Semper Films: The Top Ten Marine Corps Movies

The men and women who earn the right to wear eagle, globe and anchor of the United States Marine Corps are a special breed.   To those outside the Corps, they talk funny.  They look funny.  They are extremely impressed with themselves – and they have every right to be. 

My beloved United States Army is a blunt instrument, a magnificent club that has pummels our nation’s enemies into submission.  But the Marines are America’s rapier, a razor sharp weapon of war that has never been bested and never will be.  For over two centuries, the United States Marine Corps has been fighting our country’s battles in the air, on land and sea.  They don’t give up.  They don’t quit.  There’s no word for retreat in a Marine’s vocabulary.  And they are making history even today in the mountains of Afghanistan and elsewhere.

November 10th is the Corps’ 234th birthday.  With the indulgence of my Devil Dog brethren, here is this Army veteran’s countdown of the Top Ten Marine Corp movies: (more…)

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Tags: 55 Days at Peking, a few good men, aaron sorkin, Adam Baldwin, Al Mathews
Posted Nov 10th 2009 at 9:41 am in Classic Hollywood, Film, Military | 260006166 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/11/10/semper-films-the-top-ten-marine-corps-movies/Semper+Films%3A+The+Top+Ten+Marine+Corps+Movies2009-11-10+17%3A41%3A33Kurt+Schlichter

Review: Clooney’s ‘Men Who Stare at Goats’ Biased but Amusing

Give the military-industrial complex an unlimited budget, and it’ll find unlimited ways to kill people. From megaton nuclear missiles to Donald Rumsfeld’s allegedly humane, small-scale nuclear “bunker busters,” and from robot soldiers to Barack Obama’s beloved predator drone planes, our nation’s finest scientific minds will find ever-newer ways to obliterate anything that gets in the path of the American Way. 

Of course, our enemies do the best they can on the killing front as well, and at one point it was widely believed that the Soviets were engaged in training soldiers in psychic warfare. British journalist Jon Ronson stumbled across America’s response to those mental-murder programs and wrote about them extensively in his humorous nonfiction book “The Men Who Stare at Goats.” 

Now, with the help of screenwriter Peter Straughan, who has invented a streamlined story in which to connect the book’s hilarious and almost impossibly wild anecdotes, “Goats” has hit the nation’s movie screens. Fast-moving, funny, and supremely subversive entertainment of a kind that Hollywood rarely takes chances with anymore, it also arrives at a rich historical moment, as President Obama’s own decision on whether to surge or pull troops out of Afghanistan hangs in the imminent balance.  (more…)

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Tags: army, Ewan McGregor, george clooney, Men Who Stare at Goats, Peter Straughan
Posted Nov 5th 2009 at 5:58 pm in Film, Reviews | 25743461 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/ckozlowski/2009/11/05/review-clooneys-men-who-stare-at-goats-biased-but-amusing/Review%3A+Clooney%27s+%27Men+Who+Stare+at+Goats%27+Biased+but+Amusing2009-11-06+01%3A58%3A14Carl+Kozlowski

Honoring September 11th: Serve and Remember

President Obama has designated September 11th as The National Day of Service and Remembrance.

Remember.

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(more…)

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Tags: 9/11, air force, army, Marines, navy
Posted Sep 11th 2009 at 5:22 pm in Culture, Military, Politics | 22270621 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jrhead/2009/09/11/honoring-september-11th-serve-and-remember/Honoring+September+11th%3A+Serve+and+Remember2009-09-12+00%3A22%3A15J.R.+Head

An Alternative to War

Disclaimer: What you are about to read is fiction. It is a story about peace. Peace at any cost.

THE WORLD TODAY: A News Summary

May 2009

BONN (EU News) – The current CSPEU administration has decided to increase productivity by lowering the age that children are required to enter the workforce from nine to eight years of age. The EU Vice Minister for the Interior states the lowering of the work age is due to an increased shortage of youthful workers. “It’s a reflection of the ongoing fighting between our peaceful union and the obstinate Russians.”

Citizens and subjects in the 18-25 age bracket have seldom been seen in recent years. The Vice Minister commented on this by stating, “This temporary downturn in our youthful population is insignificant compared to the tremendous loss of life on the Russian side. Though our rockets delivering Vemork V weapons obliterated St. Petersburg and most of Moscow years ago, the Russians, though scattered and ill equipped, still choose to resist to this very day. It staggers the mind why they wish to continue their own misery. ” (more…)

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Tags: "China", air force, allies, America, armed forces
Posted May 28th 2009 at 4:33 pm in Politics | 1436262 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/smann/2009/05/28/an-alternative-to-war/An+Alternative+to+War2009-05-28+23%3A33%3A41Schizoid+Mann

Freedom Isn’t Free

While volunteering for the McCain Campaign last year, I ran across a display of quotes by former President Ronald Reagan… One of them touched my heart so deeply that it inspired me to sit down and start writing a song as a tribute to our men and women in the United States Military.

The quote said… 

“We all share the love of peace, but our sons and daughters must learn two lessons men everywhere and in every time have had to learn:  that the price of freedom is dear, but not nearly as costly as the loss of freedom – and that the advance and continuation of civilization depend on those values for which men have always been willing to die for…” 

While some of our brave men and women in uniform have made it safely back home to their loved ones, others have come home wounded – their lives forever changed.  Yet still, there are those who have gone on to another home – paying the ultimate price for freedom… with their lives…  (more…)

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Tags: air force, America, army, Coast Guard, Freedom Isn't Free
Posted May 25th 2009 at 11:13 am in Military | 142862One Commenthttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/cstanton/2009/05/25/freedom-isnt-free/Freedom+Isn%27t+Free2009-05-25+18%3A13%3A57Chele+Stanton

Sergeants Rock

I just cannot get behind this Star Trek rebirth.  The whole thing is just so unrealistic.  Not the warp speed or phasers or beaming about the universe – those are at least remotely plausible.  I am talking about the fact that the starship Enterprise is composed entirely of officers and yet it still seems to function.  Where are the non-commissioned officers (NCO), the petty officers and sergeants who actually make any military organization run?  No, I can suspend disbelief over Klingons and tribbles, and I actively support the notion of green alien hotties.  But the idea of a functioning military unit without sergeants is just a wormhole too far.

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Hollywood movies often focus on the commanders, the captains and colonels, but they have also managed to highlight some great sergeants as well.  When you are picking out DVDs for next weekend, remember that May 16th is Armed Forces Day and consider a few selections that show the sergeant in all his gruff and grumbling glory. 

If you have never experienced the joy of going through basic training and do not plan to, your first stop should be Full Metal Jacket, with R. Lee Ermey’s legendary portrayal of a Marine drill instructor who must have missed out on the block of instruction on sensitivity.  I saw this in the theater about a week before I reported to Basic.  That was a poor idea. (more…)

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Tags: A Bridge Too Far, Afghanistan, Al Matthews, Aliens, An Officer and a Gentleman
Posted May 11th 2009 at 4:47 pm in Entertainment, Military | 1310103 Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/kschlichter/2009/05/11/sergeants-rock/Sergeants+Rock2009-05-11+23%3A47%3A39Kurt+Schlichter

Profiles in Courage: Major General David Blackledge

General David Blackledge (rt) in Iraq

Major General David Blackledge is not a superhero. He’s a human hero. 

In February of 2004, Major General Blackledge’s convoy was ambushed in Iraq. The interpreter, who was sitting next to him, was shot through the head. Taking fire, the vehicle rolled. But the survivors were able to escape. He sustained a broken back and ribs, with other injuries requiring eleven months of recovery and physical therapy.  

Fifteen months after the ambush, Major General Blackledge was deployed back to Iraq. While in Amman, Jordan for meetings, he was in one of three popular hotels that were struck by terrorist bombs. The explosions killed over 55 people and injured over 110. He suffered a neck injury.  (more…)

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Tags: Afghanistan, army, cycling, george bush, Iraq
Posted Apr 14th 2009 at 10:33 am in Military | 105554No Commentshttp://bighollywood.breitbart.com/r2r/2009/04/14/ride-2-recovery-profiles-in-courage/Profiles+in+Courage%3A+Major+General+David+Blackledge+2009-04-14+17%3A33%3A04Ride+2+Recovery