Posted by
David Smith on Saturday, January 19, 2008 3:32:11 PM
Do you remember the 1997 Harrison Ford flick, "Air Force One"? It's playing right now. I kind of had to change gears to start this entry. As you might have noticed, I haven't been very active in the blogosphere lately. I'm taking the opportunity to expend my writing efforts on some other projects offline. I put one of them aside to catch the opening of the movie and then to make this entry.
I was stunned by the radical change that Hollywood has taken from 1997 to today. I guess 9/11 and a war will do that.
Now, granted, 1997 was the Dark Ages of the Internet. No youTube, no blogspot...heck, even Google was still private. But the differences in scripts of today and the first five minutes of "Air Force One" are unmistakable.
Harrison Ford's character, the President of the United States, follows up a joint U.S.-Russia special forces raid on a state sponsor of global terror with a major policy change speech in Moscow. Now, this would be an insignificant movie except that the text of the President's speech makes the current President's speeches look like a newborn puppy dog's.
Axis of Allies? Milk toast.
"With us or Against us?" It almost quotes Ford's President verbatim. It makes you wonder who writes the President's speeches and Hollywood's scripts!
"We will no longer be on the defensive" and "we will do what is morally right"? Says who?
If it is 1997, says Hollywood. A Democrat in the White House has everyone saying, "Act, buddy--our guys are getting killed while you play grab-*** with the interns!"
If it is 2008, says the President, and Hollywood makes every single movie into a political statement of anti-war content.
Amazing.
I don't usually write anything less than novel length, but that's all there is to say about that. Way to go Clooney, Pitt, Jolie and Company!
Way to go!!
Maybe I should add Hollywood to that list in the subject line?
Edit: I went back and looked up the speech in question. Pretty noticeably absent from recent Hollywood offerings, hmm???
President James Marshall: "The dead remember our indifference. The dead remember our silence. The truth is, we acted too late. Only when our own national security was threatened, did we act. Never again will I allow our political self-interest to deter us from doing what we know to be morally right. Atrocity and terror are not political weapons. And to those who would use them, your day is over. We will never negotiate. We will no longer tolerate and we will no longer be afraid. It's your turn to be afraid."