January 23, 2007, - 4:21 pm
Sundance Brings You “Why America Sucks”: 3 Anti-American Films on Iraq, Niece of Club Ted (Kennedy)
By Debbie Schlussel
Yaaaawn. The Sundance Film Festival is back. And Bobby Redford and friends bring you their annual host of anti-American cinematic crap.
This year there are three–THREE!–anti-U.S.-in-Iraq films. Based on the Salt Lake Tribune’s description, it’s fair to say they defame our troops, too.
Especially, “Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, ” by Rory Kennedy, the niece of Club Ted (Kennedy) and the daughter of RFK. She’s the one whose wedding her cousin JFK, Jr. and wife were flying when they went kerplunk. Listen to the essence of her “documentary”:
Kennedy said her first interest was “exploring the topic of why ordinary people commit extraordinary acts of evil,” particularly in acts of genocide. But seeing the horrific images of prisoners abused at Iraq’s Abu Ghraib prison got her asking, “How could Americans do this? Who were the people who did this? And why would they have done it?”
When Kennedy interviewed the people on the ground, those who either took part in or witnessed the abuse, she got the same answer. “Each one said pretty much the same thing, which was, ‘I did it because I was told to do it,'” Kennedy said.
That answer moved Kennedy from making a psychological profile to a dive into investigative journalism, connecting the existing evidence of who ordered what from the G.I.s in Abu Ghraib up the chain of command, ultimately to the policies of President Bush and then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
That kind of introspection is what Kennedy hopes will come from her documentary.
“To me, the film’s not just about Abu Ghraib. The film is about who we are as Americans,” said Kennedy, sounding a bit like her relatives.
What?! Who we are as Americans? We’re torturers because a few people were in a hooded pyramid? Puh-leeze.
“There have been decisions made in the last few years, particularly in the face of 9/11 and the threat of terrorism. And I think there are real implications to those decisions that have very real material effect that we have to come to terms with – and I think Abu Ghraib is part of that. . . .”
Does the pyschobabble in America ever end? Her family has a few bucks and she was born with the famous last-name–and suddenly she’s the country’s psycho-analyst laureate?!
Just one question. Which Islamic terrorist group gave the Kennedy chick the financing for this absurdity?
Memo to Rory: Abu Ghraib happened several years ago. Some people wore hoods It is over. Move on.
And when is your documentary about Nicholas Berg, Matt Maupin, etc. being produced? Just curious. Oh, yeah–you didn’t care enough to make one.
The other two movies sound just as bad:
Images of Bush and Rumsfeld pop up occasionally in “Grace Is Gone,” like an early scene in which [John] Cusack’s character walks in on his 12-year-old daughter, Heidi (Shelan O’Keefe), surreptitiously watching the evening news.
Cusack said he had been looking to make a movie about the Iraq war, and Strouse came to him with the “Grace Is Gone” script at just the right time. Cusack said he was intrigued by playing Stanley, a political conservative who loses his wife to the war he supported.
“We pour so much concrete into our belief systems, and we absolutely bet everything that has to be the way it is,” Cusack said. “And I think the universe has a way of shocking us into opening our hearts again.”
What?! Americans’ hearts are not open? Give me a break. Their hearts are very open, as evidenced by the fact that this idiot still has a high-paid acting career.
While Cusack called the film “a bit of a Rorschach test” of people’s views about the war [he stressed that the] movie is a drama, not a political speech.
Ri-i-i-i-i-ght.
The other anti-Iraq movie in the trio is
Charles Ferguson’s documentary “No End in Sight,” is described in the festival’s film guide as a “surgical analysis” of Bush administration failures in conducting the Iraq war and occupation.
It’s narrated by actor Campbell Scott. Sounds like a real exciting moviegoing experience. Not.
Tags: Abu Ghraib prison, actor, America, Anti-American Films, belief systems, Bobby Redford, Bush, Bush administration, Campbell Scott, Charles Ferguson, Debbie Schlussel Yaaaawn, Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Grace Is Gone, Heidi, Iraq, John Cusack, Matt Maupin, Nicholas Berg, No End in Sight, President, Rory Kennedy, Skull Candy G.I. Consumer Headphones, Sundance, Ted (Kennedy) By Debbie, the Salt Lake Tribune, the Sundance, United States, Why America Sucks
“Kennedy said her first interest was “exploring the topic of why ordinary people commit extraordinary acts of evil,”
Hmmmmm, why didn’t she start with a movie about Uncle Ted and Chappaquiddick? She might generate some credibility with that one.
WillPower on January 23, 2007 at 4:54 pm