Hollywood’s ‘War on Terror’

mac323robert.jewitt@sunderland.ac.uk

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Vietnam (1955-75)

• Hollywood initially reluctant to address Vietnam on screen

• Most Hollywood depictions came after conflict ended– The Green Berets (1968)

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Notable titles• The Deer Hunter (1978, M. Cimino)• Apocalypse Now (1979, F. F. Coppela)• First Blood (1982, T. Kotcheff)• Uncommon Valor (1983, T. Kotcheff)• Missing in Action (1984, J. Zito)• Platoon (1986, O. Stone)• Full Metal Jacket (1987, S. Kubrick)• Hamburger Hill (1987, J. Irvin)• The Hanoi Hilton (1987, L. Chetwynd)• Bat*21 (1988, P. Markle)• Casualties of War (1989, B. de Palma)• Born of the Fourth of July (1989, O. Stone)

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Iraq: Gulf War I (1991)

• “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all!”– President George Bush victory speech

(March 1st 1991)• Remarks to the American Legislative

Exchange Council. Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States. George Bush Presidential Library

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Iraq: Gulf War II

• “Hollywood’s ‘cowardice’ over Vietnam was well-remembered, but there was a feeling that this time, perhaps, the studios might live up to their (partly deserved) reputation for liberalism, and opposition to George W. Bush and his cronies”– Martin Barker, 2011: 1

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The view from the…

Left• Lessons of the past learned• Truth would not be allowed

to emerge• Veteran’s voices would be

censored

Right• Hollywood is a nest of

‘vipers’• Full of liberals and radicals

• Celebrate militarism• Jingoistic

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The ‘War on Terror’• A contentious phrase• AKA the ‘Global War on Terror’

• First scripted use by George W Bush on September 20th 2001 in a televised address to Congress:– “Our 'war on terror' begins with al-Qaeda, but it does not end there. It

will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated”

• A war without end…

• Refers to a global military, political, legal and ideological struggle to target terrorist organisations and the regimes that underpin them

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‘Overseas Contingency Operation’

• Name officially changed in March 2009 by Defense Department

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Rhetorical war

• The ‘war on terrorism’ therefore, is a set of actual practices – wars, covert operations, agencies and institutions – and an accompanying series of assumptions, beliefs, justification and narratives – it is an entire language or discourse … Language and practice, in other words are inextricably linked; they mutually reinforce each other; together they co-constitute social and political reality.– Richard Jackson, 2005: 7-8

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Hollywood’s 2 approaches

Literal• The Jacket (2005)• Home of the Brave (2006)• Battle for Haditha (2007)• In The Valley of Elah (2007)• The Kingdom (2007)• Lions for Lambs (2007)• Redacted (2007)• Rendition (2007)• Stop-Loss (2008)• Body of Lies (2008)• The Hurt Locker (2008)• Green Zone (2010)

Allegoric• Team America: World Police

(2004)• Saw (2004)• Hostel (2005)• Jarhead (2005)• Syriana (2005)• 28 Weeks Later (2007)• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)• Transformers (2007)• The Dark Knight (2008)• Harold and Kumar Escape from

Guantanamo (2008)

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Hollywood’s 2 approaches

Literal• The Jacket (2005)• Home of the Brave (2006)• Battle for Haditha (2007)• In The Valley of Elah (2007)• The Kingdom (2007)• Lions for Lambs (2007)• Redacted (2007)• Rendition (2007)• Stop-Loss (2008)• Body of Lies (2008)• The Hurt Locker (2008)• Green Zone (2010)

Allegoric• Team America: World Police

(2004)• Saw (2004)• Hostel (2005)• Jarhead (2005)• Syriana (2005)• 28 Weeks Later (2007)• The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)• Transformers (2007)• The Dark Knight (2008)• Harold and Kumar Escape from

Guantanamo (2008)

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The Dark Knight

• "We also have to work through, sort of, the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful.”

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The Dark Knight

• "We also have to work through, sort of, the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful.”

• Not Batman….

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The Dark Knight

• "We also have to work through, sort of, the dark side, if you will. We've got to spend time in the shadows in the intelligence world. A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies, if we're going to be successful.”

• Not Batman….• Dick Cheney (Vice President)– See Ackerman, 2008 for more

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The Dark Knight

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Team America: World Police

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Hostel

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28 Weeks Later

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Title Year Budget ($) US gross ($)

Jarhead 2005 70 million 62.6 million

Syriana 2005 50 million 50.1 million

The Jacket 2005 29 million 7 million

Home of the Brave 2006 12 million 41,000

The Situation 2006 1 million 48,000

GI Jesús 2006 2 million 8,000

The Marine 2006 20 million 18 million

Badland 2007 10 million 1,900

Battle for Haditha 2007 3 milion 7,000

Grace is Gone 2007 2 million 50,000

In The Valley of Elah 2007 23 million 6.7 million

The Kingdom 2007 80 million 47 million

Lions for Lambs 2007 35 million 15 million

Redacted 2007 5 million 65,000

Rendition 2007 27 million 9 million

Conspiracy 2008 18 million 0

The Lucky Ones 2008 15 million 183,000

Stop-Loss 2008 29 million 11 million

War, Inc. 2008 10 million 578,000

Body of Lies 2008 70 million 39 million

The Objective 2008 4 million 95

The Hurt Locker 2008 11 million 12.5 million

Green Zone 2010 100 million 35 million

Jarhead

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Jarhead

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Battle for Haditha

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Battle for Haditha

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Green Zone

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Hurt Locker

• Car bomb scene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQv6GJyE8YM

• Ending? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqn-tSa1wYY

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To consider

• What is the discourse of the Iraq war series of films?

• Are they pro-war? Anti-war? Celebrations of machismo and militarism? Critical of soldiers? Critical of the Bush-Cheney administration?

• Are the literal films better at their job than the allegorical ones?

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