NOT "Point of Impact" A political "message"movie

Rating: 1/10 (26 March 2007)

I, like every other sensible person, count Stephen Hunter's Point of Impact as one of the world's best books. And I was enthusiastic about "Shooter" starring Mark Wahlberg. I've seen it. And despite my positive attitude, it isn't worth much. Though I can tell you why it has good reviews.
The good news is that Wahlberg does a good job of playing a straight-up Rambo action hero. There is no hint of backwoods or "country" in the character, and the words "the nailer" are never spoken. He talks like a midwestern Harvard MBA. Kate Mara as Sarah Fenn is just beautiful and definitely Kentucky. It is a standard action flick with head shots, fights and explosions. If that's all it was, it might be worth it just to see Kate Mara in that thin t-shirt.
However... it is a strong and obvious POLITICAL "message" movie. The enemy is the US government. The "hero" wears a "Che" T-shirt and the bad guys have offices adorned with portraits of Republican presidents (HW Bush, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover and Ronald Reagan). The Abu Ghraib reference and "sitting Secretary of Defense lying" speech are typical of the movie. This movie implies a 9-11 government conspiracy and accuses our soldiers of killing women and children (for an oil pipeline,naturally). The big battle (with homemade bombs)is not with the South Americad drug cartel of the "Panther Batallion", but with US soldiers who recently committed a massacre. The old gunsmith talks about how he was lied to about artificial sweeteners and WMD's in Iraq. The US is the source of world tragedies. Swagqer is led down the wrong path by "patriotism". He has never been to Vietnam, as that would imply heroic Americans might have been there. Sam Vincent the country lawyer is not there. Nick Memphis is just another FBI guy.
The reason it is getting good reviews--other than it is an adequate action movie--is because of the leftist message adored by the media. It's an action movie for whacky libs, conspiracists and Bush-haters. I'm sure others will see this move. I'll be surprised if they don't report that it is more like "Michael Moore does Point of Impact(A George Soros production)" than the book and character we all admire.