Pro-War Entertainment

Jim Miller posts about Frank Capra's Why We Fight, a series of excellent WWII propaganda films, which also turn out to have been good historical records. Miller also notes a potential movie plot that Hollywood could use, which would both support the war effort and make a bundle of money for the studio that produced it. I have some other suggestions.

How about a TV series following a National Guard platoon over the course of a year's deployment in Iraq? Showcasing what's actually happening in Iraq could be the background, but the entertainment possibilities are endless. In addition to numerous action scenes in combat, there would be lots of humorous moments available as well. In a way, M*A*S*H - though anti-war in general - was very pro-soldier and actually managed to show a lot of the aspects of the Korean war in a fairly honest light; there is room for such a series today, with a different focus. Even a transport unit would have a lot of potential.

How about a movie of the battle of Falluja, or the hunt for Saddam, or even the (so-far unsuccessful) hunt for Osama? How about a movie about the Thunder Run and the battles of Objectives Moe, Larry and Curly? How about a series following an SOF unit through the invasion of Iraq or inside an unnamed Muslim country harboring terrorists? There's even an opportunity for a massive renewal of the James Bond franchise, with terrorist bad guys instead of Communist bad guys. Could the producers of, say, Lost be induced to make a show following a small group of people under extreme duress? What about a movie about a journalist's struggle between his country and what he's always been told is a duty to be utterly objective?

I think that Hollywood may have moved so far to the Left as to be unable to root for America in wartime. If that's the case, will there be a supplement, to make the shows that red-state America wants to see? Will we simply cede our cultural products to those most intent in our culture's destruction or degeneration, or do we have the ability to find within ourselves patriotism without blind nationalism, and to express the best of ourselves - along with the worst - in film?