So, watching the Superbowl ad for the G.I. Joe movie, and that line stuck out in my head: “We answer to no one.”
I began to realize there’s an awful lot of that in films. Secret agencies that ‘answer to no one’, whether stated directly or indirectly. I’m wondering why that is, in a story-sense. Is such an element supposed to make said organization seem more impressive somehow? To me, it just seems superfluous. Along the same lines as, “And we don’t pay income tax!” I mean, I don’t expect long, drawn-out scenes of senate subcommittes on the expenditures of G.I. Joe during the film… So what gives? What are they trying to say? “We don’t have to answer for anything we do?” In the current political climate, is that supposed to be a plus? I’m honestly confused about this.
Well, it’s a fantasy about a toy soldier.
But yes, “We answer to no one” is supposed to convey a sense that they’re above all that. Whatever that is. They don’t get clearance from somebody like Congress, pete’s sake; Congress has like a 40% approval rate? And they’re certainly not constrained by the political sensibilities of evil bastards like the Republicans or namby-pamby weenies like the Democrats. Our Heroes are the best and brightest and most moral and you in the audience can root for them without reservations about their righteousness. At least that’s how it looks to me.
I concur with the above. At least, for this movie. The line in the film implies that “We’re badass.” But **3acres **makes a good point about how it frees up the good guys to be Good Guys.
I don’t understand why anyone would ever think it’s a good idea to set up an organization with no oversight. Ever. Whatever potential benefit there is is way overpowered by the potential for evil.
Because a lot of action films are escapist fantasy. Since most of us in our daily lives do answer to someone, often people we feel are less then qualified, we like our heroes to be free of such incompetence.
Sort of ironic that the name “GI Joe” originally referred to the long suffering, oppressed rank and file American infantryman who had to answer to an entire chain of command, though.