That’s actually a pretty pertinent question.

This is the first film Cruise has done that I don’t actually want to see. I’m a big Cruise fan, as an actor not a person.

Yeah me too. He was great in Born on the Fourth of July and Minority Report.

Also, all these movies were made after the Vietnam war. They were not propaganda efforts to demoralise people as “Lions for Lambs” is. Its also attempting to discourage people from joining the armed forces.

and how many of you who called this movie liberal crap enjoyed full metal jacket? that movie, given your standards, seems pretty liberal these days. soldiers killing themselves because of dastardly drill sergeants…kids wondering why they’re stuck in the rice patties…war being hell…sounds pretty unpatriotic dontchathink?

Sorry, ernesto, but if you think that I am being hypocritical about my judgement on movies. Let me fill you in on a little something. A FILM DEGREE holder here.

I also have a film degree. This film is straightforward propaganda of the most unsubtle variety and won’t make a lot of money. Hollywood, like the NEw York Times, pusts ideology ahead of profit. That’s why Dreamworks went bankrupt and was bought up by Paramount – its “nuanced” comparsion between terrorists and Israelis was a dud at the box office and lost Speilberg millions.

I actually don’t mind good anti-war flicks. The best are all about Vietnam possibly because of the hold that war has on the American imagination. My favourite anti-war films: Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Casualties of War. Something tells me “Lions for Lambs” isn’t quite up to standard.

ernesto on August 6, 2007 at 4:54 PM

Sorry, ernesto, but if you think that I am being hypocritical about my judgement on movies. Let me fill you in on a little something. A FILM DEGREE holder here. I’m trained in Analytical and Critical Theory and screenwriting from NCSU, (that’s on top of my extracurricular “EIB University/HA Institute/Internet research” degree in Political Science.) I know Hollywood. I know how to read a cast, as well as the screen. And that one, Sport…serves only one purpose – to try to tell me to hate America and believe she is evil. One doesn’t really need the degrees or expertise to see this – but since you implied we’re hypocrits for liking some political movies but not others…

As to FULL METAL JACKET…I had an expert (my dad – a vietnam vet) at the time, to tell me his viewpoint when it came out. He was okay with it. PLATOON, on the other hand, he walked out of. That was enough for me.

Why do we need to examine this war on such a level. Funny thing is in the trailer, Cruise asks the big question. Do you want to win this war on terror? YES or NO.

“War is not won through peace talks or diplomacy. War is won by completely destroying the enemy’s will to continue fighting”

Professor Blather on August 6, 2007 at 4:35 PM

Gosh, that was a great belly laugh. Thanks, Professor! **still giggling**

Click the image to watch; choose 480p if you’ve got Quicktime installed.

Ill stick with 1080P , thanks.

I refuse to watch any film that insults my intelligence — even just for laughs.

Blake on August 6, 2007 at 4:29 PM

I second that.

Both soldiers victims are minorities. All the thinkers @$$holes are white people. The “bad guy” is a white male. The other white male is only a “good guy” because he is a university professor Ward Churchill wanna-be. This whole, damned thing is a leftist parable.

I think Americans don’t want nearly as much politics in their cinematic productions as Hollywood thinks they do.

This will probably tank, but not before we are subjected to months of marketing. I keep hoping these leftist fools run out of money as they throw it into these bottom-less holes, but they never seem to do so.

They couldn’t possibly care less about who the Hell Cruise prays to. The studio is in business to MAKE MONEY. They fired Cruise because he wanted to piss away their gigantic investment in his “all American” image, quit making pictures people wanted to watch and start making moronic propaganda crapfests like this one.

Irenaeus on August 6, 2007 at 7:09 PM

You beat me by 1 minute!!! LOL

And as for the army depicted in this tale they seem to me to be coming off as ill informed and brainwashed zomdies, not as the self-sacrificing heros they are.

It is precisly this crap that keeps me away from the theaters.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/showbiz/showbiznews.html?in_article_id=473441&in_page_id=1773

Admittedly, some kids do have those moments of fear when going in the water for the first time like that, so that may explain his facial expression… but my bias forces me to assume it’s because they’re horrible parents and are scaring the kid… or that someone just told him what Scientology was all about.