Wednesday, February 10, 2010

"Dear John" - - - deleted scenes

Jeeziz-H-Kee-Rice!!! So the number one movie in the USA last week is some sappy flick called "Dear John" in which a young woman falls in love with a young man but their romance is punctured by his constantly being sent overseas as a special-forces soldier in the post-9-11 era???

It's never revealed in the movie just where he is or what he's doing. Mayhap that's because what the US special-forces do is pretty nasty, and watching truthful representations of our Dear John's work would turn the stomachs of the uninitiated, and make them less likely to see him as a romantic dreamboat, and more like a twisted, psychopathic monster.

Still, the filmmakers don't want to shirk their patriotic duty. So, for the uninitiated, there's the DVD that will come out in about a year, and all the people who l-o-o-o-ved the movie will buy it and then check out the "director's cut" wherein they'll discover that they didn't leave anything out. It's just that after having spent a year swooning about "Dear John" viewers will be more prepared to see what he was up to during those long, bittersweet months away.

Hand-cuffing teenagers and shooting them in the head in Afghanistan.

Dressing-up in native Afghan garb and throwing acid in school-girls' faces to discredit the Taliban.

Torturing to death some completely confused middle-aged Arab father who has a name similar to some other guy who some torture victim claimed was a terrorist.

Getting his rocks off in a Syrian brothel with some Iraqi MILF who has no other source of income since her husband was killed and their house stolen from them.

Training Colombian paramilitaries on the nuances of hacking peasants to pieces with machetes and blaming it on the FARC.

In all seriousness, the sort of drivel like this "Dear John" movie is just another way the system creates brain-dead, consuming morons who sit passively, stupidly, and simply accept that the USA invades other countries, shoots dead entire families at road check-points, massacres civilians, trains death-squads. They accept it because some of the torturers are kinda cute, at least when they're portrayed in Hollywood movies.

13 comments:

LK said...

I like this post for keeping it real. Why does Hollywood ignore or glorify the realities of war? The truth comes out, day by day, Blackwater (XE), the compromises. What bothers me most are the generations of families that are affected in one way or another. And for what? Thanks, LK.

thwap said...

Yeah. Movies like this help to normalize the insanity (when they don't glamorize it) of the mechanics of imperialism.

"Special Forces" are advertised to males as a macho "killer elite" but there's no real look at who they're killing and why (unless it's some wide-eyed Arab actor portraying a lunatic terrorist), while "Dear John" presents this guy as a sweet, vulnerable, brave, blah, blah, blah.

I give the pretty childish blockbuster "Avatar" some credit for showing militarism for what it is: the psychotic servant of imperialist greed.

Youngfox said...

Best movie critique ever.

The propaganda wall built up in front of these weapons of the plutocratic elites creates a cognitive dissonance in the minds of N.American consumers that is horrifying to behold.

It is no better here in Neo-Canada. I feel like a stranger in my own country sometimes listening to glazed-eyed consumers and our servile media elevate the willing occupation soldier to the undeserved status of "hero" no matter what they do.

Why not nurses, teachers, the guy who cleans the road during a snowstorm etc. etc...

thwap said...

People just don't want to know. It takes a little work. That's why an honest media is so crucial. Ordinary people wouldn't really think a professional killer was "cool" if they were shown the raw truth. But they don't go too far out of their way to find out what's what.

A sweet, loving, "special forces" soldier.

It makes me retch just thinking about it.

Anonymous said...

"Dressing-up in native Afghan garb and throwing acid in school-girls' faces to discredit the Taliban"

[citation needed]

thwap said...

Dear Anonymous,

I'm inventing deleted scenes involving a fictional character.

If you search this blog, you'll find lots of evidence that I think the Taliban are monsters.

The whole point of the post was that the US special forces, CIA, etc., do nasty things as well. If Hollywood and pop culture in general see fit to present imperialist murder as glamorous, I think it's only fair that they get portrayed in the opposite manner.

Anonymous said...

Wow. Your understanding of what the Special Forces units do is amazing. Were you born an idiot or did you work really hard at becoming one? Maybe you should educate yourself a little before babbling your opinion all over the Internet.
BTW I am a pacifast who is against the war, but even I know that the Army Special Forces guys do not run around shooting teenagers in the head. Stop spreading hate, and go read a book.

thwap said...

Anonymous,

I take it that being a "pacifast" is so important to you that you take great care to differentiate yourself from the "pacifists."

Besides lying about being a pacifist, you're also lying about what you know about US special-forces.

The shooting teenagers in the head thing came from then-current news in Afghanistan.

link

And that appears to be just the tip of the iceberg.

link

You know, it's really putrid, your showing up here to try to deny the undeniable. You're a low-level, gutless propagandist, nothing more. A symbol of the very process this post was illustrating.

LK said...

Funny you should say 'propagandist', Thwap; it wasn't long ago I watched a documentary that showed exactly the way war films--from John Wayne on, (with a few exceptions) that are pure Hollywood-produced/US Gov. sponsored propaganda pieces. I'd seen most of those movies and could understand why the Feds supported and helped movies like Top Gun. Full-Metal Jacket, not so much, eh?

LK said...

BTW...have you heard about the Harper PMO, hiring a firm, to do info-policing, on the www? I thought they already did that, but they must be branching out...Cheers~:)

thwap said...

LK,

Alison at Creekside mentioned the formation of the harpercon sock-puppet brigade. Perhaps that's the unit who "Anonymous" is fighting with?

I think I heard rumours of Defence Department collaboration with Hollywood. It's necessary to get access to the equipment.

Glamorizing murder, imperialism, government stupidity, ... all so that you can film some neat jet planes.

Anonymous said...

OK... I know this post is OLD, but I just came across it. People like you make me wonder about our school system.

1. It is a MOVIE!!! GET OVER IT

2. ALL WAR IS UGLY, to ALL involved, on both sides. Both sides do things that normal civi's don't understand. Nor is it their place to.

3. Being married to an SF soldier for the past 9 years, I can say, he is a DAMN good man, and very loving. What he does at work, is what he does at work. Firefighters are not putting out fires while watching TV with their family. Police officers are not arresting people in the middle of family dinner. Just because he is a SF soldier, doesn't mean he is heartless. He does his job, so that you can sit at home and rant about a movie.

thwap said...

"1. It is a MOVIE!!! GET OVER IT"

Just a movie? Oh! Well then! Is "Birth of a Nation" just a movie? If Hollywood did a movie about heroic Taliban fighter defending his family's honour against the rapist Karzai government and the brutal, sadistic Americans, you'd be okay with it?

"2. ALL WAR IS UGLY, to ALL involved, on both sides. Both sides do things that normal civi's don't understand. Nor is it their place to."

What stupid drivel. I guess we owe an apology to all those poor saps who got executed at the Nuremburg and Tokyo war crimes trials then?

"Normal civi's" understand crimes against humanity very well, thank you very much. It's the soldiers who have been systematically brutalized and who have lost their humanity who have the problem.

"3. Being married to an SF soldier for the past 9 years, I can say, he is a DAMN good man, and very loving. What he does at work, is what he does at work. Firefighters are not putting out fires while watching TV with their family. Police officers are not arresting people in the middle of family dinner. Just because he is a SF soldier, doesn't mean he is heartless. He does his job, so that you can sit at home and rant about a movie."

There's so much stupidity in this last entry I'll take it apart to deal with it.

"Being married to an SF soldier for the past 9 years, I can say, he is a DAMN good man, and very loving."

Given the track record of the US military and the right-wing, it takes a leap of faith for me to believe that any of it is true.

You could be the literal fat, lonely, male loser in his parents' basement for all i know.

But even if you're not lying, your personal experience is totally irrelevant. If you understood anything about war you'd know that combatants are perfectly capable of loving their own families and fellow citizens while being absolute monsters to those outside the charmed circle.

"What he does at work, is what he does at work."

So, if somebody works in public relations and tries to spin that cigarettes don't cause cancer, ... or they work in marketing and target teenagers in their cigarette ad campaigns, that's all okay because it's just a job?

"He does his job, so that you can sit at home and rant about a movie."

Ha-ha-ha! You poor, deluded sap! So, special forces shooting teenagers in Afghanistan is necessary for my freedoms is it? Torturing peasant rebels against thieving dictators in Latin America is protecting me is it?

You ignoramus.

Go up and read the links I provided and educate yourself.