Did those movies suck? I haven’t seen any of them, but they have respectable scores at IMDB (7.6, 7.2 and 6.9, respectively).
I think rottentomatoes is a better indicator of quality. At RT they got 32, 51 and 47 ratings respectively (all splats). I didn’t see Rendition but I can verify that the other two were both pretty bad. Rambo is at least supposed to be cheesy and low brow. The Kingdom took itself seriously, though and was basically ponderous crap.
It could be that the ‘artists’, need time to reflect on the events before they can make good ‘art’ about it.
Plus, in WWII, there were specific events or battles, that you could craft a story around but that is not so much the case here.
I still don’t understand why it didn’t get better ratings.
Might European or other foreign filmmakers take a stab at movies about the current Iraq war, but having the American forces as either morally ambiguous or, indeed, as anntagonists?
Turkey’s Valley of the Wolves Iraq fits this bill.
Burma.
I thought Rendition was pretty good, and it is topical, but it wasn’t a war movie at all: it was about a US resident of Egyptian origin being rendered extraordinarily to an unnamed north African country, and the jolly hijinks that happened to him thereafter - and an act of terrorism that occurs within the “honest this is an anonymous country and bears no resemblance to Morocco at all” country.
Why did you say “Burma”?
Surprised me a lot when it got cancelled. I for one found it really good and assumed it would last for at least a few seasons.
Now I’m all morbidly curious about Gary Busey’s portrayal of a Jewish-American doctor in the U.S. Army Organlegging Corps.
What percentage of the Earth’s population would have to decline a movie role before Gary Busey becomes your most plausible casting choice for an anti-semitic stereotype? Does Turkish society consider the most distinctive characteristics of Jews to be their lack of eyebrows and yard-wide display of tooth enamel?
Beautiful! Considering that Sammy Davis, Jr., is unavailable for the role, maybe it’s the Buddy Holly factor.
Otto said he didn’t know who the enemy was in Rambo. Burma was the enemy.
Matt Damon is filming one right now. Green Zone, I think it’s called.
It was a joke, a Monty Python reference.
About 3:30 into the sketch.
No, the correct answer is, “I panicked”.
Here are some off the top of my head (depending on how flexible you are with the terms “contemporary” and “war”):
Grenada:
Hamburger Hill
Panama:
-None come to mind-
Afghanistan (v Soviets):
Charlie Wilsons War
Rambo III
The Beast
Gulf War I:
Courage Under Fire
Bravo Two Zero
Jarhead
Live from Baghdad
Three Kings
Gulf War II:
Grace is Gone
In the Valley of Elah
Lions for Lambs
Redacted
Africa:
Black Hawk Down
Blood Diamond
Hotel Rwanda
Last King of Scotland
Tears of the Sun
Generic Middle East:
G.I. Jane
Navy S.E.A.L.s
Syriana
The Kingdom
About a thousand 80s and 90s action and spy films
Hamburger Hill was set in Vietnam
Heartbreak Ridge was set in (well, for a bit anyways) Grenada
Jar Head wasn’t bad but it seemed to me to be a film about war films rather than an actual war film. Someone should do a Patton-esque treatment of Stormin’ Norman.
And besides, it would just play like a remake of the classic La Battaglia di Algeri, and then the o.p.'s buddy would just whine that it proves his point.
Stranger