Hollywood version of battle for Fallujah

[Gollum1 0]

Guardian link

Quote[/b] ]

<span style='font-size:12pt;line-height:100%'>Indiana Jones leads Hollywood version of battle for Falluja</span>

Dan Glaister in Los Angeles

Friday December 17, 2004

The Guardian

Hollywood has joined the war. Universal Pictures announced yesterday that it is to make The Battle for Falluja. To prove it is serious, it has enlisted Indiana Jones himself, actor Harrison Ford, to help defeat the insurgency.

The film - Hollywood's first foray into the second Iraq conflict - is due to go into production next year and will be based on a yet-to-be-finished book, No True Glory: The Battle for Falluja by Bing West, a former marine, politician and now war correspondent.

The movie and book take as their starting point the killing of four civilian contractors in Falluja and the ensuing decision to order an assault on the city by US marines. That first assault, which was abruptly stopped by the White House, was led by General Jim Mattis, who will be played by Ford.

Six months later, shortly after the US presidential election, the marines attacked Falluja for a second time, successfully occupying the city. Almost 80 US marines were killed in the two assaults, while some sources have estimated that 800 Iraqis and insurgents died in the April assault on the city and a further 1,000 in November.

The film promises to depict the story from the point of view of US soldiers and politicians; it seems unlikely that the plight of the Iraqis will figure too prominently in Hollywood's take on the subject.

Writing last week for the online journal Slate.com, West said: "If America needs a hard job done, the marines will do it, and they won't lose their humanity in the process or any sleep over pulling the trigger. Yes, they are 'the world's most lethal killing machine.' That's what America needs in battle."

[JdB 151]

it seems unlikely that the plight of the Iraqis will figure too prominently in Hollywood's take on the subject.

It's not even possible, because if they did that they wouldn't get any help from the DoD

[brgnorway 0]

Oh for fuck sake! Another Clint Eastwood Grenada-like film, only with Han Solo this time.

Everything about it makes me want to puke!

[hellfish6 7]

As long as they do it on par with BHD which was, IMHO, a very tasteful and tactful film about a very touchy subject, the movie should turn out OK. I just find it odd that they're doing it so soon. There's still fighting in Fallujah for God's sake!

[SpongeBob 0]

I've read Bing West's book "The Village"  (squad of grunts protecting a Vietnamese village from the VC, winning their hearts and minds) I wish they made a movie about that instead.

[brgnorway 0]

I've read Bing West's book "The Village"  (squad of grunts protecting a Vietnamese village from the VC, winning their hearts and minds) I wish they made a movie about that instead.

Sounds like a joke if you ask me - or the people of My Lai!

Nice to be protected against yourself isn't it?

[billybob2002 0]

I've read Bing West's book "The Village"  (squad of grunts protecting a Vietnamese village from the VC, winning their hearts and minds) I wish they made a movie about that instead.

Sounds like a joke if you ask me - or the people of My Lai!

Nice to be protected against yourself isn't it?

http://www.capmarine.com/cap/fastrfls.htm

You were saying...

[Winters 1]

So Harrison Indiana Solo is going to Iraq ehh.

Oh well, i love war movies so i will go see it.

[DracoPaladore 0]

As long as they do it on par with BHD which was, IMHO, a very tasteful and tactful film about a very touchy subject, the movie should turn out OK. I just find it odd that they're doing it so soon. There's still fighting in Fallujah for God's sake!

Doubt it. I'm sure it'll be full of cheesey heroic cliches that will fill the hearts and minds of Americans with soothing thoughts. I bet history and fact will be pushed back for the sake of raking in dough.

That's right, your soldiers are bravely fighting for the betterment of movies and money from their sacrifice! Hollywood never amazes me.

[nephilim 0]

MUAHAHHA

lol best exampel of how much hollywood decayed...

anyway..

will they find th holy grail?

or the dead corps of hitler?....

[Winters 1]

Doubt it. I'm sure it'll be full of cheesey heroic cliches that will fill the hearts and minds of Americans with soothing thoughts.

Not this American or many others, unlike some people we understand that Hollywood is not real life and going to the movies is a form of escapism.

EDIT: but i am sure it will be filled with the typical over the top hollywood-ness that you see in just about every movie, not just the war movies.

[DracoPaladore 0]

Doubt it. I'm sure it'll be full of cheesey heroic cliches that will fill the hearts and minds of Americans with soothing thoughts.

Not this American or many others, unlike some people we understand that Hollywood is not real life and going to the movies is a form of escapism.

EDIT: but i am sure it will be filled with the typical over the top hollywood-ness that you see in just about every movie, not just the war movies.

No, you and many wouldn't beleive it 100% truth. But I am sure that a few, or a lot, will think it is a word-for-word handed down from god truth.

I very much doubt it'll be like BHD.

[denoir 0]

As long as they do it on par with BHD which was, IMHO, a very tasteful and tactful film about a very touchy subject, the movie should turn out OK.

Tasteful and tactful from a Western/American point of view. The Somalis on the other hand were portrayed as crazed soulless savages that got cut down by the thousands...

[hellfish6 7]

As long as they do it on par with BHD which was, IMHO, a very tasteful and tactful film about a very touchy subject, the movie should turn out OK.

Tasteful and tactful from a Western/American point of view. The Somalis on the other hand were portrayed as crazed soulless savages that got cut down by the thousands...

I never got that vibe. Everyone has legitimate motivations, but to be honest, I am biased. Crazed? Maybe. Soulless... no. Cut down by the thousands? Definately.

I won't lose sleep over one or a thousand dead Somalis. I will and have lost sleep over dead Americans.

I never have supported the invasion of Iraq, but I will surely see this movie and I will probably enjoy it.

[SpongeBob 0]

"Your mission is to proceed up the  Euphrates River in a Navy patrol boat. Pick up the insurgence path in the Jolan district, follow it and learn what you can along the way. When you find the insurgence's command, infiltrate the team by whatever means available and terminate the insurgence's command."

...

"Terminate with extreme prejudice."

[Ironsight 1]

The Somalis on the other hand were portrayed as crazed soulless savages that got cut down by the thousands...

Sorry, but wasn't it like like that

We all saw the pics of the angry mob carrying that US soldier's body through the street.

EDIT: I meant dragging through the streets

[redface 1]

I won't lose sleep over one or a thousand dead Somalis. I will and have lost sleep over dead Americans.

following your logic, discussing this in term of a "vibe", I don't see the difference.

[hellfish6 7]

I didn't get the vibe that the Somalis were protrayed as crazy soulless savages. I think the movie even lent the Somalis a sense of skewed dignity - they may have been immersed in anarchy, but it was still their country and their doing and they didn't (and still don't) want outsiders messing with their business. Certainly pride and respect can be derived from that.

But on the same hand, I won't lose any sleep if the entire country falls into the ocean tomorrow.

Maybe that makes me a crazy soulless savage.

[Gollum1 0]

Black Hawk Down fails to give the full story, the uglier things are all cut out from the book that it is supposedly based on. Among other things, the TOW strike on the tribe leader meeting and regular harassment of civilians which was a major cause of Somali hostility, various ugly things that U.S soldiers do like destroy people's homes, shoot at everything that moves (hell I would too in that situation), kill civilians by mistake etc.

The filmmakers show their lying face by not showing these things, the soldiers' actions are all quite understandable for the most part but apparently the makers are so ashamed of them or afraid what people might think if they know the truth that they are willing to distort the facts and history... On the other hand, they probably wouldn't have gotten U.S military support if they didn't.

The book also gave a more Somali point of view, but not the film.

[ralphwiggum 6]

first of all, whedn BHD came out, they showed bootlegged copy of it in Somalia and they watched it too. they loved scenes where US soldiers were getting pounded.

http://archives.cnn.com/2002....ex.html

Quote[/b] ]MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Somalis watching a bootleg video of "Black Hawk Down" on Monday cheered as helicopters crashed and U.S. servicemen were killed in the new movie.

Just days after the film's widespread release in the United States, hundreds of Somalis crowded into an outdoor playground Monday to watch one of the first bootleg copies to reach Somalia

<snip>

Audience members seemed to take delight in scenes of U.S. defeat. Each time an American chopper went down in the film, the audience cheered. Every time an American serviceman was killed, the audience cheered some more.

HOWEVER!

Quote[/b] ]Ahmed Abdullah said he witnessed the actual battle and saw the movie as more fiction than fact.

"It's not fair what the U.S. is trying to do," he said. "What I saw that day was different from what I see in the film today. It's not accurate."

Others said the movie brings back disturbing memories of a day they'll never forget.

"I felt very sad watching the film," one woman said.

Some in the audience said they were proud of the way Somalis were portrayed in the film. They said they believe they were defending their country and their pride against what they considered U.S. military aggression

also, i think this thread is going south faster than my driving skills.

[denoir 0]

As long as they do it on par with BHD which was, IMHO, a very tasteful and tactful film about a very touchy subject, the movie should turn out OK.

Tasteful and tactful from a Western/American point of view. The Somalis on the other hand were portrayed as crazed soulless savages that got cut down by the thousands...

I never got that vibe. Everyone has legitimate motivations, but to be honest, I am biased. Crazed? Maybe. Soulless... no. Cut down by the thousands? Definately.

I won't lose sleep over one or a thousand dead Somalis. I will and have lost sleep over dead Americans.

Well, that's what I'm talking about. The Somalis were treated .. well, they wern't really. They were just shown as an uncontrollable tide coming down on the poor US soldiers.

The pathos of the suffering of the American soldiers was central in the theme (right down to the cliché of the soldier that was about to get killed, looking at a picture of his wife and kid), while the suffering of the Somalis was not in any way considered. They were just cannon fodder.

So I'm not quite sure how that can be characterized as "tasteful" or "tactful", but perhaps you were talking about a different aspect of the movie.

It was certainly not an objective portrayal of the events, but one from a very pro-American point of view.

I can imagine how a Fallujah equivalent would look like: the suffering of the brave and valiant US marines in a death struggle against crazed muslims who die by the hundreds and nobody cares about.

BHD was over the top for my taste and that was before the Iraq war. As it is a good war movie, it was watchable. I don't think however that I would have the stomach to watch an Iraq equivalent.

[ralphwiggum 6]

Guardian link

something smells with this 'news'

first Guardian is a tabloid IIRC, and here are some discrepancies.

I checked Universal Pictures's press release and there is NOTHING about this picture.

http://www.universalpictures.com/

second, i checked slate.com for the Bing West article. it does not have any of the line at the end of Guardian's article, at least in last week's(as claimed by Guardian reporter)

http://slate.com/id/2110762

however, it appears on Nov. 12th edition, where it is used in two parts of the article in Slate.com

http://slate.com/id/2109447

Quote[/b] ]At the operational level, battle is about killing until the enemy forces are destroyed or surrender. The columnist Patrick Graham, who has reported from the insurgent side, recently wrote in the Guardian that "the U.S. Marines are the world's most lethal killing machine."

Quote[/b] ]Marines are keenly aware of war's human toll. The sergeant had no idea what that young Iraqi was thinking. He didn't like killing someone's son. But Marines don't wear their emotions on their sleeves, and they have zero sympathy for the jihadists trying to kill them. If America needs a hard job done, the Marines will do it, and they won't lose their humanity in the process or any sleep over pulling the trigger. Yes, they are "the world's most lethal killing machine." That's what America needs in battle.

seems like there is some sort of feud going on here between Guardian and Slate.com

[IsthatyouJohnWayne 0]

Nyet, The Guardian is a serious minded left leaning 'progressive' broadsheet but it sometimes has forays into provocative campaigns and stories.

The Sun is the most popular tabloid with a diet of sport, topless women, celebrity gossip and the occassional news snippet.

As for the story, who knows. Ill judge it if/when it appears. Theres always the chance film projects can fall though which is probably why Univeral havent announced it yet.

[DracoPaladore 0]

Black Hawk Down fails to give the full story, the uglier things are all cut out from the book that it is supposedly based on.

Well, among the movies out there it is closer than any other. I've read the book and watched the movie.

[Leveler 0]

How did that ancient roman saying go? Bread and chariots or something like that....