I have to admit, the previews for the upcoming movie "Stealth" have had me wowed since I first saw them. The plot has never sounded all that great, but who expects much of a plot from a summer action flick, eh? But it's had the look of a great popcorn movie and lots of pretty pyrotechnics.
Ty Burr, however, writing his review of the film for the Boston Globe points out one thing that I think anyone planning to see this movie should consider:
For a movie to pretend, in the face of the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women, and children directly or indirectly caused by our presence there, that we can wage war without anyone really getting hurt isn't naive, or wishful thinking, or a jim-dandy way to spend a Saturday night at the movies. It's an obscenity.
If this description of the movie - that we can wage war without anyone "really" getting hurt - is correct, then this movie does a HUGE disservice to the military men and women who are finding out for themselves just how "untidy" a war can be. And while I've not seen the movie, I have no reason to doubt Burr's description - in fact, basic logic would indicate he's right. How often, in a military-based action flick, do the actions of the US Military lead to any kind of collateral damage? Right. Rarely, if ever.
And yet, as the Iraq war is reminding us, killing the innocent people along with the "enemy" is part and parcel of war. Reports are indicating that many of the soldiers coming back from Iraq are suffering from mental disorders, generally related to the horrific carnage they've been witness to - the deaths and destruction of not just enemy soldier and enemy land, but of ordinary Iraqis as well, who just happened to be in the wrong place (which, near as I can tell these days, is pretty much anywhere within Iraq...) Yet here we have a "war" movie that sanitizes all of that away - and reinforces the image that war can be all neat and clean.
Too many people are already unaware of the true nature of wartime carnage and - more importantly - what it can do to the soldiers who not only see it, but have to commit it in order to survive. Pretending that aspect of war doesn't exist is, as Burr says, obscene.
(Cross posted from different strings)