We’re back to the same ol’, same ol’ regarding the reluctance of the American people to sit through anything depressing about the war in Iraq. Now, Errol Morris has to confront the possibilities of empty theaters when his Standard Operating Procedure rolls out, as he discusses with Reuters:
The movie begins its roll-out to U.S. theaters this week, but Morris thinks he may have a problem on his hands. “This is a story I had to tell, but I don’t think anyone is going to see it,” he told Reuters.
Morris believes, though, that his story shows us things we haven’t seen before:
“You start to look into why this photo was posed and you find out that he was killed by the CIA and that others tried to sneak out his body. Sabrina sneaks in and takes pictures that in a different set of circumstances would have won a Pulitzer … Her crime was embarrassing the military. Without her photos we would have known nothing of this crime,” Morris said.
The best way to get people to pay attention is for the film to have itself adorned with awards. We’ll have to see if Morris can once again capture voters’ attention as he did when his Fog of War was the hottest ticket in town.
I will be seeing it….
Tze film critics in germany (where the movie was in competition for the Golden Bear in Berlin) werent that crazy about this documentary, because it looks much more than a action movie full of sensation-seeking stuff like slow motion, fictional scenes mixed with documental scenes, pathetic music and so on and so on.
As much I loved The Fog of War and as much I think this is an important issue, I guess this doc sucks!
I find it interesting, at the time of this post, this thread has only 3 other posts, while Del Toro’s directing of the Hobbit has 8.
I think the American Public is tired of hearing how fucked up the war is. They don’t want to be reminded when they go to the movies.
that photo is really disturbing–and depressing. I’m probably going to have nightmares tonight now.
Besides what RRA says above, I’d add the following: During the Vietnam war, there were few films made about that conflict, either documentary or fictional. I think the same holds true for other wars, including the one in Korea. The only exception is the more morally straightforward World War II, which saw Hollywood jumping on the bandwagon with lots of earnest, idealized films to help boost patriotic sentiments.
Regardless of how Morris’s film does in the current marketplace, maybe it’ll be received well in the future.
Someone asked me why the public has ignored all thse Iraq War-themed movies/docs, and I argue its that unlike Vietnam, this current conflict isn’t a middle class war.
Its a war of which the American people can choose not to fight, and most don’t. Why get your head blown off by the very folks you’re trying to help, when you could go see IRON MAN* next weekend and have a goddamn latte afterwards at the local mall?
There is no national engagement or stake in this conflict, not like there was with WWI or WW2 or Vietnam** or even Afghanistan before we dropped the ball with that crap.
So yeah, why would the people care about a topic they aren’t connected with, except sending someone else to do it for them?
*=Promotional Consideration brought to you by Paramount Pictures.
**=Again, because Iraq isn’t a middle-class war…notice how the best the American Left can muster in protest of the conflict are petitions, marches, and angry blog postings.