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(Continued)
From Karla Kitner:
The American public has been conditioned for decades to accept war as a way
of life in defense of freedom. It's a sad commentary to how much we don't think.
We have been mesmerized by entertainment and have taken our place in the social
herd-mentality of acceptance. We have become so lazy as not to challenge,
contemplate and assess what is going on, on all levels of life. As a result of
our lethargy we have given our freedoms away easily and simply.
I do not go to the movies, watch television or read the news anymore. I am
aware that whoever controls the information controls the world. I do surf the
Internet to access different sides to an issue or story. So is war
entertainment? The masses seem to believe it to be so. We have a nation at war
to prove it. From Kim Workman:
Having said that, after being to this very realistic movie, it amazed me when
my husband and my dad would move heaven and earth to watch the Chuck Norris/ Sylvester Stallone movies that seemed so hokey to
me. I asked my husband and he said, "Well, darlin', we get to win in those
movies."
And just a little comment: "Apocalypse Now" is not a realistic Vietnam War movie. It is
iconic because of its acid trance sort of fantasy. My husband was fascinated
when I told him that "Apocalypse Now" was a retelling of the "Heart of Darkness"
by Joseph Conrad, which was set in Africa. He nodded his head and smiled, "That
is why it doesn't ring true, it was never written to reflect Vietnam."
I think we should take a page of Edwin Starr's playbook and ask "War? What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing!" Least of all entertainment. From Cathy Summers:
From Doug Eakin:
There was watching a kid (and we all were just kids), that had talked about
his dog, his car, his girlfriend, his family the night before over a beer, die
ugly in the muck the next day. No more dreams, no life to live . . . just gone.
Then, instead of getting up and getting another beer while changing the channel
to watch something else, you got to go do it all over again.
Movies provide only a glimpse of the experience of war. Fortunately, that's
all most ever have to face.
I am a vet
and female. I participated in the war efforts during Desert Storm and beyond. I
was naive and full of ideals of where the U.S. was in the scheme of global
affairs. I am more awake now and am fully persuaded that ignorance is not bliss.
It is costly.
I don't
think I had a more moving experience in a movie theater than the time I went to
see the premiere of "Platoon" as the young wife of a Vietnam vet husband and
about six of his Vietnam vet friends. I was 21 and working with my dad as a
veterans service officer. From the beginning of the film to the iconic climax
when Willem Dafoe's character is seen running through the jungle
after the helicopter and hearing the adagio for strings as the Cong closed in on
him, I suddenly understood, not just what my husband had seen, but what my dad,
who had been silent about his Vietnam experience, had been through and how it
shaped him, for both the good and the bad.
The current
movies made concerning the war in Iraq are so slanted liberal they flop at the
box office and on television. Hollywood has such disdain for George Bush and his
administration, they will produce anything that reflects negative on the White
House and everyone included. In the '40s, the reverse was true and many movies
from and about that era still play well now.
It's real
easy to sit in a theater or watch TV in the comfort of your house and watch war
pictures, commiserating with the heroes, and delude yourself into thinking this
provides a good look and feel of war. As a Vietnam veteran, I can tell you there
is nothing you can say or do to make people understand the reality of war if
they haven't experienced it first-hand.
From Ben Harris:
So here is why I do not like CFs: Like romance novels, CFs create these love
stories that are way over the top and mostly unobtainable. Women watch and read
these things like there is no tomorrow and that makes the creation of romance
from us men damn near impossible. We men feel we have to try to do something as
grand as what is on the screen to try to create romance.
If you see a hundred CFs and read a hundred romance novels, us guys have no
chance at romance. Being sent flowers or taken out for an evening of each
others' company is a sad attempt at best. I like action movies, and yes I think
it would be fun to drive a car that is on fire off a cliff while shooting guns
in all directions, but I don't blame my woman for it not happening. From Linda Reedy:
Well, I
guess I am a sorry heap of flesh. Thank you for insulting me for my preference
in movies. Too bad I will never have the chance to return the favor.
I will
gladly read anything Martha Brockenbrough writes. It's as if she has climbed
into my head, pulled out my thoughts and arranged them prettily onto paper.
From Victor Zubrzycki:
The voice
on the tape recorder on "Mission: Impossible." The voice of "Kitt" on "Knight
Rider."
