ABC Nails Exxon and Republicans for Fake Al Gore Video

The only thing that alarms me is that they are only reporting on these tactics now. These kind of disingenuous attacks have regularly been levied against the envioronmental community for over 20 years. It just isn't news to me.

 

Is it as bad as this one ?

 

Oh come on! The dems have had their allies in Hollywood making BS hit pieces for them for years. No one thinks this is a real news story but the dems and their buds in the mainstream press.

 

And just what is wrong with movies like:

We Were Soldiers
Windtalkers
Saving Private Ryan
Blackhawk Down
The Patriot
Pearl Harbor
etc.,....

You mean all those actually protray the US as GOOD GUYS! OMG, it's all propaganda from the Reaganistic neo-cons!

I'll never trust Hollywood again....

 

Hey, Pearl Harbor and SPR were ok, but I was annoyed at the Patriot. The only thing missing was the subtitle "The only good Brit is a dead Brit." Nothing bad with national self-aggrandizement, but it carried it a tad too far for my taste.

Anyway, what's with this partisan Hollywood thing? Actors have gone both ways, from what little I know, and I can't say most US films are that loaded with politics. Ok, the most prominent actor-politician today is a Republican... but as an actor he sometimes wasn't all that impressive

[ August 14, 2006, 20:27: Message edited by: The Shaman ]

 

Basically all those movies you listed there are blatant propagande pieces which leaves a sour taste in the mouth of any neutral observer.

They are not portraying the US as the good guys, they are generally portraying American soldiers are übermensch incapable of doing wrong and the enemy as vile monsters not deserving to be called human and who when they are tortured to death.

It is possible to make war movies without turning them into propaganda pieces.

 

Haven't seen, haven't seen, propaganda, BLATANT propaganda and an awful movie otherwise, propaganda, propaganda.

How about watching some GOOD war movies, like Enemy at the Gates, that isn't propaganda?

 

Enemy At The Gates was awesome.

 

Er, did you see Saving Private Ryan? I can recall, off the top of my head (mind it's been years since I last watched it) American troops shooting surrendered Germans and joking about doing so, deliberately allowing Germans to burn to death rather than end their suffering with a bullet or two, and nearly killing each other over whether or not they should murder a prisoner. Doesn't exactly support the ubermensch notion.

Now the Patriot, We Were Soldiers, and Black Hawk Down--yes, these were propaganda. Though in the case of the former two, that seems to be how Gibson does war movies; Braveheart was no different, but I don't recall seeing Americans in that film.

Never saw Windtalkers or Pearl Harbor, so can't comment.

 

Windtalkers was one of the better ones in a while. Gettysburg was also really good.

I think Enemies at the Gate is one of the best movies I've ever seen.

 

Not a movie but what about Band of Brothers? I found that to be the best war movie ever. There's also Saints and Soldiers and Jarhead for two non-übermensch movies...

And who can forget Independance Day? Obvious propaganda there

 

Umm... How can those movies be considered propoganda when they are protraying a time long since passed? I can agree with the propoganda tag for something like Blackhawk Down or Jarhead, but the Patriot? We're running anti-British propoganda 200+ years after the time period when the movie depicts? Are you even serious? Same thing goes for the all of the WWII related movies listed - again, most people of today weren't even alive when these events took place.

The only thing you can criticize these movies for doing is undeservedly glorifying American history. However, EVERY COUNTRY GLORIFIES THEIR HISTORY. And that certainly doesn't make it propoganda. The entire point of propoganda is to influence people to act or think a certain way by presenting generalizations about a certain group. However, it only works if the act in question is currently happening. A movie like Pearl Harbor could only be considered propoganda if it were released during WWII. I don't think someone who watches Pearl Harbor comes away with the impression that they should dislike the Japanese because they are still routinely using fighter planes to bomb U.S. ships.

 

But such movies can distort history. There is a recent movie (forget the name) that suggests that it was the Americans that cracked the 'enigma code' and not the British or Polish.

You would think it would be shameful to steal other peoples achievements.

 

Well, that would go under the catch-all category I called "undeservedly glorifying American history". If you want to call it distorting history, that's fine too. And I don't even have a problem calling it shameful. It just seems strange that someone would categorize a movie falsely depicting something that happen 60 years ago, let alone something that happened over 200 years ago as propoganda.

 

Thats true

 

And the best war series was also German Das Boot