From the “better late than never” file, hey, we’re at war! We should make some films about it!
After years of workmanlike to middling to non-existent cinematic responses to the “war on terror” and the (entirely separate and mostly unrelated) war in Iraq, 2008 is finally seeing some more adventurous films on those subjects. There are, of course, some traditional films, including the soldiers’ stories of Stop Loss and Errol Morris’ Abu Ghraib documentary Standard Operating Procedure.
But there’s also Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay, a stoner comedy that has been polarizing critics with its political (or apolitical?) message. Super Size Me director and star Morgan Spurlock, who has a knack for clever film names, has returned with Where in the World is Osama Bin Laden? and intends to answer just that question. Bulletproof Salesman, a documentary, is entirely devoted to a war profiteer selling armored cars to international forces in Iraq.
Regardless of their formats or politics, none of these films could easily be dismissed as cookie cutter approaches to the United States’ overseas conflicts. But one of the most distinctive yet may still be The Objective. It deals with a small Special Forces group that heads into the Afghan mountains and find that there are more than just Taliban hooligans waiting for them. More, as in freaky supernatural goings-on.
The Children of Marx and Coca-Cola 