{"id":1356,"date":"2007-09-14T20:16:00","date_gmt":"2007-09-14T20:16:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home\/"},"modified":"2007-09-14T20:16:00","modified_gmt":"2007-09-14T20:16:00","slug":"bring-the-filmmakers-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html","title":{"rendered":"Bring the filmmakers home!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"<\/a>
There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety<\/i>\u2018s Todd McCarthy<\/a>, for one, is getting tired of this mini-genre:<\/span><\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2014 During the Vietnam War, the only Hollywood picture to directly broach the subject for many years was John Wayne\u2019s \u201cThe Green Berets<\/a>.\u201d Unlike that era, important directors have been rushing to get their Iraq projects made and released in a timely way.<\/p>\n

But based on what I\u2019ve seen so far, particularly at the Toronto Film Festival, I\u2019m in no rush to see the rest of the Iraq-centered fiction films (as opposed to documentaries) Hollywood will be serving up in the coming months, simply because I think I know exactly where they\u2019re coming from and that I\u2019m not going to learn anything new from them.<\/p>\n

The trend thus far splits into battlefront recreation of atrocities, heavily influenced by docus and home-made videos (Brian De Palma\u2019s \u201cRedacted<\/a>,\u201d Nick Broomfield\u2019s \u201cBattle for Haditha<\/a>\u201c) and homefront blowback (Paul Haggis\u2019 \u201cIn the Valley of Elah<\/a>\u201d and James C. Strouse\u2019s \u201cGrace Is Gone<\/a>,\u201d which preemed at Sundance). The former try to show what TV and official coverage will not \u2014 the hideousness of the carnage \u2014 while the latter seek to portray the similarly airbrushed effects the war has on American soldiers and families.<\/p>\n

No matter the specific qualities of the writing, filmmaking and performances; the problem for me is that all these films emanate from precisely the same mindset, the safest, least provocative attitude it is possible to have: the war sucks, Bush sucks, America is down the tubes.<\/p>\n

Does anyone in Hollywood think anything different than this? According to polls, more than 60% of Americans also agree.<\/p>\n

Just as, during World War II, Hollywood pictures had a unified aim, to rally viewers around the war effort and present an image of the Allies prevailing, today they are also identical in nature, except in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n

The first problem is that fictional films take at least a year, sometimes two, to create and disseminate, and thus the attitudes they reflect can be a bit stale at a time when events move so quickly (even if, alas, the war is still very much with us).<\/p>\n

When someone like Richard Gere spouts off about Bush at the Venice Film Festival, as he just did, how much more tired can you get? Being anti-Bush simply isn\u2019t enough, as this point; there\u2019s an election coming up, a future to decide, complex issues to sort out, and Bush won\u2019t be part of the equation.<\/p>\n

Where current events are concerned, documentaries are far better equipped to tackle them than are fictional features. The film of the year for me in many ways is \u201cNo End in Sight<\/a>,\u201d a profoundly analytical, meticulously methodical and rewardingly specific study of where the U.S. went wrong once it achieved military victory in Iraq; it was the film I\u2019d long been waiting for after the emotional hysteria of \u201cFahrenheit 9\/11<\/a>\u201d and its ilk.<\/p>\n

In the fictional arena, I would welcome the contemporary equivalent of something like the late John Frankenheimer\u2019s Vietnam-related \u201cPath to War<\/a>,\u201d a revelatory dramatization of how and why the war happened, or a (probably non-Hollywood) look at what was going on inside Saddam Hussein\u2019s Iraq just prior to and during the invasion.<\/p>\n

But yet another knee-jerk condemnation of Bush, wayward soldiers and misguided policy, such as exported torture (as in another underwhelming new film, \u201cRendition<\/a>\u201c)? I\u2019ve been hearing all that for years and I\u2019d rather spend my time learning and experiencing something new and forward-looking, as well as analyzing the ever-changing political map of the Middle East, not stewing in the juices of stale vitriol.<\/p>\n

Now that the vast majority of Americans have misgivings, at the very least, about the Iraq adventure, producers are betting that mainstream audiences may be ready, up to a point, for the homefront stories of mangled, maimed and disturbed vets and their families. But the overt polemics of most of the Iraq films thus far, such as those expressed so predictably at the end of \u201cIn the Valley of Elah,\u201d seem calculated to once again stir up the Cindy Sheehan crowd, to preach to the converted of four years ago. Move on, indeed. . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety\u2018s Todd McCarthy, for one, is getting tired of this mini-genre: TORONTO \u2014 During the Vietnam War, the only Hollywood picture to directly broach the subject for many years was John Wayne\u2019s \u201cThe Green Berets.\u201d Unlike […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nBring the filmmakers home!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bring the filmmakers home!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RutSZEvyg3I\/AAAAAAAAAos\/sTFkcVM2dRQ\/s400\/inthevalleyofelah-a.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter T. Chattaway\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html\",\"name\":\"Bring the filmmakers home!\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\"},\"description\":\"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Bring the filmmakers home!\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/\",\"name\":\"FilmChat\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde\",\"name\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Peter T. Chattaway\"},\"description\":\"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Bring the filmmakers home!","description":"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Bring the filmmakers home!","og_description":"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html","og_site_name":"FilmChat","article_published_time":"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/4.bp.blogspot.com\/_MwnH1kpbPRM\/RutSZEvyg3I\/AAAAAAAAAos\/sTFkcVM2dRQ\/s400\/inthevalleyofelah-a.jpg"}],"author":"Peter T. Chattaway","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter T. Chattaway","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html","name":"Bring the filmmakers home!","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-09-14T20:16:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde"},"description":"There have been a lot of movies about the Iraq War at the Toronto International Film Festival, apparently, and Variety's Todd McCarthy, for one, is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2007\/09\/bring-the-filmmakers-home.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Bring the filmmakers home!"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/","name":"FilmChat","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/5759ddf28b81af08b29eb15b4e071fde","name":"Peter T. Chattaway","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/9c4b809df092b410d749a6995bcf4f3e?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Peter T. Chattaway"},"description":"Peter T. Chattaway was the regular film critic for BC Christian News from 1992 to 2011. In addition to his award-winning film column for that paper, his news and opinion pieces have appeared in such publications as Books & Culture, Christianity Today, Bible Review and the Vancouver Sun. He has also contributed essays to the books Re-Viewing The Passion: Mel Gibson\u2019s Film and Its Critics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), Scandalizing Jesus?: Kazantzakis\u2019s The Last Temptation of Christ Fifty Years on (Continuum, 2005) and The Bible in Motion: A Handbook of the Bible and Its Reception in Film (De Gruyter, 2016).","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/author\/peterchattaway"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1356\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}