Don't Mention The War

The West is at war but Hollywood has been reluctant to make war films about Iraq or Afghanistan. Where has all the propaganda gone?

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When the drums of war start beating, Hollywood has never been shy of stepping into the fray. From Errol Flynn leading a platoon of soldiers through the sweaty jungles of the South Pacific in Objective Burma! (1945) to John Wayne riding on the back of a Huey helicopter into the rice paddies of Vietnam in The Green Berets (1968), Hollywood has proved a valuable source of propaganda during wartime. Even director Frank Capra, the misty-eyed sentimentalist who gave us It's A Wonderful Life, didn't object to helping out the US War Department during the 1940s.

Ever since 9/11, America has been on a war footing, while the invasion of Afghanistan, Iraq and the 'the war on terror' grab the headlines. Yet while A-list players like Tom Cruise, Steven Spielberg, Tim Robbins and Barbara Streisand have been vocal in commenting on the war (whether for or against), Hollywood dramas have barely approached the issue.

While Buffalo Soldiers (made pre-9/11) captured the peacekeeping ennui of the American military in the 1990s and Black Hawk Down replayed Clinton's ill-fated sojourn in Somalia, there have been no pro- or even anti-war movies dealing with America's battle-scarred experiences of the last few years. Only Michael Moore has broke cover on the issue, weighing in with documentary polemic Fahrenheit 9/11.

Maybe if John Wayne hadn't moseyed on up to that big cattle ranch in the sky, right now he'd be leading a platoon of Delta Force commandos into Baghdad (a studio set, of course, not the real location). But then again, perhaps even the Duke's brand of knee-jerk patriotism and his gun toting world-view would falter in the face of the current political quagmire.