Listen to the sarcastic tone in which Clooney & Co. deliver the line "It's okay. We're Americans. We're here to help."

My father spent over two decades overseeing American Aid to Africa and Central America. He put himself and his family at great risk so an orphan in Africa might not go to bed hungry that night.

Radical, lunatic-fringe, left-wing, ultra-liberal, unpatriotic Hollywood bastards.

Nobody's going to see your shitty movie.

Common that looks like they make more fun of the left than of the military. I think it might be funny even though I'm no Clooney fan.

And Clooney is relevant to anything, why? Just another overblown, overrated self-important Hollywood lib. yawn

I was looking for a true story … and I got a truckload of %$#@&^!!!!

Good call, George!

Someone dare to critique our men and women in uniform? How unholy! How in sanctified!

OUR MEN AND WOMEN IN UNIFORM ARE BEYOND REPROACH! ANYONE WHO CRITICISES OUR SOLDIERS IS UN-AMERICAN!

Lets ask the military, who we're afraid this may offend, if they laughed at it… I mean I did.

Dr. Strangelove.

This could be a great deal of fun, and I'm not outraged by the assertion that the military indulges in some wingnut projects from time to time. It's more the overt political films that try to "educate" me on foreign policy and the inherent injustice of any U.S. military intervention, anywhere against anyone that gets up my nose.
There have been some great military comedies. Personally, I wouldn't put MASH in that category. It was Korea standing in for Vietnam and carried all the anachronistic 60's anti-war sentimentality, sexual liberation, consequence free drug-use, etc. into a setting where it didn't belong from an historical point of view. Humphrey Bogart's Battle Circus is far more accurate in capturing the sensibilities of Korea-era MASH units and that includes the doctor-nurse romances.

So let's see on the verge of the Iraq war with the combined US British and allied forces poised to have to go in to Iraq and face Saddaems WMD's all the world belived were there. a mission signed on to by all 100 US Senators. Clooney makes Syriana a movie about the US CIA killing good Arabs to steal their oil.
He was no doubt looking to get American kids killed.
He wanted us to lose that war because he is a traitor to this country.
Nothing he does to harm this country surprises me, he should really though come out of the closet.

So true — and this does look fun in a silly way (my favorite kind of fun after Heathers dark) — but hard to reconcile paying money to projects starring C.Looney and Hug-a-Hugo Spacey.

You were saying the exact opposite when St. Cindy was camping in Crawford so cork it, Sissy.

Agent Pierce looks highly disgusted with The Dude's anti-American harrangue….

I dunno, I got more than a good feeling about this one. Looks funny. Why not leave it at that? It's just a trailer folks!

Watching the trailer I was expecting to be insulted. I have to admit I was amused. It looks like a light hearted military comedy, maybe along the lines of Stripes, and not a military bashing film. I’m still not going to see it.

Making such a movie today – when we have a real military doing incredibly hard and amazing things every day – is the equivalent of being obsessed with the stuff between your toes. That is nutty. And symptomatic of Hollywood.

Besides, we know how this "fact inspired" nonsense works, don´t we? The truth quotient is 0,5%. You may share the closed-off perspective of the filmmakers, or you may just enjoy a wacky story (so do I, usually) but you´re not going to learn anything significant here.

I dunno, looks funny. I will see it.

[...] See the original post here:  Trailer: Clooney Mocks American Military [...]

Looks kind of funny. Maybe I'll go see it.

I guess that Bridges is like most other actors; he wants to work. He didn´t write or direct the movie. Clooney didn´t either, the difference is that we know Clooney is full of it because he went out of his way to let us know. But why blame Bridges?

Hollywood has attributed their own psychotic psychedelic power trances onto the military.

It is extremely disappointing that our movie industry cannot bring itself to make one decent, accurate movie about our military. If you follow these things at all, you know some of the jawdropping, deeply moving and completely true stories of heroism out there.

Having said that, I´m not sure that this flick will do any harm. It looks like another wannabe Brothers Coen, pseudo cool, pretend smart kind of movie. I wasn´t so much offended as bored. The trailer isn´t very funny.

Yea Oh my god! this is terrible! movies making light of anything! lord no!
i dont see any of you crucifying Charlie Sheen? [wait for.. you will now...]

two words: Hot Shots – most accurate portrayal of US military prowess since Dirty Dozen.. hands down…should be taught in school..

El Gordo: What's stopping YOU from making those movies?

I drove to LA from Virginia in December 2006, age 46, with no contacts or experience whatsoever in the film industry. This last Monday my first movie (as writer/director) went into post-production editing. I also have two spec scripts under development, both of them politically charged (and I mean that in a good way!).

So, why can't you do the same? is it that you have "other priorities" or "obligations?" If so, you have answered your own question: Hollywood is dominated by the left because conservatives have other priorities.

I laughed.

True, it's been a long time and those are *Army* uniforms… so…

The British satirist Chris Morris is making a film called Four Lions about a family of suicide bombers. It's due out next year and I can't wait to see it.

I completely agree with you. Clearly there are several writers and directors on the right who could make a great film that is better than An American Carol. Why don't they have the guts to go out there and find the money to make them? Personally I lean more to the left than to the right on many issues but I relish in opposing points-of-view (which is why I'm here) and as long as a film is entertaining and thought-provoking, I will enjoy it regardless of the politics unless we're talking about Triumph of the Will.

I thought it looked interesting, funny and entertaining.

You know… I'm just not that insecure that I'm going to worry about it. There's room for funny in the world. If it's a funny that is insulting or not to those in uniform is not apparent from that trailer. I mean, really… we were researching a weapon that gave people bad breath and body odor. *Really*. We *were*. And I'm not even saying that we *shouldn't*… but you've got to have a notion of the absurd about life without getting your panties in a twist.

What will make the movie insulting or not insulting to the military and to those who serve is not how those in the psychic warfare program are portrayed but how the regular troops and officers are portrayed.

"The Hurt Locker?" the movie with the whacked-out American Colonel who orders an Iraqi prisoner be left to bleed to death and a protagonist so warped and PTSD'd by war he can't love his own son and gets his own man shot and nearly killed because he's going further and further out of his mind?

That's reverential?

"Where are the great war epics? Where are the movies that laud the American military of today and praise their sacrifice?"

Don't worry, Donny Deutche is going to email a list of those movies to you.

Catch "We Were Soldiers".

I´m impressed. For reasons I will not go into, it is too late for me to start a new career. And I didn´t become officially conservative until a couple of years ago. But you are right in principle. When it comes to sending up the left´s holy cows mercilessly, it would be a lot of fun. And a noble thing, too.

I have no money to invest, but I´ll watch that movie, buy the DVD, whatever. Bellavia´s book kept me reading all through the night and I had to go to work the next day! That doesn´t happen a lot.

Indeed! They can easily use those very expensive puppets in the sequel. They might have to since the marionettes they used in the first one are most likely long gone and sold on ebay.

I'm immune. I made a tinfoil hat.

good call. I only got rid of HBO (Maher gives me gas) and went back to the basic package. Their signal's still comming in, but it's weak enough to be repelled by my tinfoil hat.

It's got The Dude… I may have to go see it.

I've read the book: it's a great read. Seriously, this looks like a lot of fun. Sticks are in dire need of being removed from butts around these parts.

You want to know when I'll stop being a wet blanket about these "'c'mon, lighten up, it's just a" comedies? When for every 5 of these where I'm told "Relax it's just a movie," there's ONE that treats these incredible men and women with the respect and reverence they deserve.

In the meantime, Hollywood can go to hell.

Have not watched it, though I own it; Loved "Heart of a Soldier" the book about vet Rick Rescorla who saved all the Morgan Stanley people, except himself and the idiot VP he tried to rescue, on 9/11. Rescorla was an actual character in the book that "We Were Soldiers' was based, but he was either deleted or blended with someone else….so, don't know yet if I want to see a movie that did edited out a real-life hero, whose had made heroic efforts prior to 9/11.

another flop from hollywood… what a shock

If you're truly surprised, it's only because you listen to the know-nothings who post here. There is no great liberal conspiracy in Hollywood, even if Jeneane Garafalo says some things Big Hollywood doesn't like.

But you'll keep on cashing the paycheck for spending your ife whining about it. If it bugs you that much, get a real job.

Oh yeah? So where is the conservative equivalent to all those outspoken liberal movie stars and directors? Where are their movies and tv shows? I can´t find them. What are the conservative moments that spoil every other movie for you? Can you give me 10 examples from, say, the second Bush term? I bet you can´t.

No conspiracy. They just ARE reflexive liberals producing movies dripping with liberal values. And they say liberal things whenever they find an opportunity, and especially abroad when they try to suck up to the Euro-press. And the opposite NEVER happens.

some of the stuff might not be so far out there .hey we have or had people doing remote veiwing at some point .
I guess something a little lighter at heart is ok as long as it does not disrespect soliders.

Looks like a fun movie to me. I know it's an unpopular opinion around these parts but I like Clooney in weirdo comedies like O Brother Where Art Thou and Burn After Reading.

Now, on the other hand, if this movie starred Sean Penn…

Personally, I think the hollyweirds make way to much money and should be taxed at 80 percent or paid minimum wage. When that happens, I might pay to see a movie again. Unless of course it is Clint Eastwood or some other conservative star. The nice thing is, they are coming out of the closet after all these years.

The left glorifies the most perverted things and wants to destroy the free market. Something is not right with this picture. I'm beginning to believe that it is a mental condition. I thought the book was funny, even though it was a serious book, but I'm beginning to get it now.

Ah, I see from the update that Big Hollywood is employing the popular "because I said so" schoolyard technique.

Yeah, go to hell, Hollywood — whose very existence makes this site possible… wait, what?

No I wasn't.

"A post without a snarky, dim-witted comment from you is like a nice summer walk in the park without a pile of dog poop sticking to my shoes. Good times"

Mission accomplished! Good times indeed.

Oh, wait….
You're trying to be ironic.
Your meteoric wit is just soooooooo cutting edge.

The Russians had massive research into this type of phenomenon. They will never be mocked like this.

"Relax, it's just a book."
Said about Twilight too and you know how despicable that franchise is.

There are plenty of war movies that honor our military, and most of them are propaganda.

Name five made within the last ten years. If there's "plenty", it should be easy…

You consider it your "patriotic duty" to talk down America at every opportunity?

Whatever.

Damn Lebowski, not Spacey and Clooney, …yuk!

Mediocre post responses. Mediocre potato salad. Mediocre tire tread. Yeah yeah. We get it.

"Right. Because real true blue Americans never say anything that other true blue Americans don't want to hear about their holy sanctified country and its emblems and its armed forces."

No. "Real true blue Americans" see what is best about our country, our emblems and our armed forces (notice the use of the word "our", sport). You seem to only see the negatives. You think that we are naive or down right stupid. On the contrary. We know that bad things happen in the military and its members aren't all boy scouts. We just choose to acknowledge all the good and just things accomplished by our Armed Services throughout history.

It's a simple matter of having a desire to embrace what is right and true in this country. We are constantly reminded about what is wrong (or PERCEIVED as wrong) by watching the news or reading a paper (Katie Couric, anyone?). So, yeah! We do get a little ticked off when a vacuous, self-important "thespian" likes to mock something we respect and love. Sue us.

So, keep trolling. I enjoy your little outbursts. So cute!!

Respect and reverence is sort of… I donno… how about respect and irreverence? And incredible… maybe… mostly not particularly incredible except for having put themselves in a situation where the opportunity and expectation exists. It's really not false modesty when a soldier says he just did what he was trained to do and anyone would have done it. It's maybe not *true* that anyone would have done it, but I believe it honestly feels that way.

(Perhaps it is because I was enlisted during (but not deployed to) Desert Storm… I just can't see service as something particularly out of the ordinary. So long as you don't have a physical disqualification, anyone can do it; just walk into a recruiter and sign up. And I suggest you do. Military service is something that is seen best from the inside.)

And *really* what Left-Hollywood gets so wrong when it comes to the military is a failure to understand that those in the military are not a special class of jack-booted, dim-witted, losers trained to follow orders but are entirely normal people, neighbors and fathers and sisters and sons, who run the gamut in intelligence and confidence and creativity, who have been socialized into a logistical system designed to move people and material where they need to be, when they need to be there. With guns.

Yes, the "war movies" about the last seven years have sucked beyond any reasonable expectation of suckage. And they've all tanked at the box office. They've portrayed soldiers as victims or as criminals and been primarily about making political statements… it's no wonder they sucked. There was no possibility of anything else.

I'd like to see something heroic, too. I'd like to see a movie that respected those people who volunteer for this fight, and who volunteer for a military life. But I don't know what that movie *is*. I can name some of our heroes off the top of my head and most of the people I know are tired of hearing about one amazing event or another.

And I say "event" rather than "story" on purpose.

There are some very good documentaries out there and many more to be made. But where is the *movie* in those? Where is the story? Take… the Lionesses. Fabulous heroic stuff and I am in AWE. But where is the story arc? How do you write the script?

There are a whole lot of creative people here and plenty of people who write scripts or novels… who deal in stories. What story of heroism (and there are a whole lot to chose from) ought to be made into a *serious* movie and how would you do it?

Someone mentioned David Bellavia. How would you do a David Bellavia *movie*. Story arc, character development and spine and all that stuff.

It occurs to me that, if blogging had existed in 1964; there would likely have been an equivalent of Big Hollywood strewn with infuriated articles about "The Incredible Mr. Limpet"…

"OUTRAGE! With our boys fighting and dying in Vietnam, Don Knotts DARES release a film portraying our Navy as requiring the aid of a magical talking fish to defeat the Nazis!!!"

Me too!

Well… it *was* to defeat the Nazis and not the Vietcong or even the North Koreans.

Which might be part of the problem here. We need more distance to do it right. Generally we've been getting that distance by making super hero movies, but maybe there is some other way to get it.

Maybe we could make a heroic movie about the Iraqi conflict by getting the necessary distance by doing a story about someone involved with the American military, so we can show our guys being awesome, but still leaving the sort of conceptual space necessary to write a good, entertaining, yarn.

I once heard a story about a Kurdish Peshmerga spy who infiltrated Saddam's organization at some level or other, who managed to get himself out of there without getting caught, and who signed up with the Americans as a translator and, like many "terps" was trying to immigrate to the US. He was initially declined on account of car theft. He'd stole Saddam's limo when he left. (The accuracy of my recollection is immaterial.)

Now, as a writer, I think I could work with this. We get cloak and dagger spy stuff, a handsome hero who we can make up some continued action-adventure while posing as an ordinary interpreter plot about, show a lot of cultural stuff and fighting and our guys (as I said) being awesome and real, and the twist when this hero spy wants to become a US citizen and move here that he's got a criminal record because he "stole a car" which, if done right, would be an excellent emotional punch and deflect a little of the possible charges of being *too* positive about the US military onto the "rules" of a faceless and nameless bureaucracy.

I think that the real guy had a brother and young family who were killed for helping the Americans, and if he didn't others did. The bravery of those in Iraq who risked so incredibly much to step out in faith and help us, and who often lost more than we can imagine… that deserves to be told, too.

And if someone thinks that we won't head to the movies to watch a hero who isn't American… well… assuming State got their heads out of their butts… now he IS American. So there.

Errol Flynn raped underage girls. Grant and Tracy were Communist sympathizers, I hate to break it to you, but yesteryear was even more liberal than Hollywood today. The only Conservative I can think of is John Wayne, and he was a horrendous racist. The golden age is, sadly, all a sham.

Um, yeah actually, Lighten up…Making a Comedy about Physic Soldiers isnt lambasting the American Fighting man.

You may think "John Wayne Green Berets territory" is just a bridge too far in terms if reverence for the military. I think there is nothing wrong with it. You should question why people mock The Green Berets as if the reasons were self-evident. It sure has its corny moments, but as a description of the Vietnam war, the movie is arguably no less accurate than later movies like Apocalypse Now, Full Metal Jacket, Casualties of War, Good Morning Vietnam and so on. If the latter are seen as somehow more "real" and sophisticated, and less mock-worthy, it is sometimes for aesthetic, but mostly for political reasons.

I remember seeing an interview in which a clearly irritated Bill Murray responded to some people alleging Stripes was a pro-military movie pandering to Reagan fans. He rolled his eyes and said with a wan expression, "No, I didn't do the movie because of Reagan. I didn't vote for him and think he was a lousy actor."

And I'm un-American because I say things that you people don't like to hear.

Right. Because real true blue Americans never say anything that other true blue Americans don't want to hear about their holy sanctified country and its emblems and its armed forces.

Since it sounds like that's your definition of "un-American" well then, I'll admit that I do act that way and I enjoy it very much. What you may find hard to fathom is that I consider it part of my PATRIOTIC DUTY.

There are plenty of war movies that honor our military, and most of them are propaganda.

Name five made within the last ten years. If there are "plenty", it should be easy…

I gotta tell you, when these people forget that they are but jesters, here for our entertainment, and try to give advice, they lose.
Noone ever takes the jester seriously, They are the fool if they do.

Sorry to disagree with you. I'm a Vietnam-era military vet, husband is retired with 24 years service and vet of two wars and member of VFW, eldest son in the AF, youngest son in Army and deployed to Afghanistan and I'm pretty sure we'll all be seeing this one. Hopefully we pass the patriotism lithmus test. Get over youselves, please.

I'm as hard on Hollyweird as just about anyone, but after seeing the trailer, I can't join in the outrage. don't think this is a slap at soldiers as much as it is at the Pentagon. For the sake of my workmates, I had to stifle a guffaw at the Jeff Bridges courtroom scene, and I pride myself on being a tough laugh.

OTOH, I got a look for the first time early Monday morning at Clooney's Three Kings, the 1999 Spike Jonze film about Gulf War soldiers looking to steal hidden gold Saddam Hussein supposedly stole from Kuwait. The opening ten minutes of that film made U.S. GI's appear as a rule to be unprofessional, disrespectful, incompetent, ignorant, racist, and trigger-happy. Allegedly a satire, Three Kings looked more like Animal House than Mister Roberts or M*A*S*H.

I am not going to flippantly say "lighten up." I just respectfully disagree with your conclusion.

1. Movie looks dumb. Not even haha dumb, just dumb. So much potential for funny with the subject matter, but the trailer just looks meh at best.

2. George Clooney is in it. I can sense the smug advisory coming on now.

3. We make fun of projects like that because after the fact they look really really dumb, but until you try the wingnut crazy stuff, you don't know if it'll work or not. Let's not forget that we have an entire branch of service now that's based on what was a wingnut psychotic idea 120-130 years ago (Air Force).

looks like a hoot to me, and not the least bit offensive.

When I was on active duty, we enjoyed movies that spoofed the military – "MASH" was a favorite. A number of us also had copies of "Catch-22" on hand. Sometimes we would open it to random pages and start reading out loud, often to hoots of laughter from those around us because Heller had so surgically satirized those necessary elements of military discipline and life that sometimes are taken over the top by zealots.

We could tell, however, when movies, articles, novels, etc., were aimed at trashing the military rather than just laughing along with us. I'll go see this movie because it looks like it could be pretty funny. If it's full of gratuitous military-bashing crap, I'll walk out and report back to you. If it tells a funny story without trashing my military and the brave people in it, I'll report that back to you as well.

If Clooney filled it with gratuitous crap, maybe we can all reconvene here and conduct a virtual psychic circle-jerk like they depict in the trailer to see if we can make Clooney pass out like the goat , preferably when he's walking down the stairs of his Lago Maggiori palace.

Works for me…Imy time is too valuable to waste on drivel like Clloney crap.

Yes, what an insult to the military. Why can't the left make a movie as respectful and insightful as the conservative-leaning work of art known as "Delta Farce"? Truly it was Larry the Cable Guy's finest hour.

Clooney will one day lye with Uncle Teddy Kennedy. What a far cry from his famous pro-America family members whose coattails he rode in on to his anti-American communist shtick.

MEA CULPA: I referred in the previous comment to Three Kings as "the 1999 Spike Jonze film." In fact, the picture was directed by David O. Russell (Spanking The Monkey, I Heart Huckabees, etc.). Jonze (real name Adam Spiegel, Chicago IL 60609) who DID direct Being John Malkovich and Adaptation, was a co-star of George Clooney and Ice Cube in Three Kings.

L.N. Smithee regrets the error, and unlike the New York Times, actually admits his.

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