One more propaganda film..

Rating: 1/10 (5 February 2004)

It is funny how in recent years, when one is leaving the cinema after having watched yet another Hollywood war movie, one gets the impression that the US army are a bunch of heroes who are always fighting for a good cause. No true criticism of the military seems to be allowed these days.One reason is probably because the army is so forthcoming in lending equipment to filmmakers but this of course makes prostitutes out of directors and producers, who are no longer free to make a judgment and draw the right conclusions. I fully understand that the US public is hungry for patriotic material to satisfy the feelings of national pride that are so strong these days. However, this can never be a reason for not viewing one`s own shortcomings in a critical light! To me, "The Deer Hunter" with Robert De Niro was what I would consider a really great (anti)war movie.The final scenes where the hunter decides to NOT shoot the deer, conveys the message "live and let live" instead of unloading all this b******t pathos when soldiers are saluting each other in the end..(this has almost become standard in most recent war movies). Where are the REAL humans in these films? Even "Saving Private Ryan" - which I othervise consider of the best films ever made - was not free of these empty gestures which smell of the worst John Wayne rubbish from the far, far right side of the political spectrum....