Commenter Archive

Come on, if they wanted a little more verisimilute they would have at least one terrorist, somewhere inthe screenplay, the only Middle East
looking fellow, is an Agency mercenary. Everybody involved except Landry and Julia Stile's NSA clerk, is deemed the villain.

Well the Alliance in Firefly, is at least half Chinese, I know few people saw it . Australia is the closest to the US, specially the Texas vision of same, so it would serve as a good standin. The Bourne films turned the
character of David Abbot, the circumspect CIA man, into the malevolent Ward Abbot, who sends Jason off to kill anyone he pleases

Helicopter gunships in formation, instead of the dropships of Aliens and even Star Ship Troopers, is clearly a Vietnam touch, right out of Apocalypse Now's Wagnerian interlude

If not for the Haditha witchhunt, and the media pileon on shows from Crossing Jordan, to Boston Legal, where the marines were portrayed
as blood thirsty savages, I'd agree with you. Rambo was in 1984, or else how could Reagan have commented on it, for his reelection, Not too mention the films, like Redacted which wasn't strictly about the Army. The facts are the enemy is more like the Predators or the Face
huggers, than the noble Naa'vi

Shouldn't have clicked on that link, Maybe James the people in WTC #1, and#2, and the Pentagon, have a little understanding of what happens when missiles hit targets on our shore. Maybe the Marine Corps spokesman is also misinformed about the film, Honestly I'm checking for the Ceti Alpha 6 slugs

No, the Template is Vietnam, Quaritsch is Kilgore, the irony is Lang often plays abusing husbands and other criminals, on shows going back to 20 years to Surnow's the Equalizer

Dyer, rather succincty brought up all the arguments I've been making, and in a much more organized, and even elegant. Look Avatar, is where you have chosen to stake your ground, as I have on other subjects. The Unit featured an avuncular Bill Macy as the President, on the one instance which they chose to show case him, it did drift into moonbat land, for a while in the last season (Haney, the former Delta Sargeant, the real life version of Sully, is quite a lefty). McGovern, has proven to the touchstone of hypocritical Senators like Edwards, Biden, and Clinton, give me someone who had real objections, like Gravel and Morse, over someone who had
his innocence stolen. The abbatoir that was Cambodia, hasn't
awakened any rethinking in him, as he pushed us to abandon Iraq and cease and desist in Afghanistan today, as he would in Yemen
tomorrow.

One could make the parallel to Kipling's Kim O'Hara, the young lad raised in the Lahore Cantonment, trained as a spy among the NorthWest Frontier, but who ultimately goes native.

But we're not talking about fact, but meme and subtext, and seeing
as Cameron started on this enterprise in 1994, the great Jungle Quagmire was what beckoned as did Lucas a generation earlier.
Now ironically for such a successful film, the script pens them into
a box, what to do for an encore

@CKMcLeod. Avatar is not about Iraq, it's about Vietnam, the original left bugaboo, Jake Sully is Willard, Quaritsch is Col. Kilgore, or as both
Kerry and Kerrey biographer, paint it Navy Capt. Hoffman. In this he shares the utopian delusions of Lucas, whose set piece battles Yavin,
Endor and going back further, (Kashyssk and Naboo) occur against
arboreal or jungle landscapes

Well I didn't ask for it, I don't mind it, except when strangelet, shows up with the same one. Now the irony of a 400 million dollar tribute to an anti technology mindset, is often not widely remarked on, well until now.

Was that Avatar, get it, randomly assigned like the zombie crowd one
I got. I posted some of my other comments on the wall.. Considering
that there is a whole host of dystopianism on offer in scifi, like the Book of Eli, and the latest vampire allegory film, thank heaven for small favors

That's not the wierdest thing, I saw Nader, on a connecting tunnel between hotels in Vegas, must have been a book tour or something.

@Ck , no for the love of the creatures of that trench in the Abyss, don't

Because it seems an easy move, rather than challenge the current mishapen policy consensus, with some achievable steps, it is necessary to advocate strategems that even a dictator would have
trouble implementing. Rather than agreeing with certain premises
that are so obvious that they seem evident, it is easy to denigrate.
I get a little loquacious here, partially because I got tired of Allah's
jibes and an inability to respond.

Now I get angry at "Frogman Henry" at times, but he really doesn't know any better, he just forwards whatever meme the Daily Show
has put forth today. I get more peeved at Mr. Carruthers, when he
presents rather flimsy premises, because I expect more from him. (ie; neocon doesn't mean anything you don't agree with) Avatar is yet another example of the left seizing 'the commanding heights'
of the culture, something I thought had subsided for a bit. And we needed that about as much as another 'Inconvenient Truth'

I guess they were going for a "Three Days of the Condor" redux feel, but they did lose the point of the books, David Webb, chose to become
Jason Bourne to fight a greater evil, Carlos the Jackal. Imagine if they had really updated that aspect, there is evil in the world, Awlaki being
the most recent example, and handwringing won't get the job done. I'm still a fan of '24, which plays of these same memes more effectively. copying Surnows' original vision from La Femme Nikita, of the elusive covert department with shadowy allegiances

Now, honestly you don't think that putting up Black Briar in a Manhattan Sunrise, is highly subjective, remember that Capt. David Webb probably signed up slightly before 9/11 for this program, the fact that hooding and sensory deprivation is part of the training regime.

I was a big Ludlum reader in the 80s and 90s, I found out about Tienanmen Square, in the real Bourne Supremacy, set in China, yes his manichean view is not all that far removed from Cameron's, most of his characters are betrayed former military or intelligence official, who uncover the big conspiracies, from Nazi takeovers to variations on Seven Days in May. I don't think that Greenglass really brought that
aspect to light enough

Don't diss the Stache, Michigan J, what have we won with the Kumbaya routine. Terrorists seem to have gotten the crazy notion they can target our military bases, our intelligence outpost with impunity, which I wish I could refute. The Iranians, the North Koreans, the Russians, are all imposing demands on us. We insult our allies, and we embrace our foes. We bring the terrorists one step closer to total
freedom, and we put a muzzle over our most diligent operatives.

Now, back to the Bournw series, are you going to tell me that script wasn't decanted out of the Huff Po and Kos, or whatever British equivalent there is, making the point that our security services, typified
by "Black Briar" are the real threat. Why I the only who cheered when
the Guardian reporter was targeted by the sniper. One wishes our surveillance systems were anywhere as advanced as that posited in the film, clearly they are nowhere close

No, she was captured by Foggy Bottom, which is an almost regretable certainty. That's why we need a real nationalist like a Bolton in that slot. I had great admiration for Jeane Kirkpatrick's insights on Latin America, she gave the left conniption fits as well. They have favored
Carter, Clinton, & Obama, not the greatest indications of insight, you will admit. Who do you think is an unabashed exponent of America's interests adn values, and don't say Ron Paul

One understand the company that sponsors this expedition, as a variant of Weyland Yutani, so callous as to let an alien organism fall into their hands with total disregard to the crew, I get that. Now making them a predominantly military effort, is meant to touch into the well of hatred for PMCs, who are villains from CSI Miami to Moonlight. Now are we not to infer, that the settler enterprise was a bad idea

It is however, a very real place, where the ruling class wants to return
the hoi polloi, who have risen above their station, to a 17th century
preindustrial state, with the likes of cap n trade, and climate control
garbage, they have loathed the mobility symbolized by the suburbs

She's the gunslinger, the huntress, or as the Russians call her the Akhanitsa, the last real populist not affected with the rot characterized by Bryan and Watson, a character out of Jack London,
we are not supposed to rally to someone who somewhat of a throwback, not the plastic politicians, and bureaucrats of today

Well there was that attempted coup, revealed in " The last mission", that was prevented because a trusted confidant hid the record with the message

This was the initial meeting that laid out the particulars of how and wjhere the bomb would
be used:
http://www.dannen.com/decision/targets.html