Some Marines that I've met think that way but the ones that I've met who are officers and have served awhile don't. Marines of all levels will do their duty and if asked to go into a situation where they are heavily outnumbered or outgunned they will but smart officers tend to avoid that sort of situation. From the story it sounds like this wasn't a situation they planned for but where a patrol had to be rescued. Its also not clear from the story what sort of air support they were getting. Either way it was a good job done by the Marines.
Here is a list of pro-American war movies not dealing with WWII from the past 50 years that haven't been mentioned that I came up with off the top of my head: The Green Berets Behind Enemy Lines Bat 21 The Lost Batallion Flyboys Generation Kill (series) Strategic Air Command The Patriot Top Gun Uncommon Valor Red Dawn Gods and Generals The Hunt for Red October Three Kings
This one is pretty questionable... The interrogation scene of Marky Mark doesn't shed alot of positive light on US soldiers. Not negative, mind you, but the rest of the movie doesn't help. I mean the main plot of the movie is Americans trying to steal gold...it's great they do the right thing at the end I suppose...
Fair enough. The lesson I took from the movie is that Americans can be greedy and mean like everybody else in the world, but will do the right thing when push comes to shove, unlike the others in the movie. I thought it painted Americans in a very positive but not unrealistic or fawning light. If you saw something different, I appreciate that. I think in some respects that is the evolution of films that basso so laments. Look at westerns, for instance. It used to be the good guys were 100% good and the bad 100% rotten. If a guy had on a white Stetson, he would always be the good guy - black, and you can be sure he is going to rape and pillage. In more recent films like "Unforgiven" the good guy wasn't born with a white hat. In fact, he can be a pretty nasty guy. I'm sure that upsets basso. I don't think it is possible to do a war movie or a western or anything anymore where the good guys don't have doubts or flaws, and the bad guys smell like brimstone and have forked tongues. Most people would find that simpleminded. But I think that simplemindedness and clarity is really what basso craves. Certainly if basso's point is they don't make movies anymore where good and bad are inviolate and unquestioned, that is true. And thank God for that. Welcome to reality, basso. At the end of Three Kings, I knew that the Americans were good guys, and the Iraqis weren't. That is enough for me. If you look at massively pro-American WWII war movies like Saving Private Ryan, there are several scenes devoted to soldiers b****ing about having to follow orders, or b****ing about letting the German guy go. The only guy who fits the 'old school' definition of a good guy in that film is the Tom Hanks character. That doesn't make me doubt which side of that film to root for.
i loved Unforgiven. what i was looking for was something like The Longest Day, A Bridge Too Far (although Monty doesn't come off too well), even Patton. The movies about the Gulf and Iraq wars have been pretty pathetic, but then, they've also bombed at the box office.
I disagree. While captain miller was a great man, It was corporal upham who portrayed humanity and how frail we all are. Captain miller hid behind a mask, for a while no one knew what he did for a living. Even the captain got a mudda. Upham, on the other hand, never hesitated to show us that it is okay to be afraid, that it was okay to give your enemy some water. At the end of the film, Upham was a different man, a changed man. FUBAR.
And why isn't another Ten Commandments or Gone With the Wind just like the Cecil B DeMille and O'Selznik versions? Times change and in many ways we are in a post archetype age. That is why we have The Dark Knight and not Adam West's Batman being made now. Just because Christopher Nolen gives Batman more depth than Adam West doesn't mean that The Dark Knight doesn't portray the Batman positively. Plus if you are going to say movies have bombed at the box office that isn't an argument that those moives haven't been made.
Actually what you want is something more like "Triumph of the Will", or, even better "Birth of a Nation". We have progressed since then, but I'm thankful today that you haven't as it has been a source of amusement for the rest of us.
Clear And Present Danger Flight Of The Intruder Flags Of Our Fathers The Alamo U-571 Iron Eagle series Delta Force Memphis Belle Navy Seals PT- 109 The Finest Hour Tuskegee Airmen And so on...
Your initial response was that Hollywood didn't make movies that portrayed the military in a positive light except for WWII films. That has been shown to be an inaccurate position that you took. Yes, it would be nice if every film was of the quality of The Longest Day, but that doesn't mean that films aren't made
The other thing about "The Longest Day" is that it spends like 1/3 of the film sympathetically dealing with the German point of view. Can you imagine the uproar from the right-wing radio crowd if there was an Iraq War movie that portrayed Saddam's army in a sympathetic light? How about the scene where lost paratrooper Paul Anka finds downed RAF pilot Richard Burton who says, “He's dead, I'm crippled, and you're lost. Sort of fitting don't you think?” That would immediately be pounced upon as subversive America-hating defeatism if it ended up in a Iraq War film.
I don't recall it sympathetically dealing with the Germans. The movie presented itself with a more accurate situations of war than most movies. It showed courageous and cowardly moments alike. If you present a movie where Americans are shooting every dark skinned person they see, then that would be skewed, not sympathetic.
I agree. It's classic blast-o though. Start ambiguously placed thread > hide intent that has nothing to do with OP > get called out on it > make ridiculous distracting counter-claim > get pwn3d > profess ignorance/innocence > get pwn3d again > shift reasoning/objective > get pwn3d once more > go poof > repeat
This is a bit of tangent but the character Said on Lost is a former member of the Republican Guard and a torturer and he not only is portrayed positively he also is one of the main protagonists. And in Saving Private Ryan Pvt Oppman at the end shoots an unarmed German prisoner. Letters from Iwo Jima deals with the Japanese side of the battle and one of the few scenes involving US troops they are seen shooting two unarmed Japanese prisoners.
The thing with both of those examples is that basso isn't portraying them as the good ol' days when American's loved America (i.e. the opposite of what is wrong with Hollywood).
