Whatever Happened to Patriotic Films?
Filed under: Classics, Family Films
The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle published an interesting thumbsucker this morning: "I suppose that to depict patriotism, as to depict romance, filmmakers feel the need to go back to an era in which people actually believed in such a thing." LaSalle's jumping off point was the upcoming opening of Flags Of Our Fathers, a film that is not as unquestionably patriotic as it sounds. Promoting his movie, Eastwood told the Daily News that even though he doesn't mean his film to be a metaphor for the Iraq war, "I wasn't necessarily one of those people who were excited about going into Iraq."While Clint Eastwood and his scriptwriters honor the Marines and sailors who fought so bravely in the Pacific War, there's an undertone of wrath at politicians, officers and spin-meisters. Those who feel that the Iraq invasion was heavy on the photo-ops, and light on the advance planning, might come out of Flags Of Our Fathers feeling that the flag-planting-on-Iwo-Jima photo was but the 1940s version of George W. Bush's "Mission Accomplished" speech.
LaSalle argues correctly that Oliver Stone's World Trade Center was less about the American spirit than the personal heroism of its two trapped characters. But I can't follow him hrough his quick march through American film history. Take his description of 1942's Yankee Doodle Dandy as showing off "emotional, reflexive patriotism." It has a different approach than Eastwood's film, but Michael Curtiz's bio-pic musical of George M. Cohan is another demonstration of how patriotism can be used as the grounds for a smash-hit show. James Cagney's canny showman Cohan is clearly a song and dance man first and a patriot second. Cagney's Cohan is so exuberantly cocky and light on his feet that he can overcome many people's distaste at the simplistic idea of "my country, right or wrong" ... a motto another George -- George Orwell -- likened to "My mother, drunk or sober."
When we elected an actor as president, America showed how it prefers movies to history. Think of The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance's concluding line: "This is the west, sir. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend" -- a summing up of Ronald Reagan's career. But the patriotic movies LaSalle mentions approvingly are from a far more unsophisticated era. How could they be reproduced now? Jarhead, Three Kings and innumerable political documentaries sum up the current war. On the whole, the public is too wise to fall for the old illusions of soldiers laying down their lives with a smile on their faces (LaSalle's example of the inspirational death scene of Tom Hanks in Saving Private Ryan, is the exception that proves the rule).
Instead of the old-time war movies LaSalle lists, or the Capra comedies which were the product of a man who grew increasingly reactionary as the years went by, I'd submit my favorite patriotic movie -- The Devil and Daniel Webster aka All That Money Can Buy. William Dieterle's 1941 pre-noir film uses fantasy, wit, and feel-good populism by associating the devil with domestic greed and selfishness, rather than with a foreign threat. In the courtroom, Mr. Scratch (Walter Huston) reminds us that he's been in America ever since the first colonist killed the first Indian. The real-life Senator Daniel Webster (the hearty Edward Arnold, usually a villain type) is a politician with human temptations for ambition and booze -- a much less saintly figure than Henry Fonda's Young Mr. Lincoln, whom LaSalle loves. But Webster comes through for his damned constituent, knowing the truth will set him free. Arnold's Webster knows that the persuasive argument is every bit as effective as a weapon as a gun. That the politically-aware Alec Baldwin starred in (and supposedly directed) a semi-released remake shows just how lively the patriotic ideals still are in The Devil and Daniel Webster.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-15-2006 @ 11:04PM
Erin said...
I consider it an act of heroism to read La Salle.
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10-16-2006 @ 7:20PM
Gilbert Davis said...
After reading the article by Mick LaSalle I am reminded that journalist majors in college apparently don't need to have much background in history or politics but yet they are allowed to spout off about things they know next to nothing about. Even a film major would roll his eyes at this pablum. But in all the article reads like a socialist interpretation of history through the cinema and probably does connect with the San Francisco crowd.
"As eras change, as needs change, the patriotic movies change." WFT? Does that mean anything at all? Well yes, times change but I'm not aware of a 'Bureau of Movie Needs' where such 'needs' are mused about and decided by the secret cabal in charge of making patriotic movies. That's how this meandering, ignorant and self important look at patriotic movies begins and it doesn't get any better than that. The author goes on to list what patriotic movies 'Generally' tend to do. If the author was a tenth grade student in a writing class you'd pat them on the head and say good job because you know it would be a fine effort for a tenth grade student. But here, as Erin said, it's an act of heroism to just try to read through it.
Just a few of the things that made me mad. Yankee Doodle Dandy was not "emotional, reflexive patriotism" and I doubt the author had even seen it. It's a movie about love of family, hard work, perseverance and it's a biography. It's not emotional reflexive patriotism.
And his similar one line dismissal of the movie musical 1776 was simply bizarre. It's not "a clash between enlightened liberals (Jefferson, Adams and Franklin) and landed conservative aristocrats." Somebody please, get this man a book. Of the three 'enlightened liberals' only one, Jefferson was a democrat and he was most definitely a landed aristocrat. Adams, the total political opposite of Jefferson and political enemy was a Federalist and of Boston aristocracy. Franklin was an internationalist. I mean, you could just spend the day refuting the author's mistaken take on movies and history which of course are the foundation of his argument. Needless to say, his take on history and the movies he references is simplistic and more wrong than right. His generalizations are meaningless and trite. The best thing about his article is that it is on one page and doesn't require a good deal of page clicking.
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10-17-2006 @ 8:07AM
venmax said...
- "I suppose that to depict patriotism, as to depict romance, filmmakers feel the need to go back to an era in which people actually believed in such a thing."
???
I don't believe I've ever heard a more stupid, self-centered, and self serving statement in my life. If this dipshit could bother to pull his head out of his ass for 3 seconds he'd realize that there are MILLIONS of patriotic Americans all over the place. The only people who don't believe in patriotism are liberals like him and those who most likely surrounds himself with at all times.
When the fuck are the dumbasses in Hollywood going to wake up and realize that they DON'T represent what MOST Americans believe, and that there would be plenty of patriotic movies being made if the industry wasn't dominated by a bunch of morally equivicating socialist chickenshits?
And the sad thing is that when reality marches straight up to them and smacks the square in the fucking gob with a frying pan (*AHEM* *AHEM* *PASSION OF THE CHRIST* *AHEM*) they still don't fucking get it.
It saturates everything - and they still think people are stupid! I was watching CSI Miami last night and the whole episode revolved around the eminent domain controversy while the "Hero" of the story dropped scathing lines about how it benifited "Big Business" (Boo! Hiss!).
Right.
Trying to tie it to conservatives.
Even though that Supreme Court decision was opposed by all the conservatives on the bench and passed through by the Liberals for the sake of city governments garnering more in tax dollars.
Do these fucking retards even have a clue what reality is?
Good God I can't wait for Hollywood to die off. It may take a few more decades but it will be well worth the fucking wait.
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