Osama Bin Laden: Action!

Great timing, via a New York Times piece on Robert Redford's coming movie "Lions for Lambs". Maybe Garfield attended an early screening of the new OBL tape and took his reading list from that? Or maybe it was Redford who recommended Chomsky? Redford also cites criticism from conservative bloggers - see below. Will OBL give it a more balanced review?

A rising Republican senator (Mr. Cruise) tries to sell a new Afghan war strategy to a skeptical Washington reporter (Ms. Streep); a college professor (Mr. Redford) tries to inspire a talented but tuned-out political science student (Andrew Garfield); and two Army rangers (Derek Luke and Michael Peña) try to survive a firefight on a snowy Afghan ridge.

Mr. Garfield said he experienced a bit of a political awakening during the production. He read Noam Chomsky between takes. And recently he found himself arguing to Mr. Redford that “what we need is a draft, to unite people, because until privileged people like me are forced to stare what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan in the face, it’s too easy to ignore it.”

Sounding all of his 24 years, he added, “I hope this film is a call to arms for my generation.”

Predictably, some conservative bloggers have assailed the unfinished movie as not only antiwar but anti-American, inferring that Mr. Cruise’s character will have to be the villain to conform to the filmmakers’ liberal worldviews. “I’m ready for misinterpretation,” Mr. Redford said. “But the easiest thing in the world would have been to make him a mustache twirler and just enjoy taking him down. But I thought: No, you’ve got to give him a legitimate place in this argument.”

Mr. Cruise’s senator lands some of the film’s most powerful rhetorical punches. “The better he is, the more frightening he will be,” Mr. Redford said. “You’ve got to have similarities to what we’ve faced the last six years: staying on message, doublespeak, not answering questions directly, all those manipulative things. But just better.”

Comments

[Fred Beloit]

Oh, lordy day in the evening! A salvo of Democratics movie propaganda, including the Ken Burns TV doc about WWII, headed our way. Ken Burns, who turned the story of baseball in America into a Jackie Robinson biography. Wonder how he'll bend and twist the big war to fit into the narrow view progressives demand. Get the helmets on guys, HE incoming.

[socalgal]

dan,

i so admire what you are doing these and i want to support you in anyway i can.

it has been my esperience with blogging aout the middle east (and probably politics in general can really wear you out, so please pace yourself very carefully. there are too many people who love you and need teh work you so graciously put out.

yor ! 1 pal in so cal

[TheSpartan]

Did you watch Ken Burns Baseball? Hardly a bio on Robinson but of course to you I'll bet any time race is even mentioned equals it being fixated on.

As for this film, I'm looking forward to it.

[BobInStamford]

Ken Burns should do a profile on Florida Trailer Trash like Fred Beloit. Stirring music while WT like Fred talk about their chateus on wheels. That would be great TV!

[jj]

After reading about some of the films that are soon to come out of Hollywierd, it is getting more and more obvious that the "progressives" have decided that the best way for them to conduct their strategy is to declare war on the military, as if the military has any say when or where it goes, but the target that is unable to defend itself is always the easy one for the liberals.

This will be successful in some quarters(the chris types), but it is sure to backfire in the long run. I sincerely hope the liberals continue along this path to self-destruction, as I celebrate their short-term success. Go ahead, donks, jump on that sinking ship, I and many others are counting on you to shoot yourself in the head, not that there is any danger of hitting any brain tissue.

[LOL]

HOLLYWEIRD IS RUINING AMERICA, VOTE FOR FRED

[Fred Beloit]

Look what happened while I was in back vacuuming the pool. William Bendix (starred in the film The Hairy Ape), http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/hairy_ape/ one of the most bigoted Democratics around attacked me just because I'm poor and white. Boo hoo hoo. You hurt my feelings Mr. Bendix. Is that what good Democratics do?

[Fred Beloit]

Correction: vacuuming the pond.

[jj]

LOL/chris/BobinStamford/YYY/legaleagle/legalize/TheSpartan/and various and sundry other sockpuppets have spoken. How intelligent!

[Lord Nazh©]

"“what we need is a draft, to unite people, because until privileged people like me are forced to stare what’s happening in Iraq and Afghanistan in the face, it’s too easy to ignore it.”"

I wonder if anyone told Mr. Garfield that he doesn't have to wait on a draft? At least he's honest on the fact that he ignores the situations in Afghanistan and Iraq though.

[seekeronos]

"--- Ken Burns should do a profile on Florida Trailer Trash like ... Stirring music while WT ... talk about their _chateus_ on wheels. That would be great TV! ---"

Indeed... once again, al-Boob wows us with his impressive two advanced degrees, and still manages to bungle the spelling of "Chateaus". Calice du Tabernac!

[JabbaTheTutt]

“The better he is, the more frightening he will be,” Mr. Redford said.

I think Mr Redford has a point. What do people remember from "A Few Good Men"? They remember the "You can't handle the truth" speech from the Jack Nicholson character. In the movie, he was the bad guy, but people agree with him.

So, in this Redford propaganda effort, the "bad guy" should make the most powerful arguments that he can for his view. The public may end up agreeing with him and ignore the propaganda.

[Fred Beloit]

“The better he is, the more frightening he will be,” Mr. Redford said."

If you ask me Tom Cruise is frightening enough as it is. Remember him prancing around his apartment with the bat (phallus?) in A Few Good Men? Nah. Freud is discredited now by all but Frank Rich.