So watching “The Patriot”…again…because it’s on netflix and thinking back to how many people were horrified by this film.
They put guns in the hands of children. Not every black person was a slave. The British army was guilty of war crimes. OMG. The way they vilified this film I knew I had to see it…just like when they gushed all over “Milk” I knew that movie wasn’t for me.
Hell I even went and saw “The Passion” because it was making the exact same people angry and I’m not a religious person of any kind. The movie was good, it was slightly unnerving at the end when the audience stood up and cheered but whatever…it’s their thing so let them have it.
Then Gibson came out with “Apocalypto” and showed the Mayan culture for the bloodthirsty, subhuman pieces of shit that were second only to the Aztecs for what they were. Ironically when the first Spanish ships showed up in the end full of conquistadors I stood up in my seat and cheered.
And then Gibson gave us “We Were Soldiers” and thank god. Someone found the balls to honestly depict Vietnam veterans as men who did their duty to the best of their ability. They weren’t there to rape villagers or score drugs (maybe Oliver Stone’s flunky squad engaged in that stuff), they were there to fight and sacrifice and boy did the depictions of the sacrifices make the lefties cringe. Single moms with kids getting a “Sorry to inform you” telegram. And while in 1968 we were having race wars on the street, in Vietnam “none of that matters anymore” and men fought for the men beside them.
None of them felt ashamed of their actions the way Jane Fonda wants to view every veteran…as a victim if not a criminal. Even when put through the worst of it they were still hanging tough…and to make matters worse…it was a true story.
There have been a few other movies since Red Dawn and Death Wish and they aren’t all made by Mel Gibson, but those are the ones that come to mind.
I seem to recall Black Hawk Down getting a lot of negative press from the Left when it came out. One of the accusations was that it depicted the Somalis as just a hostile mob of interchangeable black faces (or something to that effect)…which is probably pretty close to the reality of how the US personnel getting shot at by them would have perceived them, but never mind reality…
There’s also SWAT. It wasn’t exactly a cinematic masterpiece, but there were quite a few scenes and themes that made smile for their jabs at the left.
Random lady: “Don’t you got nothin’ better to do than haul another black man off to jail? Just perpetuating the cycle, ain’t you!”
LL Cool J: “We’ll see how liberal you are when he’s breaking into your place!”
Lady: “Uh hmm!”
LL Cool J: “‘Uh huh’ my ass!”
I also like the press conference after the jail bus shootout where the police captain claims that the bad guys had AK-47s when they clearly had TEC-9s and pistols. I read that was intentional by the filmmakers as a swipe at how politicians think everything is either an AR or AK.
I also like that they used correct terminology to describe M4 parts; no other movie I’ve seen ever referred to “gas tube” “gas rings” or “receiver”.
I dont think so, a movie about freed slaves fighting oppression, decolonization and the main antagonist a posh white male? The only thing they hate is Mel Gibson and the American Flag. The plot suits their narrative.
You really are a glass half empty kind of guy. I remember when the movie was first shown and trust me, the critics were all uniquely horrified. Sure the slave fighting to earn his freedom (and the respect of his fellow patriots) was probably not historically representative of most, but it did happen on a small enough scale to be technically correct.
Ironically on of the early heroes of the revolution was Jocko Graves a black youth who served under Washington and held his signal post until he froze to death. His memorial became the lawn jockey which now some people view as racist because they are totally ignorant of it’s origins. Of course the story itself could be completely fabricated because records of some men and events are sketchy at best.