Thursday, November 12, 2009
 
Wherein Brian Says FU Back To Hollywood
I was treated to this trailer on Veteran's Day when I treated my wife to what turned out to be an anti-Iraq War film Men Who Stare At Goats:



You know, it could have been a good drama. Soldier dies in combat, and his ne'er-do-well brother straightens out and grows up as he sort of steps into the role of father-figure for his nieces and eventually the lover for the widow. Then, the MIA soldier returns. I could see it being chock full of drama as they deal with the emotional situations.

But.

In the trailer, the eventual seduction takes place over a joint and the movie-normal "I'm not too straight to toke" trope. And the soldier returns home apparently an angry, psychotic fellow who cannot relate to his family and wants to hurt them or commit suicide by cop.

Frankly, through the trailer and my own predilections, the Iraq soldier is the most sympathetic character. But he's just an archetype to endanger the pot-smoking, non soldier lovers in the film.

I booed the trailer in the theater.

Instead of a dramatic film with real emotion, I think Lionsgate has gone for the sure Oscar award-winning, Cannes Palm D'or, and Nobel Prize for Cinema route. Which probably won't make any money, but they're making art. All-too-predictable, comfortable-to-the-artists and offensive-to-the-plebes art. Hey, Hollywood: <expletive deleted>.

UPDATE: I originally identified the soldier as serving in Iraq, but I guess it's supposed to be Afghanistan. MfBJN regrets this error and retracts everything. Well, everything except the words including the letters I-R-A-Q.


Comments:
vote with your dollar. just dont go to see the movie.
 



I'll exercise my right to criticize and admonish, too!

It's a two for one.
 



Men Who Stare At Goats was strange for me.

I mean, it was funny, but the ending gave me a massive and actually physically uncomfortable twinge in my Gun Safety Gland.

Also, I was amused by the look at the world through the lens of the Alternate Dimension where the very existence of the "goat lab" is shocking. Yes, the Army keeps goats. 18-Deltas (SF medics) get their training in emergency battlefield surgery by shooting and repairing goats. This is apparently shocking and outlandish to some people, although they never suggest viable alternatives. (Incidentally, the surplus of 18-Deltas after Vietnam is what led to the "Nurse Practitioner" license.)
 



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