Dennis Prager has written the acceptance speech that he wishes someone had delivered at the Academy Awards ceremony.
An excerpt:
At the same time, I also want to apologize to these troops for my profession not having made even one motion picture about any of the heroic American fighters in Afghanistan and Iraq. This country is fighting a war, Hollywood. You may think this war is unwise, waged under mistaken, or even false, pretenses. And as an actor in Hollywood, you are overwhelmingly likely to hate this commander in chief. But even the men and women of Hollywood must recognize that America is fighting the worst people of our time, people who hurt every group Hollywood claims to care about -- minorities, women, gays -- people who engage in the sins Hollywood most professes to oppose -- intolerance and violence -- far more than anyone else on the planet.
In another era, when what many have labeled "the greatest generation" fought the German Nazis and the Japanese fascists, Hollywood made movie after movie depicting that great war and our great warriors. And Hollywood showed freedom's enemies as the cruel and vicious people they were. We have not produced one film yet depicting this war in positive terms or one depicting this generation's enemies of freedom as the cruel and vicious people they are.
1 comment:
It was a mistake to compare the war in Iraq to WWII. In WWII, we were fighting an enemy to the US, an enemy that attacked our shores. We were proud to be at war and we were justified. So, sure, there were movies made reflecting this. And, people wanted to see them.
Granted, our shores were attacked again but this time it was not by a nation. We were attacked by a group of extremists. It certainly wasn't Iraq. Our nation is divided on both the reason for and the value of the Iraq war. And, while there have been no big movies made about the war, there are plenty of documentaries showing differing viewpoints as well as the brave soldiers currently in Iraq and Afghanistan.
We can compare this to movies of the Vietnam War. During the war there were only a handful of movies made about it. Following the end of the war, there have been 100+ movies made (Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Hamburger Hill). Maybe the delay was because there was so much political strife; our nation was so divided. Hollywood didn't choose a side. They make movies to make money. Will a movie on the War in Iraq make money right now? Probably not. Not unless it's anti-war (i.e. Farenheit 9/11). Our society dictates what Hollywood creates, Hollywood does not dictate to us.
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