Green Zone

Collapse

Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #61
    Re: Green Zone

    Originally posted by Norm
    Though I was aching to respond to what I felt were unfair comments about my posts, I will respect the moderator's wishes and cease and desist on all things political after I point out that since the Green Zone is a political film with a point of view about America's homicidal attack on the country and people of Iraq, a political discussion is not irrelevant in this particular thread.

    Thank you.
    "I was going to mention how my opponent is a raging pedophile who does lines of coke while beating his wife, but I've been asked not to mention those things because that's not relevant to the debate, so I shall honor that request..."

    "Tact's just 'not saying true stuff.' " - Cordelia Chase

    Comment


    • #62
      Re: Green Zone

      just saw it. far too preachy for an action film.

      C+.

      Comment


      • #63
        Re: Green Zone

        It's interesting to contemplate why Hollywood would ever make any war films at all. None of them ever make any money. I know, I know Saving Private Ryan did, but that was largely due to 3 things:

        1). It's Spielberg 2). Word of mouth about the harrowing first reel 3). The global zeitgeist that occurred around the 50th anniversary of the end of the war and the surviving members of the 'greatest generation'.

        Anyway, it's a recipe that will never be repeated.

        So why would Summit put money behind Hurt Locker, a film they knew would never make any money for them? (as it was, it took like 2 years for them to release it).

        I can't figure it out. In an industry ruled by grosses, why would anyone invest in a money-losing genre?

        Is it because the prestige of winning awards does more for the company's bottom line than any of us know?

        Is it because everything we believe about how much a film 'makes' at the domestic box office mattering is wrong?

        Comment


        • #64
          Re: Green Zone

          Originally posted by kintnerboy View Post
          It's interesting to contemplate why Hollywood would ever make any war films at all. None of them ever make any money.
          Not that I was a huge fan, but INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS did pretty well.

          I agree that war movies set in the Middle East are risky and likely to fail, but to make a sweeping statement that all war movies are inevitable box-office misfires is to do what Hollywood too often does -- think inside the box.

          Sure I'm biased, but THE LOST PATROL is going to be a hit.
          NOTES / COVERAGE
          15,000+ Screenplays
          [email protected]

          Comment


          • #65
            Re: Green Zone

            Originally posted by nathanq
            Hello?
            BLACK HAWK DOWN?

            $200 million at the B.O.
            BHD was released in 2001, before the war started.
            NOTES / COVERAGE
            15,000+ Screenplays
            [email protected]

            Comment


            • #66
              Re: Green Zone

              It's also about an isolated conflict in Somalia, and is only tangentially about "The Middle East".

              Comment


              • #67
                Re: Green Zone

                The better question is why Hollywood producers thought anti-US war movies would be successful here. (Answer: Because they wanted to bash Bush.)

                GREEN ZONE is now an official domestic flop. Perhaps it will get its silver overseas.

                Final word, everyone should go watch HIGH NOON. Despite being made almost fifty years ago, it has more insight into the Iraq war than everything Hollywood has churned out the last seven years combined.
                Give it all and ask for no return/And very soon you'll see and you'll begin to learn/That it's alright, yes, it's alright...

                Comment


                • #68
                  Re: Green Zone

                  Originally posted by mdb View Post
                  Final word, everyone should go watch HIGH NOON. Despite being made almost fifty years ago, it has more insight into the Iraq war than everything Hollywood has churned out the last seven years combined.
                  This comedy routine is pure gold.

                  By the way, the original statement about war movies not doing well at the BO had no timetable. The example given, Saving Private Ryan, was made before the Iraq War. Maybe a better time period example would be films made during/after the Vietnam War. There weren't many "war" movies set in Vietnam while the war was going on, and I don't think it was until Platoon came out that the American public was willing to start watching movies set in Vietnam. Perhaps more time needs to pass before we can accept a war movie set in the Middle East.

                  It should be noted, though, that Platoon was not political at all. Black Hawk Down was not political, either, nor Saving Private Ryan. The Hurt Locker wasn't political, but I (personally) didn't find it nearly as compelling as, say, Platoon. (I'm also not a big fan of Saving Private Ryan--two great set pieces with weak writing sandwiched between--so you may not think much of my opinion anyway.)

                  HH

                  Comment


                  • #69
                    Re: Green Zone

                    Originally posted by nathanq
                    Hello?
                    BLACK HAWK DOWN?

                    $200 million at the B.O.
                    Black Hawk Down is a really great example, and I suppose the only reason it slipped my mind was that it's not really a 'war' movie.

                    It's a rah-rah 'bunch of guys on a mission' movie (as is Pvt Ryan, and they're the best kinds of stories if you want to write in this genre).

                    And there was absolutely no bias, political or otherwise, against BHD because in a pre-internet world people would have had to pick up a newspaper (fat chance, even back then) to know where Somalia was or that we had even sent our military there.

                    (and not to nitpick, but BHD made 100M in the US on a 90M budget. Profitable, but certainly nothing to brag about).


                    I think there was a lot of drama to be mined from WW2 because it really was a good vs evil thing, and Vietnam sent millions of men in to an unwinnable, pointless war against their will via the draft during a time where people were just starting to speak out against the goverment.

                    I just don't see there ever being any great stories about Iraq.

                    Comment


                    • #70
                      Re: Green Zone

                      this wouldve been great if it really was "Jason Bourne in Iraq".

                      Comment


                      • #71
                        Re: Green Zone

                        Originally posted by Qazworld View Post
                        this wouldve been great if it really was "Jason Bourne in Iraq".
                        Yeah, but then we'd have lines like

                        "Poundstone is working for Treadstone?"

                        "No. Treadstone were used by Poundstone to plant the false stories in the press."

                        "Wait! Which one is the person and which one is the shady government programme again?"

                        and that would be confusing.
                        "Only nothing is impossible."
                        - Grant Morrison

                        Comment


                        • #72
                          Re: Green Zone

                          Originally posted by kintnerboy View Post
                          I just don't see there ever being any great stories about Iraq.
                          Plenty of great stories, but very few of them will make mdb and the rest of the "silent majority" happy.

                          Comment


                          • #73
                            Re: Green Zone

                            Originally posted by mdb View Post
                            The better question is why Hollywood producers thought anti-US war movies would be successful here. (Answer: Because they wanted to bash Bush.)
                            Green Zone is far from anti-US. The hero is an American soldier risking everything for the truth and to help both countries. If the plot is anti anything, it's anti-Paul Bremer.
                            NOTES / COVERAGE
                            15,000+ Screenplays
                            [email protected]

                            Comment


                            • #74
                              Re: Green Zone

                              Originally posted by mdb View Post
                              The better question is why Hollywood producers thought anti-US war movies would be successful here. (Answer: Because they wanted to bash Bush.)
                              Well, bashing Bush would be pretty good business even in the U.S. He's already one of the most hated presidents of all time. There's at least half of the population who aren't for the Iraq war. That's more than enough to be a B.O. hit.

                              And the rest of the world hates Bush and the Iraq war even more than the U.S. does. Foreign receipts do make up the majority of any film's B.O. take, so...

                              Comment


                              • #75
                                Re: Green Zone

                                Originally posted by mdb View Post
                                The better question is why Hollywood producers thought anti-US war movies would be successful here. (Answer: Because they wanted to bash Bush.)


                                Politics aside, this is a good thing. You are free to write anything you want. You didn't always have that right. And there's no guarantee you will in the future.

                                Maybe if Hollywood had been allowed to 'bash' people like Joe McCarthy and J Edgar Hoover, we could have avoided a lot of trouble here in this country.

                                One of the reasons that WW2 movies will always be popular is because it was the one of the only times in American history (and sandwiched in-between the political embarrassment of the 1930's segregation and the 1950's communist witch hunts) where what we were doing was actually 'right' and 'good'.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X