie about this war gets made, and it will probably make buttloads of money at the box office. We've already seen people spend all this money on flags and stuff...I would definitely drop seven bones to see a movie about the war... The real question is...Who would play Osama Bin Laden?
Sylvester Stallone has started production on a new Rambo movie. Whether or not it will actually depict Bin Laden I don't know, but it is rumored to be set in the region and was "inspired" by recent events.
I think you're right mc mark. I also think it really depends on who is making the movie. Pearl Harbor was made by Disney and they really sanitized the hell out of it. In fact they sanitized it even more when they showed it in Japan so that it wouldn't offend them. Personally, I think a country that starts a war should be offended by that just a bit or something. I really thought the movie was a disgrace to what happened and never should have been called Pearl Harbor. It's becoming more and more about making money and not about making great movies.
Look at your original quote...You said that Americans wouldn't be as open to "a war movie" today...Saving Private Ryan was <b>a</b> war movie War = Violence Violence = Money Now, as far as the political correctness issue goes, I don't think that the number of Muslims in this country would be enough to create that much controversy...You might have a few isolated demonstrations on opening weekend, but not much...The tree huggers are probably more worried about saving the endangered Alaskan Salmon or recharging the batteries on their electric cars to worry about some war movie, so they won't make that big a deal about it...
<B>It's becoming more and more about making money and not about making great movies.</B> Haven't mainstream movies always been about making money?
Of course Hollywood isn't going to make war movies the way they once did. Audiences aren't going to accept a movie where war is portrayed as some glorious sporting event with guns and the Americans are perfect in every way. With today's media, we know that war is dirty, bloody, cruel, and a place where decent human beings die horribly. Anything that whitewashes this would simply be ignored. The best war films have always been those that pull no punches with the more difficult aspects of war. Go see All Quiet on the Western Front, The Bridges at Toko-Ri, , or Gallipoli and you'll see what I mean. These are great films.
Rules of the entertainment industry: 1. money is everything. 2. if your film can't be a breakfast cereal we don't want it 3. you are jack valenti's b**** 4. stick with the mainstream 5. always include cgi 6. trailer has to contain girls in tight clothing 7. actors are more important than acting 8. theme song needs to be performed by leading pop group 9. star's face will be on the poster 10. hilarity must ensue
Special Patrol Group: I did a search and came across this. http://www.corona.bc.ca/films/details/rambo4.html No mention of OBL, but it did mention...ahem...Jackie Chan as a co-star. Pretty silly. I think I'll stick to watching Stalingrad if want a war movie.
I don't deny that the movie industry is about making money but to me it's just like the music industry putting out crap like 98 degrees, N Sync, and stuff like that. The movie industry, like the music industry, has some responsibility to art doesn't it? Memento for example, is probably the best movie I've seen all year yet I never saw an ad or anything. We need more Mementos and less crap.
I hope that's more accurate than what I heard. I thought that Rambo in Afghanistan sounded a bit tasteless. Probably just a rumor. I guess he finally figured out that no one wants to see him in comedies.
unfortunately, they will eventually make a movie out of the 9/11 tragedy also....sooner or later you know it will happen.
The deal is if you find anyone who thinks that WWII was a bad idea, they'll most likely be wearing a swastica or be named Hirohito. A large percentage of the population was not in favor of the Vietnam war, and a reasonable percentage of the population have a very cynical 'war for oil' mercenary view of the gulf war as exemplified by the attitudes of movies like Three Kings. In otherwords, people used to be alot less cynical. The only way that they can come up with a heroic, altruistic war movie today is to hide it in the fog of patiriotic memory that is WWII. Otherwords nobody will buy it. How about Star Wars (the original) as a classic war movie? Another way to create a heroic good vs evil theme is to base it in a completly fictional world.... just a thought. By the way, if you'd like to see the greatest war 'movie' ever made get ahold of all 11 hours of 'Band Of Brothers'. It was awesome. When Guarnere and Toye got their legs blown off and Buck Compton lost it, I was crying like a little b**** 'cause it was so sad. AND it was true history.
