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Post by joekiddlouischama on Mar 31, 2017 7:48:14 GMT
Hacksaw Ridge (2016) Patriots Day (2016) Hidden Figures (2016) Captain America: Civil War (2016) Captain America: Winter Soldier (2014) Lone Survivor (2013) White House Down (2013) Cowboys & Aliens (2011) Kick-Ass (2010) Tucker and Dale vs Evil (2010) ... "maybe" on some of these. Hacksaw Ridge is nuanced in this regard, displaying the tension between the American ideal of religious freedom and the American reality of religious intolerance. Likewise, Hidden Figures displays a struggle against the sheer ridiculousness of racial segregation and inefficiency of injustice. White House Down is entertaining, but the film is too formulaic to engender serious patriotic pride.
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Mar 31, 2017 7:56:43 GMT
Oddly the first Rambo...First Blood...is fairly anti patriotic. Showing a small town treating a PTSD Vietnam veteran with as much prejudice as possible. ... true in a sense, but the myth of the disdained Vietnam veteran fit into a popular reactionary narrative of the seventies and eighties. The odd part, as you indicate, is that the film targets some yokels and their sheriff as the villains, thus 'complicating' that reactionary narrative and making First Blood a politically ambiguous film—to the extent that it is political at all. I concur that the movie is not particularly patriotic.
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Post by kuatorises on Mar 31, 2017 13:43:03 GMT
Even though the setup is an off-duty cop being forced into action, "Die Hard" still comes off as a fantasy of vigilantism. Just what peeves John McClane as he fights alone against the world, and do you share his angst? He bangs his head against a wall as he recalls how he and his wife separated, like the self-hatred of a man who hits women and is sorry. She's uppity with a good career and makes more money than his police salary, and he possibly resents alimony + child support as unfair. Also self-hates his addiction to tobacco. The baddies are leftist radical foreigners, patterned after the Baader-Meinhof gang. McClane has a low opinion of California and its population of space cadets (and gays). This boils up several times like when a man at the party kisses him on the mouth. He hates dealing with female professionals in positions of authority; the one that really gets to him is the police dispatch operator. Dwayne is an incompetent institutional bureaucrat representing government interference with the common man. Takagi is a 'good' foreigner of a model minority. The fantasy payoff of all McClane's macho heroic violence is winning his wife back.
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Post by kingkoopa on Mar 31, 2017 15:55:46 GMT
This isn't the 1980's. The Cold War has long been over and the U.S.S.R is gone.
I remember Rambo II being such a big box office success during this time of Americans being proud to be American. The USSR is gone, but all of its adherents are not. I will be curious to see if Russians again start figuring heavily as Hollywood villains over the next few years. I wonder this too...especially with the current political climate (which I have no desire to explore here). I tend to think that 9/11 changed everything. I know that's a cliche, but watching a movie like "True Lies", with a Middle-Eastern terrorist as the villain, is kind of a different experience these days. 'Terrorists' became the new 'Russians' in a lot of American films, but the tone of action films in general seemed to get a lot more somber...probably due to the wound of the attack and the ongoing wars being still a bit fresh. I miss movies like "Top Gun." Hope we can get back to that sort of climate.
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Post by fangirl1975 on Mar 31, 2017 18:20:35 GMT
Well, Hans did say something about "You Americans, you're all alike..." John McClane was the average American "cowboy" taking out the Euro-Trash... True, Hans was Euro- Trash; but I'd like to meet his tailor.
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Post by sostie on Mar 31, 2017 18:30:54 GMT
A British film, based on a comic created by a Brit, with a screenplay by a Brit, Directed by a Brit, starring a Brit, with a large number of Brits in supporting roles, filmed in Canada and England, makes you proud to be American?
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Post by Wesley Crusher on Mar 31, 2017 19:16:42 GMT
A British film, based on a comic created by a Brit, with a screenplay by a Brit, Directed by a Brit, starring a Brit, with a large number of Brits in supporting roles, filmed in Canada and England, makes you proud to be American? During World War II films directed by non-Americans ... showcasing American patriotism was common ... why couldn't that happen with Kick-Ass?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2017 18:15:46 GMT
I never really thought of Die Hard as an overly patriotic film. Do you like American patriotism?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 6, 2017 18:17:07 GMT
This isn't the 1980's. The Cold War has long been over and the U.S.S.R is gone.
I remember Rambo II being such a big box office success during this time of Americans being proud to be American. The USSR is gone, but all of its adherents are not. I will be curious to see if Russians again start figuring heavily as Hollywood villains over the next few years. As far as the Democrat Party is concerned the Cold War with Russia is going hot and heavy.
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Post by joekiddlouischama on Apr 6, 2017 20:47:37 GMT
The USSR is gone, but all of its adherents are not. I will be curious to see if Russians again start figuring heavily as Hollywood villains over the next few years. As far as the Democrat Party is concerned the Cold War with Russia is going hot and heavy. I would say that that assessment is more true, or at least true, of the intelligence community and Republicans such as John McCain who have not sold out their principles for the sake of expedience. But I was interested in how Hollywood would respond.
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Post by deeznutz on Apr 7, 2017 15:38:14 GMT
Die hard 3 was good it addresses racism a bit and they all band together well to defeat ze Germans!
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Post by politicidal on Apr 7, 2017 16:35:47 GMT
You know Clint Eastwood is still making movies right?
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2017 18:25:18 GMT
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Post by Deleted on Apr 7, 2017 18:41:23 GMT
I think you're thinking of RAMBO. No, Die Hard also. John McClane represents everything America has always stood for including the righteous indignation of our fight against evil on principle. McClane does it not because his wife or any other loved one's in danger or for any other self-centered reason; he does it because it's the right thing to do. That's the American Way.
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Post by kingkoopa on Apr 8, 2017 5:14:38 GMT
I love this movie! Ford's starting to get a little old at the time of release, but it doesn't slow him down. He kicks ass like he's been doing it for years...and he has! There are a couple of cheese ball moments, but they don't take away from how much of a fun ride this movie is.
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Post by misstique on Apr 8, 2017 5:35:20 GMT
No, Die Hard also. John McClane represents everything America has always stood for including the righteous indignation of our fight against evil on principle. McClane does it not because his wife or any other loved one's in danger or for any other self-centered reason; he does it because it's the right thing to do. That's the American Way. LOL!!!!
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Post by sostie on Apr 8, 2017 15:05:04 GMT
I think you're thinking of RAMBO. No, Die Hard also. John McClane represents everything America has always stood for including the righteous indignation of our fight against evil on principle. McClane does it not because his wife or any other loved one's in danger or for any other self-centered reason; he does it because it's the right thing to do. That's the American Way. And yet McClane is the minority amongst the other Americans who are mostly pant pissing cowering hostages and inept establishment figures.
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Post by Jayman on Apr 11, 2017 0:28:49 GMT
why don't we have movies like that anymore? They can't. Hollywood doesn't look positively on America. They'd probably remake the movie just so they can have John Mclaine be a muslim and have the terrorists be right wing Americans that wear Trump hats and shirts.
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Post by sostie on Apr 11, 2017 8:06:10 GMT
It seems to a lot of people some guy (sometimes oiled up and muscled) kicking the crap out of foreigners is the type of film that makes them proud to be American!
I am not American, but I can appreciate patrotism in a film and I can't think of many better than The Right Stuff - a film about real American bravery and ingenuity. Far better than some jingoistic wank fantasy like the First Blood sequels.
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Post by kingkoopa on Apr 11, 2017 16:20:58 GMT
It seems to a lot of people some guy (sometimes oiled up and muscled) kicking the crap out of foreigners is the type of film that makes them proud to be American! I am not American, but I can appreciate patrotism in a film and I can't think of many better than The Right Stuff - a film about real American bravery and ingenuity. Far better than some jingoistic wank fantasy like the First Blood sequels. This is a good point. Patriotism tends to run with violence in many cases. The Right Stuff is a good example. I'd also add Apollo 13, which wasn't innately patriotic, but is a damned good depiction of what I like about the USA, as a citizen here.
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