Michelle Obama takes on Hollywood
Jim sends us a link from the New York Times which reports that the First Lady intends to discuss with the Hollywood director’s guild and writer’s guild the importance of projecting a better image of the military in their products.
First Lady Michelle Obama will have her work cut out for her when she turns up here today for a talk with members of the Hollywood guilds about getting more positive attention for military service members and their families into popular entertainment.
The confab is part of the Joining Forces initiative started by the First Lady and Jill Biden, who is married to Vice-President Joseph Biden, earlier this year. On Monday, Ms. Obama is to join a discussion with military family members and representatives of the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America, and others, all focused on ways to “inform and inspire” Hollywood creators regarding the military.
That first line is the understatement of all time. Since imagination left Hollywood a long time ago, the military makes the best villian, but maybe she can inspire them to head off the production of this generation’s “Deer Hunter”, “Who’ll Stop the Rain” or “Apocalypse Now”. But I’m pretty sure she’s just pissing in the wind when it comes to Hollywood.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden, Military issues
[…] May Come As A Shock Outlaw13 | Friday, 15th of July 2011 at 03:41:24 AM From This Ain’t Hell comes a link to a story from the NY Times… …the First Lady intends to discuss with the […]
Why would she tell Hollywood to make positive military movies neither she nor Hollywood believe in?
Oh yeah, that’s right–hypocrisy. Telling us all to eat healthier while she stuffs her fat ass with lobster and 1700 calorie meals at Steak N Shake. Got it.
And Jonn, Hollywood is never going to run out of “evil military” movies, even if they do all suck–think of such stellar performances as, “Redacted”, “Green Zone”, “Lions for Lambs”, “In the Valley of Elah”, “Stop Loss”, “Rendition”, “Brothers”, “Jarhead”…stop me if you’ve read enough.
“Look all you military people, I stood up to my very dear friends and like-mindwed colleagues in Hollywood! Now you need to repay me by voting for my husband’s reelection. If you don’t stand up and shout his praises from the rooftops soon, we may not be able to guarantee that your absentee ballots will get to you in time for you to vote. Oh yeah, we may not send out your paychecks after August 3 either.” – Michelle O
They may actually listen to her, I don’t care what her motives are…if it works or results in one or two good movies being made then good.
It certanly isn’t going to change my mind about who I will vote for come 2012…and if that was her cynical reason for doing this, who cares?
I have little hope for Hollywood. This week on the episode of TNT’s “Rizzoli and Isles’, a show I used to really like, they took the cheap shot. It started with a banquet honoring Rizzoli and a female Army soldier for their heroism. Laudable and I thought good to see for a change. After the ceremony the Army private was getting into a limo when it blew up. The storyline quickly headed for the gutter then with conspirarcy theories all over the place and the eventual outcome being that another member of her team killed not only her but another team member over his attempt to cover up that he had shot her in the firefight for which she was being honored and oh yeah he was in love with her but she seemed interested in somebody else.
BTW the slug they pulled from her during the autopsy was a .38 which the shows writers used as proof that it came from a military sidearm. Guys, quick show of hands. How many of you have been issued a .38 caliber sidearm?
So we have a coverup of a friendly fire incident, inter unit love stories and soldier suffering PTSD who goes on a killing spree. Oh yeah and they throw in a high school sweetheart from Rizzoli’s past who now a Delta Force operator for good measure.
Angie Harmon is one of the two female leads in that series, right? I am surprised she went along with that storyline.
QMC, sadly, it appears that it’s just a paycheck for her, so she did her thing.
Hollywood is returning to the male, macho heroes of the past due to the desire to make more insane profits (anyone going to tax Big Pic?)
Green Lantern, Green Hornet, Indiana Jones and other comic book heroes of an age when men were men and women loved them for that.
I expect to see John Wayne resurrected any day now.
Hollywood’s greed, and America’s desire for heroes will correct the image of our military as the perennial villain.
#5: isn’t/wasn’t the 38 revolver standard issue for aviators?
.38s were issued to aviators until Desert Storm, after that I carried an M-9 or M-4 or both.
The Navy also issued .38 revolvers to aircrew as part of their survival gear. It was on the inventory list through the 80’s, IIRC. I had drawn a .45 from the base armory for a short time, until the Base C.O. got pissy and stated that all firearms on base (military & civilian) had to be stored in the armory and drawn only for use. The Marines had a separate armory for their weapons.
I get having Generals wanting a cool new weapons system that goes out of control, I could even buy it. But really when is the last time you went to a movie and DIDN’T see a government conspiracy? See 8MM? That movie was so horribly unlikely (the military part not the alien) that it made me want to scream. Blackhawk Down endures because it attempts to be true to soldiers. Even Platoon had SOME truth to it (Stone WAS in fact in 1/35 IN Cacti) But you have writers and Directors that never spent a day in uniform making movies that are almost third hand accounts. here’s a list of recent movies that they tried to do *some* justice but simply screwed up (you can gauge it for yourself): Alien Vs Predator Requiem, Battle LA (I liked it but they got a lot of little shit wrong which got annoying after a while), Iron Man, Star Trek (in what Navy would a Cadet on his third year be promoted OVER a fully commissioned CDR?), Brothers (WAY over the top, to talk about PTSD) there are more some probably more recent some probably better but you get the idea Here’s a list of Films that screwed the pooch: pretty much any movie about a viral outbreak to include Outbreak, the crazies (old and new versions), pretty much most all Zombie flicks though in the Original Dawn of the Dead that was the REAL 28th ID. Green Zone, The Hurt Locker (Don’t get me started), the Men Who Stare at Goats, The Messenger (WTF hooking up with the wife you notified?!?!?!), Stop Loss (there was not some underground railroad of folks trying to get out of the war), Battle for Haditha, The Valley of Elah, The Marine, GI Joe. . . the list goes on and on. some of those movies Soldiers were the heroes but things were so fucked up you had to wonder, some of those, well. . . yeah. One of my favorite shows, Bones, has a former Ranger (whose also apparently the best sniper around, and also a… Read more »
T-O-O. Target Of Opportunity.