I have met people with a blind spot in their generality radar concerning the armed forces. All evil, all good, no in between. Thing is, like everything else in reality, there is a lot of inbetween.

I've known soldiers who just wanted to give back to their county and others who have turned down officer training because they wanted to be on the front lines killing the enemy. Whoever that was. In a nation that claims to have a vast majority that believes in G*d, we are judgmental fucks. Especially the ones that say they aren't judgmental.

Movies absolutely influence what we think. If nothing else, they make someone actually do research on war, serial killing or whether Whitley Strieber was really abducted by aliens. They make people want to become filmmakers, artists, writers, or, on a baser level, have sex with someone that looks like their favorite movie star.

Of course movies influence people. I wouldn't have it any other way. Maybe someday they'll influence the 50% of the voting public that stayed home on their ass too lazy or too concerned with making a "political statement" in 2004, to participate in the process next time.

i totally agree with u on this matter being part of the armed service myself and active duty in the marine corps i like how jarhead the movie puts it all in. like yeah the new guys are edger to goto iraq and what not but from my experice iraq changed me not for good nor bad just on how i hae a outlook on life and the middle east i respect the people there they are good hard working people just tring to get by its like the phrase one apple spoils the whole bunch they are good iraqis and bad iraqis like in the states but the media whether it be news or entertainment is influenceing people's opinions about something they dont know frist hand i challenge anyone even myself to look into a matter by the selfs and not just one side both sides and make up theyre own minds about whats happening in the world and not letting media decide for them media should just be a bridge to other world and let u know stuff is happening round the world

I wouldn't sweat it too badly, since the small handful of films that have you concerned are really a drop in the ocean of war films that depict soldiers as heroic, patriotic and just plain awesome.

That is the nature of story telling most movies. They only have so much time to get thier point across, and as result, the full story rarely gets told. It doesn't matter if it is about the military, minorities, corporations, or whatever, there is always more to the story.

The problem is just what you said it is. People believe what they see without researching the whole story.

That website represents the opinions of the general public how?

In case you haven't realized or never knew, back in Vietnam, grotesque war photos were published on a regular basis.

But not in Iraq. And why shouldn't they be? What's the argument against it? That people will get offended? It's odd that the public is so supportive of "the war" without ever realizing what "the war" entails, and will willfully ignore such reality in the name of keeping up a false patriotism that they don't even know why they possess.

Really? Seriously? You're worried that the movie will influence public opinion? Could it be that public opinion influenced the making of these films?

And besides, what damage would these films do? Presenting the war on terror in a negative light? The war on terror presents itself in a negative light. Have you forgotten about Abu Ghraib? You think Goya's work was bad because it painted the Spanish government's injustices in a negative light, and that might have "influenced individuals"?

Fixed.

And there haven't been fictional films made about this before? Why aren't you mentioning any of them? You're willing to grant documentaries more credence in society as "truth" than you are fiction? Political documentaries are more manipulative than most fictional movies. You think Body of War won't "influence individuals"?

Holy christ, you really just said that.

Aaaand, one last guilt trip, and we're done.

First time i ever saw The Three Amigos, i went out and raped the horses and rode off on the women.

Really? Because I went off and had an all-male threesome. Weird.

Considered the nature of the Internet, I nor any other reasonable person would really be concerned about any MySpace group. Not to mention those with only roughly 500 members. Hell, Nickelback's MySpace has 342,340 friends and I'm far more worried about that group of people.

I agree with Fuck The Troops' statement.

But I'm not American, so my opinion is irrelevant, and so is this post.

*bows*

You know, there was a respectful way to get most of those point across without being a total prick. I actually agree with some of your points, but what purpose is served by being so damned antagonistic about it?

Thank you for the point of view.

I still don't care how anyone thinks about the war. My worry is if, like during the Vietnam war, people will lash out at the soldiers instead of the administration that sent them.

Jesus man, sentences, paragraphs, they're your friends! I think you've seriously won the award for run on sentence of the year. And I was interested to hear your POV, but I got lost about half way through (due to the no sentences thing).

It was probably way more believable when the original came out.