Hollywood tears up script to make anti-war films while conflicts rage - Guardian

[rndmprsn]

looks like a great fall films lineup, finally!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,2148218,00.html



For Americans sitting in cinemas watching the summer's fun movies, such as The Simpsons and Hairspray, the trailer for Lions for Lambs is jarring and unexpected. It opens with a moody shot of the Washington Memorial, and shifts to a series of quick-fire scenes about President George Bush's "war on terror".

Lions for Lambs, scheduled for release in the US on November 9, is not a documentary nor an art house film nor even a Michael Moore-style piece of agitprop. It is mainstream Hollywood, starring Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep and Robert Redford, who also directed it. It is one of about a dozen Hollywood films due for release or being made that deal with America divided, the national debate over Iraq and Afghanistan, and other consequences of 9/11...

...The films are bound to be politically controversial, particularly coming in the run-up to next year's presidential election. American conservatives, without having seen it, have begun vilifying Lions for Lambs as anti-war propaganda.

Other films on the way include Rendition, with Reese Witherspoon as the wife of an Egyptian chemical engineer spirited away for interrogation by the CIA. In the Valley of Elah, due for release on September 14, is directed by Paul Haggis, and stars Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron and Susan Sarandon. It is about post-combat stress and is based on a real incident in which a soldier was murdered while on a drinking spree with his comrades on return from Iraq.

That, too, has already run into trouble. Dennis Griffee, national commander of the Iraq War Veterans Organisation, refused to help after learning that Sarandon, an anti-war critic, was involved.

[msongs]

1. so what's wrong with anti-war propaganda? Isnt that what Jesus the liberal was about? nt

[rndmprsn]

2. isn't it ironic how peace has become vilified?

[Kagemusha]

3. Peace brings War, War brings Peace.

If you want peace, wage war; if you want war, wage peace. (Edit: :sarcasm: ...wish there was an irony tag)

[pacalo]

4. I agree -- great Fall line-up!

[LibDemAlways]

5. I saw the trailer for Lions for Lambs today. Cruise plays

what looks like a scumbag repuke Senator. Streep is a reporter. With Redford behind the project, it ought to be good.

[AnnieBW]

6. Nooo! Not Tom Cruise!!!

This means that I'll be forced to see a movie with Tom Cruise in it! I don't want to give my money to the Scientologists! :puke:

[nadinbrzezinski]

7. WOW the environment has definitely changed

I wonder if I can sell my fiction now

I have had records on time distance broken by short story publishers

[shadowknows69]

8. I just saw the Simpson's movie the other day

and this trailer wasn't attached. Couldn't have anything to do with this being a military town I'm sure.