Old Glory
Patriotism and pride in your country is a good thing. Who can forget that scene in Casablanca in which Rick's patrons sing the French national anthem and drown out the Germans? These days, patriotism isn't as popular as it once was. Highly stoked over the release of the new Indiana Jones trailer trailer, I headed over to IMDB to see what other fans had to say. Besides some threads devoted to Ray Winstone's ”CGI Pants” that proved there are internet geeks who look at things way more closely than even I do, I found a lot of negative reactions to the American flag. As with the pants thing, I hadn't even noticed it, but on another viewing I did see it prominently billowing as a transitional scene set in the U.S.A. It didn't bother me at all.
Plenty of people are unhappy with our current president, particularly our foreign policy and the fact that we've been in a war for a bit too long that many disagreed with and some felt was entered into under false pretenses. I think these people who get bent out of shape over a flag appearing in a movie, who make comments like “this is worse than Spider-Man 3”, are missing something. It's a free country. We can disagree and voice our opinions. We can vote and make changes, and we've never had to suffer a horrible president longer than eight years. We have an opportunity every four years to vote for someone else, though I appreciate that may be a long time when soldiers are dying on a daily basis. Still, to confuse the gravity of those issues with the portrayal of patriotism baffles me. If you think your government isn't properly representing you, then they aren't representing the flag. But the flag itself represents something good, and if you feel it isn't then don't complain on the internet about a movie trailer; go out and do something to make the flag stand for what you believe it should.
When did this happen? When did people get so disillusioned that they can't even stand the sight of a fictional character standing in front the billowing colors of our nation? Where has the pride gone? Those of you who've lost that feeling, wouldn't it be great to have it again? I was very moved when I watched Glory the other day and saw Denzel Washington take up the flag when a comrade carrying it fell in battle. On the one hand, that film portrays the cost of war, the futility of some battles, especially the way fighting was done hundreds of years ago. It was never about making a difference strategically from a military standpoint, but rather the gesture, what it represented for the first Black infantry to be treated as human beings and fight beside their fellow countrymen. Honor is a concept that gets watered down every day.
These days, you won't see Cap punching any evil dictators. Even the upcoming G.I. Joe film modified the original story and changed them from American troops to an international strikeforce. Some people get so upset with Hollywood as a propaganda machine when the flag is shown, but filmmakers are just as likely to remove patriotic imagery or references in order to make more money and do well in other markets. Movies are a business with the agenda of making money through entertaining the masses. For all the serious issues out there, it's amazing what three seconds of a flag in a trailer will do. Wasn't it a decade ago when people were offended by the burning of the flag? Now the pendulum has swung and it's the sight of it that offends some people. I look forward to the day when things shift back to normal.
Of course, these are the same people who debated over those CGI pants and were upset that George Lucas ruined “their” franchise. I really shouldn't take them too seriously.
posted by MCF at 12:39 AM
6 Comments:
"Even the upcoming G.I. Joe film modified the original story and changed them from American troops to an international strikeforce."
I read something recently that indicates that this isn't true. I'll see if I can dig it up.
Interview with G.I. Joe Producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura which laid some things to rest.
See, I think the problem has been that the current administration and people who define themselves heavily on that side of the political spectrum have used their own definition of what is patriotism against people and then coopted certain symbols(like the flag) for their own political agenda, and this is the reason why some are having such irrational reactions to seeing those same symbols in entertainment like some twisted Pavlovian response.
I think that this too shall pass. And personally, I took the flag in the trailer as something which was giving an approximate date for the movie's setting as it appeared to only have 48 stars(I only watched the trailer once).
I agree, MCF, that patriotism is seen as outdated and non-progressive by many people, especially on the left. It hasn't always been like that. There was a time when you could be a patriotic American liberal. Today's brand of liberalism, however, seems founded on some sort of post-American fantasy internationalism. I wish we had more liberals like FDR and Kennedy, people I could disagree with but who never gave me reason to doubt that they were rational and patriotic. God bless Joe Lieberman, the last of a breed.
I think that a lot of leftists believe that the world would be one big playground full of puppies and flowers and ice-cream if only those bad old flag-waving conservative Americans would stop obsessively putting America's wellbeing first. I think they're foolish and terribly misguided.
MC: people who define themselves heavily on that side of the political spectrum have used their own definition of what is patriotism against people
How can someone use their understanding of a word's definition against anyone? I'm really asking here; I can't imagine what you mean.
MC: and then coopted certain symbols(like the flag) for their own political agenda,
I find it interesting that neo-cons, conservatives, etc, are often accused of co-opting the flag. Nobody is preventing Americans who see things differently than the Bush administration from flying the flag. Many don't, however, because they apparently associate the flag with the Bush administration, conservatives in general, etc. I get the idea that many leftists simply despise conservatives and see the flag as an arcane symbol ... and have no use for either.
(Sorry for the long comment. All of which, of course, is just my opinion.)
Darell, the definition and rhetorical flairs I am talking about is basically the idea that after September 11th, if you had disagreed with the current administration or a specific set of ideas and policies, you were a traitor, a person who was aiding the terrorists and not a real American.
And while you wish we had more liberals like FDR and JFK, I wish there were more active conservative voices akin to William F. Buckley rather than the kinds of personalities that seem to dominate political discourse on the right these days.
I have to admit that there are particular strains of conservatism/right wing politics that I have a less than sterling opinion of, it is true, much like there are particular movements on the left that I am sure just rankle you.
And I think with the Left and the Flag, we are now almost at a Chicken and the egg situation here.
I never had the sense that anyone who disagreed with the current administration was a terrorist or a traitor. I think people who disagree are AMERICANS; that's what our freedom allows us to do. But I'm sure there are people on the one side who have taken it to that extreme, just as there are people on the other side who want Bush dead, which is a bit worse than disagreeing.
Either way the flag represents an IDEAL we should strive for and may not always reflect the reality. Portraying it in pop culture with a hero or even as a symbol of another era shouldn't rankle people if our reality and present aren't perfect. Chances are, ye olde days of mom dad and apple pie had their problems as well, but it's nice to look back and focus on the dream.
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