Playing at a Theater Near You: Hollywood Does Bush's Middle East Disasters

[babylonsister]

Playing at a Theater Near You: Hollywood Does Bush's Middle East Disasters

By Sari Gelzer, AlterNet. Posted November 8, 2007.

Hollywood is catching up with Bush’s disastrous policies abroad. (Film guide included.)


The tidal wave of film releases tied to Bush's Wars in the Middle East began this fall with the Sept. 13 release of In the Valley of Elah, a movie about a father's search for his son, who goes missing upon his return from serving in Iraq. The October release of Rendition depicts an American woman searching for her Egyptian-born husband who has been sent to a secret CIA prison, while the November debut of Brian De Palma's Redacted, is a docu-drama on the murder of a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and her family by U.S. troops.

This long set of Hollywood films and documentaries are heading to theaters on the assumption that audiences are willing to see them. Perhaps producers and distributors have read the numbers released in a mid-October CNN poll that say 65 percent of Americans oppose the U.S. war in Iraq, while a CBS poll of the same time frame declared that 45 percent of respondents want U.S. troops home in less than one year.

With strong sentiment against the war, it would seem reasonable to assume that these films would be successful, especially as many of them feature megastar Hollywood talent. But the jury isn't in yet. In the Valley of Elah received favorable reviews, but it has not been a box-office hit. Neither has Rendition, which was not favorably reviewed. But many more of these films are slated to run from now and well into 2008.

This month will see the arrival of the docu-drama Redacted and Lions for Lambs, directed by and starring Robert Redford, Meryl Streep, and Tom Cruise. The controversial documentary Meeting Resistance, which interviews Iraqis who chose to fight U.S. soldiers, who they say are occupying their homeland, will also be released nationwide.

In December, John Cusack will star in Grace is Gone, depicting a father's struggle to cope when his wife is killed while serving in Iraq. And on Christmas day, Charlie Wilson's War, starring Tom Hanks, will hit theaters, to depict the true story of a Texas congressman who funneled millions of dollars to the Mujahideen in Aghanistan during the cold war.

more...

http://alternet.org/waroniraq/66835/?page=entire

[sinkingfeeling]

1. And so far, all have been 'box office failures'. It's like Americans don't want to know what's done

in their names.