The Only Violence Hollywood Won’t Show is the U.S. Getting the Bad Guys

Tonight Dennis Miller appeared on The O’Reilly Factor, discussing Oscar-nominated movies. Although he ribbed (pun intended) Keira Knightly of Atonement for her svelte figure (beats me how he could, she is so heartbreakingly beautiful), he had some astute observations about Americans and film. He made the point that films like “There Will be Blood” and others are chock-full of, well, blood, but evidently Hollywood can’t produce a film showing U.S. service members getting the terrorists who are targeting civilians and attacking those who are trying to build democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s true. We’ve got slasher films and thrillers galore, produced mostly by liberals, that seem to encourage audiences to revel in pointless sadism (such as last year’s Hostel), but somehow a film that correctly identifies the terrorist scum and their backers is considered politically incorrect.

In a world where people increasingly get their news and views from popular culture, maybe that’s one reason so many Americans are confused about why we are in Iraq and Afghanistan. Perhaps it helps account for why many Americans don’t seem to understand that U.S. service members on both fronts are functioning more as peacekeepers preventing a wholesale slaughter of civilians than anything else at this point.

Of course it would be wrong to make a film that glorifies war. But what about a film that depicts war’s real horror, as well as its moral complexities, with an attempt at balance? During World War II American producers and directors made films that actually helped boost morale.

Now that free societies confront the Scylla and Charibdus of global Islamic terrorism and nuclear proliferation, we need artists who can help us face our fears, clarify our confusion, and even inspire us to fight, if need be, for what we hold dear. For all its lapses, I think Spielberg’s Munich was a decent start. Also, I’m told the television show 24 is excellent.

This entry was written by and posted on January 23, 2008 at 10:38 pm and filed under Blog. permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Keywords: , . Post a comment or leave a trackback: Trackback URL. */?>

1 response to The Only Violence Hollywood Won’t Show is the U.S. Getting the Bad Guys

  • 1.

    Marylin Pitz

    January 28, 2008 at 6:40 pm


    Nice article, but unfortunately Ms. R., the liberal left dominates much of the arts, including film. And yes, they try to influence public opinion. Answer---well, perhaps some conservatives might consider support of arts organization that share their point of view (there must be a few, somewhere)and/or consider becoming more active "players" i.e. filmmakers, theatrical producers, themselves. How about a film studies major at Pepperdine U.? Free country, y'know. Ms. Pitz