shameless state-sponsored propaganda

Rating: 1/10 (9 November 2006)

taken as just a technical achievement this film was nice and slick eye-candy. Sadly good eye-candy is a great vehicle for effective propaganda. Let's see if I understand the message of this film correctly: Arab nationalism = bad. Jewish nationalism = good. Arab/ Palestinian terrorism = bad. Jewish terrorism = good.
If you doubt the overt racist tone of this film, watch it again and insert "white, Aryan, or Arab" every time you hear "Jew" and see if you find it acceptable. I believe most people would picket a film depicting the racial or religious superiority of Aryan Christians or Arabs Muslims. A good example is when on character utters the line "the only blood that matters to me is Jewish blood". Insert any other race or religion into that sentence and most would call that overt racism.
I kept waiting for Spielberg to give us at least 1 sympathetic Arab character. The only Arabs we see are militant, hateful,reactionary fighters, or pseudo intellectuals who articulate a very simplified version of the Arab/Israeli conflict.
One Spielberg tactic of late seems to be this formula: one of the heroes, an intellectual, is slightly sympathetic to the humanity of the enemy. Said sympathetic character then dies or pays dearly for his foolish sympathies. Message: kill when you have the chance without hesitation. Forgiveness, understanding, and compromise are foolish ideals. Barbaric, ruthless acts are the real mechanisms of justice.
When your message is just blind nationalism, you can twist a film to glorify anything as necessary to preserve the race or homeland. I thought it was particularly disgusting to make an almost messiah type character of Eric Bana as he discusses his situation with his mom. Once again the Holocaust is dragged out to justify the barbaric acts of the films heroes, only in this case our "messiah's" message is the cliché "never again". This is a shameless effort to tie all of Israel's actions back to the Holocaust and attempt to justify the highest degree of hate, violence, and overt racism by claiming supreme victim status.
I hope people recognize this film for what it is: a slick propaganda film designed to prop up the ongoing Israeli atrocities and vilification of the Palestinian population.