Hollywood's new mandate: Bring the Iraq war home
A brace of films about US foreign policy star big names such as Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Reese Witherspoon, and Jamie Foxx. But will that be enough of a draw for war-weary viewers?
from the September 28, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
This current barrage of films arrives while the nation is still mired in Iraq. None of the films is particularly sympathetic to the US foreign policy or tactics in the war on terror, but they aren't terribly controversial, either. "Elah" shows patriotic veteran Hank Deerfield (Jones), who has lost a son in Iraq, becoming a jaded disbeliever, while "Rendition," starring Reese Witherspoon, questions torture. Now that widespread support for the current administration has faded, the ideas in these films may not strike today's audiences as subversive.
Filmmakers hope to cut through the clutter of daily news – bombings, violence, dead US soldiers – and tap into mainstream disenchantment. Yet some fear their messages may hit too close to home.
"It's like a bad marriage or bad relationship. We never want to get into the pain of it while it's happening," says Patricia Foulkrod, director of last year's documentary "The Ground Truth."
In her efforts to find an audience, Ms. Foulkrod feels conflicted. "You never want to feel like you have to sugarcoat these thing to get people into the theater. But you never want to be naive about what you have to do to get the largest possible audience."
To promote "Elah," Warner Independent Pictures enlisted Foulkrod to spread the word with antiwar groups such as Iraq Veterans Against the War and Military Families Speak Out, and organized screenings with panel discussions to rally an audience.
"If you're going to preach to people, you need to preach to the converted," says Charles Merzbacher, chairman of Boston University's Department of Film & Television. For political films to draw the largest audience, the nation's hearts and minds need time to process the events. Hollywood may want to change minds, but viewers may not yet be ready for such fare.
In the autumn, studios look to release pictures with weighty topics as Oscar bait (and are willing to gamble on a few money losers). This year, Iraq is that "800 pound gorilla you can't ignore," says Professor Merzbacher, who contends that producers – blinded by dreams of Academy Awards – aren't considering whether there's a demand for war movies. "That's what's wrong with these films."
Entertainment-seeking viewers may also be leery of "message films," even if support for the war is clearly waning. And conservative audiences may dismiss films driven by "liberal bias" – even those with star power, like the Robert Redford/Meryl Streep/Tom Cruise juggernaut "Lions for Lambs."
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