Hollywood Goes to War

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Where to begin? It seems that war is just too big of a topic for Hollywood to handle in 90-110 minutes. Go figure.

I suspect what people want from Hollywood is to take the viewer from innocent civilian to battled hardened soldier and back again. Do we really want Hollywood to tell us about Charlie’s war in Afghanistan or are we more interested in the conflicts within the soul of the Lion of Panjshir?

Modern war movies seem to be more about telling the story within the story. The other problem with movies is that there is no smell, except of popcorn and spilled fountain drinks. Try to imagine the real smells of war. Then smell the ‘imagined’ ones of fear and death. Do death and fear have a scent? Is it a bad thing if you don’t know the answer to that question?

We are all fascinated with war. It is tribalism at its worst and unveils the darkness within each of our souls. That is why scenes from The Deer Hunter are so hard to watch. We realize that war can take good, decent, and normal people to dark places that they never can fully return from. The movies that touch as the most are those that teach us new ways to think about the common man turned warrior. What makes him take on these unbearable loads? Imagine the burden of command, the weight of a nation upon your very flawed and weak mind and body.

What if after great personal sacrifice and loss, your President gives away with the stroke of his pen the victory soaked in the blood of your friends and the Marines who believed in you enough to follow your not always perfect orders?

Why is war hell you ask. War is hell because of how the Ruling Class mocks the sacrifices of our warriors. Then there is survivor’s guilt thrown in for good measure.

The best of modern war movies do not try to explain war or even human nature. What they do is try to give you a glimpse into the impenetrable psychic conflicts that modern warfare puts upon the American grunt. One reason that Saving Private Ryan did not really work after the opening scenes is because Tom Hanks was miscast in his role as an infantry officer. He could not and did not give us any sense, other than a shaking hand, of what it is like to order good men to their deaths. The only relief from the burden of command in combat is one’s own death, but in dying what if your replacement is an even more flawed human specimen?

In other words, you have asked me to go to places and do things for you there that you cannot do for yourself. I have been there and done things as ordered. I am forever changed and not always for the better.

Your dilemma is whether or not to accept me as I now am or pretend that you have nothing to do with what I have become. I did not start out this way. I know freedom is not free and that our nation is worth the sacrifice.

Finally, how do you make sure that America will remain worthy of my efforts to defend her? Will I be mocked in the end by my fellow citizens turning the greatest nation on Earth into something that was not worth fighting, killing, and dying for?

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29 thoughts on “Hollywood Goes to War”

  1. Yes my military experiences could be a separate book. Especially the history of counterdrug riverine operations in the Andean ridge countries which has never been told, and one that I am uniquely positioned to tell if I get permission from the US government to tell my story.

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    1. In these times, when the words “war” and “epidemic” are tossed around like confetti, it would be useful to have some truth-telling going on….Hoping you’ll be allowed to pull back the curtain -soon.

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  3. This post reminds me/us how wide the chasm is; and how blessed I am/we are when you reach across it. We can but read, listen, learn, go there with you, if we are asked, as you travel the paths again….We dare not even form the words “thank you”. They are too small for what we mean. Books are better at this than Hollywood will ever be. A warrior’s words can bring us along his/her path – while the reader’s own topography of memory, and imagination – and unanswered questions – join with the words, to make the reality *present* in a way that film will never succeed in doing. There are images in my mind from books (memoirs) from my Uncle-Colonel’s library that I read years ago – and hold as though they were mine.

    The most common feeling, though, is that of being left out/left behind. Of posing when I say something about risk, pain, fear, or uncertainty. Maybe that’s what Hollywood is trying to gloss over/avoid? (I’ll stop now….)

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  4. How do I/we make certain that America is worthy of your service and sacrifice? (Thinking of you – and the boys who became men at Iwo – during these days.)

    I need to live the life of a free, thinking, faithful woman – who knows what each of those things is worth, what they cost; to keep telling the stories, telling the truth, showing the beautiful, and acting out of the good. To keep living the life I lived yesterday. One day at a time, for as long as I can….

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  5. I didn’t know how to say this before, but I want you to know: this post blows. my. mind. What you have said in this post is something that we all need to hear, again and again and again. Thank you.

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    1. My pleasure ma’am. I appreciate your concern and my current on-duty nurse (AKA: Miss Tiffani) told me to let you know that no more than her ‘normal’ TLC was administered last evening to induce knockout followed by blissfully refreshing sleep. Tiffani says that is a good sign, and that I did not appear to her to be upset in the slightest with writing this awesome response to your queries. In other words, my Sugar-D, all is well.

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    1. Yes you may. She is administering to my needs for something that she calls sex addiction. I am still unsure whose addiction she is treating but her enthusiasm for her work, nevertheless, is awe-inspiring.

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    1. LOL 🙂 You are so funny 🙂

      This is a little off topic, but also funny: my mother was a knockout when she was younger. She had a dear friend who was cute but nowhere near as beautiful as my mother. As I grew older, I became struck by the fact that my mother’s friend never seemed in the least bit jealous or threatened by my mother, and obviously never had been. That is partly a testament to what a wonderful person and a good friend she always has been, but there is a little more to it than that 🙂 It turned out, as my mother relayed to me one day, that her friend’s husband had actually asked my mother out on a few dates before he started dating her friend: he ending up dumping my mother and throwing her off for her friend. When I learned of this I expressed my mild surprise to my mother, and she just smiled and shrugged, saying “Well, she was a nurse, and he had a thing for nurses” then my mother nodded and said “That was the attraction.” So cute 🙂

      I hate to say this, because I don’t want everybody to hate me, but in a strictly technical sense, I am pretty sure that men make better nurses than women do, simply because they are stronger and better able to move people around. But I shudder to think of a world where all nurses are men. I don’t think men would like that very much 🙂

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      1. Even if they were to prevent your race from becoming nurses, as long as they don’t stop making nurses’ uniforms for females we should be alright.

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      2. Simon, there is a minute group of people in this world who can render me speechless.
        You, sir, are truly one of the Few. The Proud.

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  12. May I bring us back to your magnificent OP, for a moment? Only wanted to say that it would make a n excellent preface for a book, or preamble for a chapter. (And now, back to carrying on with carrying on….)

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