Well, I still wouldn't exactly say that it's propaganda. I too was wondering a bit at the start, since I went into the movie knowing basically nothing, but I figured they would turn it on its head and they did. After all, the whole point was to show the destruction that American weapons and the American 'let's blow shit up!' ethos can cause. The real villains, and the truly corrupt ones, were the Americans selling their weapons to the terrorists - which is certainly true enough, given that the US government is at least partially responsible for the original arming of a good number of Middle Eastern dictators and terrorist groups. ^^; I'm also inclined to point out that there are in fact some pretty batshit insane and dangerous people over there, and that pointing that out doesn't necessarily equal American propaganda. (the problem comes with a. assuming that everyone from the Middle East is a terrorist, and b. that raging into their countries with guns a'blazing is going to solve anything) After all, the first thing Tony did with the suit was to go and rescue Afghani civilians - they were the real victims here, and he came to recognize that. His weapons, and his country's policies, were at least in part responsible for the destruction and pain in the Middle East.
But yeah. I was feeling a bit "whaat?" at first, too - I just decided to go with it, and figured that if certain people on my f-list loved it then it couldn't be super-over-the-top-American-propaganda.
Otoh, I did kinda feel like even if American policies and weapons were censured by the movie, they still kinda fell into the trap of "and then the white guy goes and saves the poor Afghani victims". Otoh, it all really goes with the theme of taking responsibility, and the fact that Tony had been responsible in part for this mess and ergo he had to clean it up. Because the US (and probably us, too, I know far too little about this county's politics sometimes...) does have some responsibility to clean up the mess they're made - just... without invading and making things worse. o.o
Anyway. All things considered I think they came out of it with a good theme, aka blowing shit up is not always the answer unless you're actually using it to save people rather than fucking things up more. Or something like that. ^^ Or more to the point, "selling weapons to terrorists is not a good way to bring peace to the Middle East". Heh. ^^;;
Though really, even as all this was going through my head while watching the movie, in the back of my brain I was really just thinking "dear god that man looks amazing in that suit/that tank top/shirtless". *ahem* I enjoy watching movies on multiple levels. ;)
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Date: 2008-05-13 06:17 am (UTC)But yeah. I was feeling a bit "whaat?" at first, too - I just decided to go with it, and figured that if certain people on my f-list loved it then it couldn't be super-over-the-top-American-propaganda.
Otoh, I did kinda feel like even if American policies and weapons were censured by the movie, they still kinda fell into the trap of "and then the white guy goes and saves the poor Afghani victims". Otoh, it all really goes with the theme of taking responsibility, and the fact that Tony had been responsible in part for this mess and ergo he had to clean it up. Because the US (and probably us, too, I know far too little about this county's politics sometimes...) does have some responsibility to clean up the mess they're made - just... without invading and making things worse. o.o
Anyway. All things considered I think they came out of it with a good theme, aka blowing shit up is not always the answer unless you're actually using it to save people rather than fucking things up more. Or something like that. ^^ Or more to the point, "selling weapons to terrorists is not a good way to bring peace to the Middle East". Heh. ^^;;
Though really, even as all this was going through my head while watching the movie, in the back of my brain I was really just thinking "dear god that man looks amazing in that suit/that tank top/shirtless". *ahem* I enjoy watching movies on multiple levels. ;)