Hollywood wants YOU to do your part ““ and no, it has
nothing to do with casting your vote in FOX’s overly-hyped
battle to crown the next American idol.
In several recently released movies, filmmakers have been using
their projects to ensure that citizens are thinking about what they
can do in wartime efforts, and rightfully so. Whether this means
that they want YOU to line the streets in protest or fill out
enlistment forms, however, is up to each individual film and person
to decide.
During World War II, propaganda generally consisted of
government-sponsored commercials on TV and feature-length
documentaries in theaters advertising how Uncle Sam wanted YOU.
Fast forward to 2003, an era when political messages have
evolved into more than just cheesy wartime jingles and images
showing the benefits of joining the service. Current films dealing
with war have come a long way from director Frank Capra’s
propagandic “Why We Fight” film series.
Spike Lee’s new joint, “25th Hour,” promoted
as the first film to deal with the Sept. 11 attacks, openly drips
with sentiment for seeking revenge on Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden,
and why not? If not for directors such as Lee, it’s likely
that the lingering images from that dark Tuesday morning would be
passed over, tossed aside with other already “ancient”
national tragedies such as the Columbine shootings and the Oklahoma
Federal Building bomb that occurred no less than seven years ago.
While those are all incidents that the United States vowed it would
“never forget,” when was the last time you honestly
even thought about them?
While I’m sure millions of Americans can still recite the
first and last names of the top three finalists from the first
season of “American Idol,” let’s face it, the
public has a shorter memory span than it would like to think,
particularly when it comes to the events that matter.
Without films like “25th Hour” providing a reminder
to the recent past, who’s to say that four months from now,
people won’t even recall who tried rescuing the thousands of
people trapped in the towers, or how long the fires continued to
burn after the initial attacks? Something that happened within the
last 15 months might as well have been from a decade ago. With the
quick pace at which the media moves on to the next overwhelming
sensation, people often don’t remember the past until someone
or something is there to help remind them, for better or worse.
Director Martin Scorsese put his own two cents on this issue,
ending “Gangs of New York” with a bold image of the
twin towers standing, prior to the attacks, as a tribute of what we
once had.
Films that reflect on war, including titles such as “Black
Hawk Down” and “Saving Private Ryan,” personalize
forgotten events and serve as good reminders of the United
State’s past and who we are as a nation. It’s not so
much asking questions, but memorializing past heroes.
While those movies often provide excellent commentary on real
life events, films such as “Gangs” and “25th
Hour” do more than keep the thoughts of Sept. 11, 2001 fresh
in the minds of Americans. With the historical underbelly in
“Gangs” and the complexity of multicultural New York in
“25th Hour,” the films motivate citizens to think about
their role in upcoming battles.
These films keep our past fresh, hopefully more so than Kelly
Clarkson’s single, “A Moment Like This,” when
ironically it is “a moment like this” when Americans
need to decide where they stand in the war ahead.
Yu’s top three war films are “Full Metal
Jacket,” “Saving Private Ryan” and “Gangs
of New York.” E-mail him at cjyu@media.ucla.edu.