The Real Hollywood Supports Our Troops
by Kurt SchlichterAs a veteran, I want to say “Thanks” to Hollywood.
Too often, the only thing we hear about the Industry is that a new movie is coming out that portrays our soldiers as near mindless half-wits turned into raving murderers by America’s unjust wars. But that kind of nonsense is not the whole story.
Recently, J.J. Abrams, the director of the new “Star Trek” re-boot packed up cast members like Chris Pine, Eric Bana, and the lovely Zoe Saldana and flew off to premiere their film. This premiere was not for a bunch of overpaid, over-pampered movie stars in some gaudy theater. Instead, it was in a dusty hangar in the Middle East, and the audience was made up of our troops. And that is not the exception.
My experience with Hollywood as a soldier for over 20 years has been entirely different from what one might think. While deployed, I saw a steady stream of comedians and actors come through our units, doing what they could to bring a little happiness to the men and women serving overseas. A former stand-up comic myself, I was even shocked to see one of the guys I had performed with a few years before in LA walk out onto the stage and do a killer set for the eager troopers. Another time, I watched the wife of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff have to nudge him to stop laughing so hard at Jeff Ross’s gloriously obscene set in front of a thousand troops in Kosovo.
Working in public affairs between combat unit assignments, I had the opportunity to work with a number of people in the Industry, like the crew and star of “Extreme Makeover.” They were thrilled to meet the soldiers, and especially happy to be able to help out military families in need. No one was ever too busy to sign an autograph, pose for a photo or just shoot the breeze.
Not only being among the first to see a huge motion picture like the new “Star Trek” but also getting to mingle with the stars – one report said Aussie actor Eric Bana jumped out of his reserved chair to go sit next to a soldier – is a huge thing for our folks deployed overseas. It’s more than just fun. It shows a level of respect and appreciation that mere words can’t. J.J. Abrams and his cast could have gone anywhere. They chose to go to a dirty, dangerous place because they wanted to show our troops that what they are doing matters. And, on behalf of every American veteran, I want to thank them for it.
There are certainly people in Hollywood who do not respect our troops, and I’ve deployed overseas twice to protect their right not to. I probably will again. But the real heart and soul of Hollywood backs our men and women in uniform. I know it, because I’ve seen it.
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72 Comments
This proves why I've been a fan of Eric Bana since Black Hawk Down.
And yet another reason to see the new STAR TREK. What a wonderful news story. Wish we'd see these every day.
http://the100mostannoyingthings.blogspot.com/
And that spirit will be repaid in ticket sales to those of us who follow this stuff. J.J. Abrams is doing good stuff on and off screen right now.
He was great in that movie.
I first saw him on a comedy show 'Full Frontal' (where he did a good Arnold impersonation), then he had his own comedy show (which was average), 'The Castle' is an Australian comedy classic, his breakthrough in 'Chopper' was amazing and got him the spot on Black Hawk Down.
Excellent! Well done to all involved. It is good to see a few in Hollywood that support the troops.
http://lonewolfarcher.blogspot.com
I can't imagine why Eric Bana hasn't made a bigger splash in H'wood, prob. b/c he's a decent guy. I thought he was unfairly maligned for his Hulk performance. He was excellent in Munich. Haven't seen his Henry VIII movie, may rent it from Netflix just to see him. I've watched youtube clips of his Full Frontal show, want to see his Australian movies – Romulus My Father is in my Netflix queue, actually. Did you ever see him on Conan? I might have been imagining it, but I thought Conan was a bit short w/ Eric.
Thank you Kurt for your service, and for shedding the light on the positive support that Hollywood contributes.
I've been iffy on this movie but this thoughtful gesture of theirs guarantees them my ticket. Hell, I'd watch more than once if it's a fun movie. Thank you, Kurt, for your article.
I have been a fan of Eric Bana since "Munich" and "Black Hawk Down". Loved him in "Troy", although it wasn't a great film, and also loved him as Henry VIII in "The Other Boleyn Girl". Handsome, a good actor, and apparently a good father and husband also. He just got even better in my eyes after reading this article. What a terrific man!
Kurt, this is nice to hear…but Hollywood's support of our troops, in time of war, has still been too muted for my tastes.
I remember two years ago, at the Oscars, when our troops presented the nominees for one of the Oscar categories, via videotape from Baghdad. The Hollywood audience reaction was tepid. Yes, there was applause, and no one booed. But it was still tepid. If that had been the audience at the American Country Music awards, they'd have been on their feet.
And, Hollywood's movie making during the toughest parts of the Iraq War did exactly ZERO to lift the spirits of our soldiers or the folks back home.
I wonder if we sent Hollywood to Iran to make a movie about Women and Gay rights, whether they would change their opinions?
Rather we like Hollywood or not they have always been our best weapon in a time of war rather it is lifting our spirits or strengthening our image abroad as they did so wonderfully in WW2. Unfortuantely since America started it's steady decline to hell in the 60's they have been a weapon for our enemies. With that said it does my heart good to hear there are still some in Hollywood who understand we are the good guys.
I don't go to the movies anymore. I will make an exception for this one base on what they did for our troops.
I don't go to the movies anymore. I will make an exception for this one base on what they did for our troops.
[...] Howard Ketter filed this report shortly after the event concluded (h/t Big Hollywood): "We feel priviledged to be here and to meet the people who are working hard on our [...]
[...] Howard Ketter filed this report shortly after the event concluded (h/t Big Hollywood): "We feel priviledged to be here and to meet the people who are working hard on our [...]
Maybe because he is a decent guy? You have to wonder about a culture that is more interested in reading about Madonna than Eric Bana.
What's up with that?
[...] Howard Ketter filed this report shortly after the event concluded (h/t Big Hollywood): "We feel priviledged to be here and to meet the people who are working hard on our [...]
I think you mean "whether" not rather..
Ditto!!!
Yes, there are actors who support our troops, even the detestable Al Franken does USO tours, and bless him for that, anyway. Gary Sinise is a true patriot who has toured dozens of times, and the WWE and John Cena tour a lot as well. Robin Williams too- one suspects he loves the captive audience, but no matter- he goes.
What is troubling is the product. Eric Bana is a good guy- he's also an Aussie. We are not getting the films that show the true and honest side of the citizen warrior- and that is the real point.
What new movie coming out portrays our soldiers as mindless, raving murderers? What the hell are you talking about?
I too applaud Eric Bana and have been a fan since "Black Hawk Down", one of my favorite war movies. I also find it extremely troubling that today's "movie stars" avoid visiting our troops and showing their support. I think back to the Bob Hope tours where so very many actors and actresses joined Bob in thanking our military for their service. Not sure how people like Tom Hanks, Steven Speilberg, Matt Damon, etc, who stared in one of THE best war movies ever, are not taking the time to visit the troops. Seems very hypocritical of them, at least to me. Wait a minute….I forgot, their to busy bashing the wars going on and can't see beyond their liberal hatred!! Shameful!!
Eric Bana lives a normal, respectable life. So there's no news there. He seems like a decent guy but tbird, his is NOT a good Henry VIII. In fact, "The Other Bolyn Girl" is weak. Rent "Anne of the 1000 Days" if you want a Henry fix. In any case, I now can't wait for Star Trek!
My Dad and I, huge "Next Generation" and "Original Series" fans, are so looking forward to seeing this movie. Admittedly, I have read some reviews from screenings online, and it has received nothing but massive positive feedback so far. I wish more of Hollywood did special screenings for our troops. If anyone in America deserves these kinds of cool events, then they surely do. Because of this generosity from our new Star Trek cast and Director J.J. Abrams, I will be giving the new Star Trek creative team every benefit of the doubt when I finally see the movie in a month. Personally, I love the idea of space exploration and have always thoughts of Starfleet as a futuristic version of our armed forces. How appropriate then for the cast to travel all the way to Kuwait. Although it's great to see the fictional stories and lives of Star Trek heroes onscreens, I like that Star Trek reminds us of the real men and women heroes now serving overseas. Thank you J.J. Abrams and crew!!!
Eric Bana… a quality man, choosing quality roles, and all the while displaying the virtues of humility, compassion and good-naturedness. His substance would be welcome regardless of his career, but I am glad he has the opportunity to look into the eyes of others who share his character by visiting our noble and awesome trrops.
Yes, thank you for your service.
It's great to hear stories like this, thank you!
I'm with you, John. I usually wait until they come around on Netflix, but in this case I'm making an exception.
Eric Bana = delicious.
But more importantly, thank you, J.J. Abrams for your thoughtfulness in taking cast and film to our men and women overseas, to bring them some goodwill and cheer. And a little bit of home.
Amen!
Does this mean you guys won't have any more whiny pieces re: how the new STAR TREK looks "gay?"
I don't know much about J.J.'s politics, and that's the way I like it. Love "LOST" and can't wait for "Star Trek," and proud of him and the cast to treat our real heroes in uniform with so much respect.
Ohhh Eric Bana….ohhh…….he is growing on me again. Good stuff here peeps. Eric Bana…ohhhh……
Kurt, thank you for your service and for your article today @ Big Hollywood. Love the picture of Eric giving 'thumbs up' while sitting next to the smiling soldier. Bravo to all for making this happen for our troops!
My doubts about the picture are the same as before, but it´s a very decent gesture of them and deserves applause. I was going to see it anyway, unless word of mouth is really bad.
Kurt, thanks for your perspective. I'll make a point of seeing "Star Treck" in the theater just to give them the support.
Good for JJ too. He's been doing good work and showing a new trek film to troops before most people see it, is extremely cool. Kuds to the actors who went on the trip – I've heard from folks who have gone, for whatever reason, find it a life changing xperience. And especially, thanks for our troops, who butts are on the line every day in defense of our country. I hope they enjoyed the flick and I encourage Hollywood to continue this practice of free pre-screening for the troops.
I am glad there are a few good apples in Hollyweird.
thank you for your service. To J.J. Abrams, may he live long and prosper
well, just last night on the TV show "The Unit", which has a decidedly liberal worldview when you look at all of the plots in all of the shows that they've done as a whole, they portrayed one of the unit operators as a would-be-rapist… a highly trained special forces soldier in an elite and secretive unit (such as Delta Force) being portrayed as a stalker and potential rapist of another member of his unit doesn't ring true to reality to me. of course, i'm sure the writers were thinking of how great they could use that incident to segue into a show about PTSD. another one of Hollywood's favorite cliches about US soldiers.
Kurt,
That's great a great post. My first good news story of the day.
Wow, I couldn't disagree more.
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Yeah, the guy was a total pig. But it was made clear that the rest of the team – in other words, the good guys – were furious and were going to make him pay. I was actually surprised they didn't kill him right there! He did escape, so who knows where the story will end up. But the fact that they were so angry and ready to take him down for his attack on the woman was beautiful to see!
I also thought the segment in the church was beautifully done. It showed respect for God (and when do we ever see that on TV?) and while the woman who took the baby was portrayed somewhat sympathetically, her actions were still portrayed as wrong. Her actions were not excused or whitewashed in any way. Again, quite the feat for today's television.
Colonel Schlichter – Excellent observations. Leave it to a Cav officer to pen an ode to Hollywood.
DeVore out.
Good for everyone involved. Yet I notice how on this site there has never been a mention about how Jon Stewart visits soldiers at Walter Reed and Bethesda Naval all the time, even getting a USO merit award. Sure, he's been damn near insufferable these days, but the man's done some good work for the troops.
I read a longer report on this over the weekend and it really seemed that Abrams and the ST cast were genuine in their appreciation for the troops. I particularly liked the picture of Quinto talking on the phone to a soldier's daughter. He had a big smile on his face and (I think) the dad was taking a picture. I'm sure the daughter had a pretty big smile too. (Quinto is such a nasty person on Heroes that I might have a hard time getting used to him as good guy Spock!) In any case, this is a nice good will gesture: kudos to them all.
Great read, kudos to those entertainers who care about the USA the greatest country the world has ever known!
Well to be fair, Hanks and especially Spielberg have done a lot good work for our Vets. Damon has always been MIA about these things.
JJ, Eric, and the rest of the cast and crew – Bravo! This is no empty gesture or publicity stunt; this is good karma all around.
Thanks Kurt, and be safe.
Back when Mr. Nolte ran his Dirty Harry's Place blog, he used to do a "Hollywood Good Guy (or Gal) of the Day" feature. He did mention Jon Stewart in one of them and I'd like to see him bring that feature back.
Every time I have visited Iraq (going on three times now) there were actors and entertainers that took time out of their busy schedules to come and pay a visit and brighten the day of a Solider or two. It has always been and will always be appreciated more than the entertainers can possibly know…and for that all Soldiers I know would say thank you to anyone who ever took to the time to come and say hello….
…With that being said, I think the rub I have with "Hollywood" as a Soldier (with 20+ years in as well), is their inability or unwillingness to portray anything to do with the current overseas operations in a positive manner. Yes there have been notable exceptions (Taking Chance, Brothers at War), but those pictures were not major releases and in the case of "Brothers at War" the director had to look for funding from people from his hometown to finance his film. The display of courage and valor is a daily if not hourly occurrence where your Soldiers are in engaged in mortal combat against the enemies of the United States, but can you name any of the Medal of Honor winners from this current conflict? Can you relate a single story of valor of those who fought so hard for you? Why is this? Why doesn't anyone know? Why can't these people who are such great judges of what makes a great story of what drama really is, recognize what is sitting there right before them the stories easily accessible at places like http://www.army.mil/info/history/ for what they are…stories of incredible heroics, of sacrifice and of brotherly love.
…The great majority of films that have addressed the War on Terror have done so using an image of the American fighting man that is downright slanderous. That's why, even though I greatly appreciate Hollywood's finest coming out to visit and give their time…I don't have much love for "Hollywood" right now.
…The great majority of films that have addressed the War on Terror have done so using an image of the American fighting man that is downright slanderous. That's why, even though I greatly appreciate Hollywood's finest coming out to visit and give their time…I don't have much love for "Hollywood" right now.
I would definitely like to see that. Show people that, regardless of politics, some people in Hollywood really do support the troops. Hell, I remember even a left-winger like Clooney visited the troops a few years back. I think my cousin still has a pic of his visit. Would really like to see more of that.
"And that spirit will be repaid in ticket sales to those of us who follow this stuff."
Exactly. You want to send a message to Hollywood, send it through your wallet. Support people like Abrams and the cast of ST by seeing it in the theater. Conversely, don't bother whinging about the America-bashers in the industry; they couldn't care less what you think. Just stop putting money in their pockets…THAT, they care about.
You hit the nail on the head, they support VET's, after they get out of the service not while they are on active duty.
We don't get Conan down here, never seen the show so I can't comment.
Not sure either why he hasn't gotten bigger, he can certainly act. The decent guy might have a bit to do with it, maybe he's just to laid back, could be that he's a rev head, really into cars which wouldn't go down too well in Hollywood.
Just so you know those Full Frontal shows are pretty old and I'm not sure how some of it would go down with Americans, would go over your head if you don't know the culture. If you want to see his Australian movies, check out 'The Castle' he only has a smallish part but he is good and it's a great movie. 'The Nugget' is another great Australian comedy, it didn't do too well, but it was good in an understated way, but definitely check out 'Chopper', crazy, great movie, this role got him noticed in Hollywood.
I love stories like this. Add another veteran to the list of those thanking JJ Abrams & Co. for doing this.
I agree that there have to be more like Bana and Sinise. I think the real problem is that the majority of these people feel the need to hide their true beliefs. The majority of those we know about are already established and have no need to fear being spurned. It is understandable that younger actors, cameramen, and alike mask their beliefs. The obvious truth is that there is a very real bias toward their beliefs that can hurt their careers.
This is the most compelling reason I've seen so far to actually make me see the movie.
Lost is addictive! I love it.
Here's a video of the event.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s11BXEMBi1A
It's worth watching because you can see how genuine these Hollywood types are about the whole thing.
If you haven't seen Eric Bana's film about his car, "Love the Beast" do, it's a great watch (even if you do not care about cars at all). And he comes across as exactly the sort of guy who would sit among the troops.
You're probably right with regards to behind the scenes personnel. Coincidentally, I was looking at longtime Trek illustrator John Eaves' blog and came across an interesting post (for someone who works in the biz on A-list projects). Scroll down to the Easter entry from 4/11.
http://johneaves.wordpress.com/
I'm with you, Mo. They'd been leading this way since Sam came on, very good, but not "team-ish" enough. And we'd had glimpses of his obsession. Then Bob's reaction was perfect – mad at himself for not seeing the dark in a colleague soon enough – and Jonas too. I did think that the left-side came through in some of the stand-off stuff. BUT, Mac's crisis of faith and interaction with the baby-snatcher was awesome!!
Unfortunately, as much as I like the Unit, they have the ability to ruin any perfectly good, straight-forward storyline!! So we'll have to see if they drive this one off the cliff too.
(But, RSGO, PTSD is pretty serious and on the rise)
I'm sorry, I don't know what RSGO is!
Yeah, they've been very uneven this season. It seems like they've also had a hard time from the start, figuring out what to do with the women's side of the story. Some of the things they had them doing this season have been quite unbelievable – in the literal sense of the word!
Aside from the weaknesses, I enjoy it greatly. It's nice to see soldiers portrayed as the good, honorable and self sacrificing people that they are.
Sorry – RSGO = Red State Gun Owner. It was a directed comment to him.
Yeah, the wives go from great to sooooooo bad… sigh.
[...] The Real Hollywood Supports Our Troops by Kurt Schlichter [...]
Yup. You called it. I totally subscribe to this method of reward and punishment.
Hats off to J.J., cast and crew. Great pic of Eric there with the troops. Well done.
I'd be interested to see a list of celebrities whom you think do a good job w/ our troops overseas. I think others here would also like to know who is helping and not hurting us. I know some of them probably are not open about it, not wishing to hurt their careers. But many I'm sure would love to know. Other vets who don't see them in theater and fans who aren't in the military but support it, may not have any idea that some of the folks they see in the entertainment news are supporters.
Thanks again.
Interesting. I didn't know this. Speaking as a vet, allow me to offer an explanation as to why he might visit wounded vets: Guilt.
Stewart's behavior toward our Commander in Chief during war time, with a massive domestic and global audience probably did quite a bit of damage in emboldening our enemies, lowering morale of our troops and giving birth to the legions of Bush haters who hang on the comedian/political pundit/comedian's every word as well as receive their 'unbiased' news from.
If the karma calculator was tasked with summing him up, I'd say he's still heavily in debt. Heavily.
Eric Bana did a incredible HULK job.
http://www.rainyhollywood.com
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