Tuesday, May 07, 2013

NEXT TIME: THE GREEN GOBLIN IS SOLYNDRA!

PJ Media kulturkampfer John Boot has made these pages before, denouncing Bruce Springsteen for advocating "violent revolution, class-and-politics-based bloodshed, and the murder of bankers and perhaps other capitalists," and explicating "5 Core Conservative Values in the New Jackie Robinson Biopic 42." Now he gives us 850 words on the latest Hollywood threat to our way of life. Weatherman thriller The Company You Keep?  No:

Iron Man 3 Treats Islamist Terror Like a Joke

Not even kidding.
Iron Man, though, is a smart franchise and initially, despite its comic-book soul, took an admirably unsympathetic view to Islamist terror...
But then the kulaks got to them!
Yet Iron Man 3 is a huge step backward that openly mocks the War on Terror via the villain the Mandarin (Ben Kingsley).
Shane Black could have made the villain Allah Ishkabibble, an Al Qaeda kingpin working with Hillary Clinton on Benghazi, but he chose treason.
Spoiler alert: Read no farther if you don’t want a central plot twist ruined. But what happens in the second half of the movie is critical to understanding the spinelessness of Hollywood and its revolting willingness to reduce the War on Terror to a cheap laugh.
BuzzFeed oughta hire this guy. I will omit the spoiler, though you might find this bit spoilt in its own way:
Millions of fans too young to remember 9/11 will line up to see Iron Man 3, but it’s not just to them that Hollywood’s leading filmmakers have a duty. Reducing the alarmingly durable threat of Islamist fundamentalism to potty humor is an insult not just to Daniel Pearl’s family but to the millions of Americans who continue to wage the War on Terror. It’s as if, a decade after Hitler, a movie portrayed a Hitler-like villain as a harmless oaf who was no threat to anyone.
Nobody tell him about Achmed The Dead Terrorist. Glimmer-of-self-awareness bonus: Boot asks himself --
Am I asking too much of a comic book movie?
Doesn't last long, though. With this bunch it never does.

UPDATE. Responding to Boot's peculiar notion that it's counterproductive to make fun of the enemy in wartime, commenters point out that Hitler was a figure of fun in Der Fuehrer's Face, Plane Daffy, You Natzy Spy, To Be or Not To Be, All Through the Night, The Great Dictator, "Hitler Has Only Got One Ball," et alia. Of course it's possible Boot is familiar with all these entertainments, but unable to grasp the concept of "fun."

65 comments:

  1. Captain Obvious9:29 PM

    "It’s as if, a decade after Hitler, a movie portrayed a Hitler-like villain as a harmless oaf who was no threat to anyone."

    ...He did watch the movie, didn't he?

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  2. Spaghetti Lee9:31 PM

    It’s as if, a decade after Hitler, a movie portrayed a Hitler-like villain as a harmless oaf who was no threat to anyone.

    Uh, this happened during the war, smart guy. Spike Jones? The Great Dictator? Hitler Has Only Got One Ball? Hell, Disney and Looney Tunes got into the act. Somehow, it ended up not fatally sapping morale.

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  3. vista9:41 PM

    "ts revolting willingness to reduce the War on Terror to a cheap laugh."

    Yes, how dare they! The War on Terror isn't a cheap laugh, it's comedy gold. It's designed to make a handful of corporations very rich; their executives and investors laughing themselves silly all the way to the bank.

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  4. BigHank539:42 PM

    You're probably going to want to sit down before your bookie gives you the odds on that bet.

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  5. RogerAiles9:52 PM

    Dollars to wingnuts that Boot of the Yeast considers himself one of "the millions of Americans who continue to wage the War on Terror."

    And yet he's an undercover motherfucker: "John Boot is the pen name of a conserative writer working under deep cover in the liberal media."

    http://pjmedia.com/lifestyle/author/johnboot/

    Those cineplex shitters don't clean themselves.

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  6. Derelict9:54 PM

    Life as strident epic, and every single keyboard commando at the center of the struggle to secure life and liberty--and a sufficient supply of Cheetos.
    Beyond associating with each other, do people like this have any kind of social life?

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  7. The_Kenosha_Kid10:04 PM

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y00ygpgALi0

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  8. Fats Durston10:21 PM

    And another thing, The Avengers had aliens as the existential threat to the United States, not illegal aliens. The only redeeming factor was that the aliens were let in by socialist country god, Loki.

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  9. Millions of fans too young to remember 9/11 will line up to see Iron Man 3

    For all the angst conservatives express about what the movies say about the moral condition of America, I suspect the real reason they get so worked up is because the movies have a much bigger audience than they do.

    "Hey you kids! Forget Iron Man! If you want to see a real movie, go watch 9/11!"

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  10. whetstone10:41 PM

    If you aren't shitting yourself, you're shitting with Osama.

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  11. BigHank5310:48 PM

    C'mon, Roy! you left out the best line in Boot's disdainful sniff:

    ... though the first two Iron Man films, especially the second one, engaged with the real world in an interesting way...

    Wait, did he see the same Iron Man II that everyone else did? Because that movie, while it contained many explosions, CGI effects, and Scarlett Johansen in extremely tight pants, did not in any fucking way engage with the real world. What, one of the villains was Russian? Pepper Potts' intelligence varied wildly according to the plot requirements? Garry Shandling's slimy congressman is humiliated? I'm sure all of those brought a smile to Mr. Boot's lips, but none of them constitute engaging with the real world.


    Of course, mistaking the fantasy between their ears for the real world isn't what you'd call a new problem for conservatives.

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  12. Spaghetti Lee10:49 PM

    I love that whole passage. You can sense his panic that eventually 'Boo! Scary Muslims!' won't be enough to get people's attention, because they'll be too young to care. Clearly, we must find a new avenue of indoctrination! Comrade Shane! Make sure your comic book movie meets the quota for sufficient anti-Muslim hysteria! For the glory of the empire!


    Wasn't there a saying like 'scratch a Republican, find a fascist'? These days you don't even have to scratch.

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  13. Halloween_Jack10:54 PM

    It was such a shocking plot twist that was so innately disrespectful to the victims of terrorism that it was used in another superhero movie several years ago, with hardly a peep from the usual gang of idiots AFAIK. But Das Boot went into a theater with a big ol' glasscutting hardon for Osama Bin Mandarin, and had to scuttle out with blue balls, and that's what really mattered. (FWIW, Ben Kingsley's performance is one of the few modest joys out of what you'd expect from a Shane Black take on a superhero franchise installment.)

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  14. whetstone11:03 PM

    I can't say I'm surprised: not only do they not have a sense of humor, catharsis would interfere with the emotional constipation wingnuts rely upon.

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  15. redoubt11:16 PM

    Well, you are talking about people who don't know the difference between catharsis and catarrh.

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  16. redoubt11:19 PM

    Beyond associating with each other, do people like this have any kind of social life?


    Not as long as Papa John's delivers to Mom's Basement. . .

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  17. GOP Scratch 'n' Sniff: The Home Game. New, from Mattel. ... Sometimes I hate how my mind works.

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  18. AGoodQuestion12:25 AM

    Yeah, he really seems to have a hero/martyr complex about having to stay undercover or the liberal bastids will get him. Vanity, thy pseudonym is John Boot.

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  19. Spaghetti Lee12:27 AM

    Does that mean 'John Boot' is a pseudonym? Because, you know, if you're under deep cover and publishing under your real name, the whole spy thing might not be for you.

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  20. smut clyde12:28 AM

    It's as if, two decades after Hitler, a long-running comedy show portrayed the commandant and guards of a German POW camp as harmless oafs* who were no threat to anyone.

    * Oaves?

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  21. smut clyde12:30 AM

    the pen name

    A nom de guerre de la culture?

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  22. AGoodQuestion12:34 AM

    Boot's article also links to what seems to be some nonsense about how nobody's getting the right kind of mad at the Boston Marathon bombing. If I don't click the link, it's because I don't want to take the risk of that article being the last thing I ever see.

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  23. smut clyde12:35 AM

    Google Glass is redundant for people who pay for a cinema ticket and then watch their own movie anyway.

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  24. Another Kiwi12:38 AM

    Back in the day there was a conservative bee in their collective bonnet about "How would WWII have been if the press had been as anti-war as they are now." Yes, well, it probably sounded good at a brainstorm session. I went and poked around and read a few things and the press back then were pretty tough. Ike used to storm out of question sessions because people were being mean. But, and this is central to my point, this does not get through to the boneheads. Thinking, as they do, that History (like more then 2 weeks ago) is composed of Errol Flynn movies and cheeto fuelled sock puppet orgies.
    Anything that strays from this sacred duality is ipso facto Moosilim appeasement.
    The Culture Wars are over and the Conswervatives lost about the time of 'Will and Grace" yet they continue to rub their own noses in it.

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  25. smut clyde12:41 AM

    "How would WWII have been if the press had been as anti-war as they are now."

    They could even have rallied enough opposition and delayed the US from entering the war until December 1941!

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  26. smut clyde12:44 AM

    Nobody tell him about Achmed The Dead Terrorist.
    Or Four Lions

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  27. Another Kiwi1:48 AM

    They would do that too, the swine!

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  28. reallyaimai6:06 AM

    Or three kings.

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  29. Boot should recognize from his personal experience being laughed at that civilized society can mock extremist assholes but still take his tribe seriously as a threat.

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  30. People should write things like that down somewhere, maybe in books, so we can all remember them, and well-meaning citizens like "John Boot" won't have to make stuff up about the past.


    Such a simple solution! Why has no one thought of this before?!


    What fools we've been.

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  31. Cheetos is for elitists!


    Tru-Pats and wingnuts buy only Great Value brand cheese turds.

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  32. AngryWarthogBreath7:45 AM

    Am I asking too much of a comic book movie?


    "The review, "Right-Wing Wankfest Enjoyed BY ALL"... speaks for itself."

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  33. He was also a better dancer than Churchill!

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  34. Shorter John Boot: "If Hollywood doesn't get busy reminding Americans how scary MOOSLEMS are, then pretty soon people might start noticing that most of the terrorist attacks planned in the US are by white guys with a hardon for Jeebus!"

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  35. sharculese9:26 AM

    I remember being really puzzled about what Iron Man was trying to go for, and feeling like it was trying to have things both ways in its treatment of the War on Terror, but I don't remember why and I'm not about to go check.

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  36. sharculese9:27 AM

    Wetsuit not included.

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  37. sharculese9:32 AM

    Seriously nobody tell them about Four Lions. There isn't a word for how much I don't want to hear what they have to say about Four Lions.

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  38. sharculese9:36 AM

    Well at least he's protected from Movementarians.

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  39. "It’s as if, a decade after Hitler, a movie portrayed a Hitler-like villain as a harmless oaf who was no threat to anyone."

    Yes! And that it then became a>a hit Broadway play which became another hit movie! How unlikely is that?

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  40. He could paint a whole apartment in one afternoon. Two coats!

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  41. Speaking of fantasies between their ears, I'm amused by the whole "an Al Qaeda kingpin working with Hillary Clinton on Benghazi" thing. "Working with Hillary on Benghazi?"

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  42. sharculese9:48 AM

    Why is the racist Japanese caricature green? Is that what color they thought Japanese people were back then?

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  43. John D.10:08 AM

    Adolf: "Vhat? 'Hitler is a stinker?!' Dat's no military secret!"

    Tojo and Mussolini: "Yah! Everybody knows that!"
    *At angry glare from their boss, they kill themselves*
    Daffy: "We lose more darn Nutzis that way! Hoo hoo!"

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  44. Rugosa10:19 AM

    To Be or Not To Be, starring that great, great Polish actor, Joseph Tura!

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  45. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard10:39 AM

    Reducing the alarmingly durable threat of Islamist fundamentalism to potty humor is an insult not just to Daniel Pearl’s family but to the millions of Americans who continue to wage the War on Terror


    Not really, it's an insult to terrorists, which is why it's a good tactic. Jihadi recruiting videos show terrorists as glorious martyrs who will go on to a heavenly reward. It's better to show them as hapless dupes, thereby removing any patina of "romance" and discouraging copycats.

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  46. Big_Bad_Bald_Bastard10:45 AM

    Those kids, too young to remember 9/11, remember Aurora- the fear of a bad white American guy with a gun is more tangible to them than the fear of scary brown jihadis. Maybe that's what really gets Boot upset.

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  47. Matt Thompson10:56 AM

    And there's the classic Three Stooges short "You Natzy Spy", released in 1940, before the U.S. of good ol' A. decided that Hitler fella needed a proper seeing too. Of course, those dirty Hollywood Je...err, Liberals Howard, Fine, & Howard did it again just a year later with "I'll Never Heil Again". And that's how the Axis Powers won World War II, three funny looking guys slapping each other.

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  48. Hey, remember Leslie Nielsen fought the Ayatollah Khomeini?

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  49. Budbear12:12 PM

    He could dance the pants off of Churchill!

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  50. tigrismus12:21 PM

    Now we know why he has to write undercover: if the liberal media finds out how fucking clueless he is he'll only be allowed to write for Newsweek or something.

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  51. Al Swearengen1:07 PM

    Ben can play a mean villain. See also: "Sexy Beast". Love that flick.

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  52. sharculese1:14 PM

    Boot probably thinks the world of his performance as the bad guy in Gandhi.

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  53. FlipYrWhig1:52 PM

    If you want a picture of the future, imagine Jack Boot stomping on a strawman's face -- forever.

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  54. Yeah, but by Boot's logic, that was making fun of Jimmy Carter. Which is perfectly fine.

    Come to think of it, that scene proves that Khomeini was in cahoots with Gorbachev, just as Mitt Romney was apparently trying to warn us. Now, if we can just find the deleted portion with Hillary Clinton crouched under the table, there's a fellow named Darrell Issa who would be very interested.

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  55. GregMc4:19 PM

    Nearly a laugh. Really a cry.

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  56. GregMc4:25 PM

    I think you'll find that Captain America took care of Hitler well before then, thank you very much.



    Today's Cap? Would give Hitler the keys to Munich!

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  57. MatthewMikell5:51 PM

    Local screech Debra Saunders (who hilariously anoints herself a "public scold" which is now what I use to refer to anyone yelling on the street) loves to crap herself over movies, but her delayed reaction can last years; she lit into "Titanic"--long after it came out on video--as typical Hollywood-socialist-valued trash, because Rose hucks her pricey rock into the sea rather than donate it to charity. (Debra loves charity...when she can use it as a bat to slug someone.)

    Apparently, if Saunders' personal value system isn't reinforced by every movie ever made--and lightning from heaven didn't immediately strike Rose dead, which means James Cameron thinks exactly the way Rose does!--America will lose its way. Oh, but never call her Republican or Conservative. She's "independent" because while she'll carry water for the GOP on almost every issue, she opposes the War on Drugs as her husband needs medical boo. In other words, she's about as independent as Ayn Rand on Medicare.

    As for Iron Man 3 (for which I've read the spoiler and MILD SPOILERS HENCE), I'm quite pleased with the twist involving The Mandarin. Iron Man has no great nemeses. Obidiah Stane is about as good as it gets; after that you have gimmicky clowns or variations of Iron Man's armor (i.e. the Soviet Iron Man, Crimson Dynamo).

    The Mandarin was the worst--a green-skinned commie-rat Fu Manchu "sinister Asian" who gets his mitts on ten magic rings (Gru: "Freeze ray!!"). Yet he is considered by some to be Tony's #1 arch-enemy, and fans wanted some version of him on film--more than just a reference, like the name of the group Ten Rings in the first film--despite guaranteed fanboy butthurt no matter what came out.

    That they turned the problem into a statement about engineered public perception--rather than just contriving some bullshit to avoid the racist caricature--is brilliant. Not just because it pisses off Bootsie--though that is a bonus.

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  58. I'll bring the snorkel, Big Bad Bald Bastard will bring the t-rex and we'll all have fun in the pool.

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  59. Tehanu2:28 AM

    Named himself after the guy in 1984 in the liberals' faces forever, did he?

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  60. slavdude2:42 PM

    "Of course it's possible Boot is familiar with all these entertainments, but unable to grasp the concept of 'fun.'"


    Especially since humor is a great way to cope with horror.


    I seem to remember reading once that Seth MacFarlane missed his flight out of Boston on a particular September day and lived to tell about it. He made fun of bin Laden (who was then still alive, of course) on "Family Guy".

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  61. slavdude2:49 PM

    Let's also remember, too, that he played Lenin in a TV movie back during the St. Reagan days. As I recall, it was not a particularly hostile portrayal.

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  62. tim1173:04 PM

    Good God, what if Boot ever sees Hogan's Heroes?!?!?

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  63. How likely was that anyway? How did that get green-lighted? I mean what does the elevator pitch for a sitcom about those wacky but lovable prison camp guards even sound like? Hey, how about remaking Lolita as a zany rom-com? The whole premise is unseemly. Of course now we have Dexter, so anything is possible, but I have wondered if Hogans Heroes was really some sort of disinformation psy-ops product to something something European integration something NATO something?

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