If you go to a movie this fall, in the lead up to the presidential election, you’ll be treated to a two-minute and thirty-five second music video/advertisement for the National Guard. You can view this Kid Rock propaganda here:
After being warmed up by this assault on your senses, you’ll get exposed to how badly divided our country has become and how much Hollywood is catering to that division. Last night, they ran five previews. One of them was about a Catholic priest and nun. The nun sought to prove that the priest had molested a child. Then there were the two left-leaning movies: The Watergate recap Frost/Nixon and Oliver Stone’s W. And two right-leaning movies, filled with car bombs and terror threats: Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio’s Body of Lies and Clive Owen and Naomi Watts’ The International.
Can there be a bigger disconnect than that between Kid Rock’s version of patriotism and that expressed in W and Frost/Nixon? I don’t think so. When I was growing up we had a steady diet of movies where the Soviets were cast as the bad guys and the United States (and the UK) went out and kicked ass. There were the
James Bond movies, the Rambo movies, The Hunt for Red October, and so on. These have now been replaced with movies about how the CIA (and other intelligence agencies) are valiantly fighting against car bombers and kidnappers and terror cells. And Americans are getting subjected to these messages through trailers and Kid Rock’s propaganda piece even when they go to see fun movies like the Coen Brother’s latest mock-up of the intelligence agencies: Burn After Reading. Ironically, there is a scene in Burn After Reading that makes this seamless transition from red-baiting to terror-baiting explicit. A Deputy Chief of the CIA is telling the Director of the CIA that someone has taken a disc containing sensitive information to the Russian Embassy. And the DCI is incredulous. “The Russian Embassy? Why in hell would they bring it to the Russian Embassy.” For most of my life, that is exactly where someone would bring sensitive information if they wanted to get paid for it. But, I guess, in today’s world you would take it the Pakistani Embassy or something. Who knows? Watch the trailers (in the links above) and tell me what you think about the message being sent to the public in the lead-up to this election.
Every movie produced above a middle to low budget in America is “propaganda”, Booman.
Every single one.
Every news show, every series, every cartoon…all of ’em.
Their only differences lie in which propaganda they propagate.
All the cop shows? The cop movies, the spry shows and movies, the war stuff ? Every one that doesn’t end on a down note…YOU know, where the “good guys” don’t win?…every stinking one is propaganda.
Why do I say that?
Because as can be very easily seen by anyone with one half of a brain, the so-called good guys do NOT win. Most often, they are forced out of contention and replaced by faux good guys well before anything untoward…like real change…might occur.
Bet on it.
But that is almost never reflected in our hypno-culture.
Your outrage is directed at a mosquito bite received while in the jaws of a saber-toothed tiger.
Deep.
AG
i’ve seen the national guard video 3 times now, each time it strikes me as really bizarre. last weekend i tried to figure out where the hell they are supposed to be when the soldiers are roving around some random country with brown people. at about 0:40 into the video there are some signs in the background in arabic (or maybe persian) script. they were too quick for me to read when they flashed by the big screen, but the youtube version is too low resolution for me to read it if i blow that portion of the picture up.
i’m gonna see “burn before reading” in about 2 hours. it better not suck
It wasn’t the best movie evah, but it didn’t suck either. Hav fun.
yeah, i basically agree with that. it was weak for a coen brothers movie. but it’s still a coen brothers movie and thus basically worth seeing.
i just wonder if the lebowski effect will apply to it (i.e. will it get better with every repeated viewing?)
I don’t think it will get better with repeated viewing, due to certain events in the movie. Do you?
I find it interesting that this ad is totally aimed at white kids and equates the Guard and Nascar.
The NASCAR bits are the part that makes the thing so over-the-top in the culture wars.
Yes, all that’s missing is that poignant brief moment that shows the troops praying while the guitars keep clanging. Then it would be 100% Palinist.
Even as it is, Salafists too will love this clip: “Look, this is how the murderous Crusaders see themselves.”
I took my son to see a movie a week or so ago and was “treated” to this ad.
I had basically the same reaction and meant to blog about it myself but never got around to it. I’m glad to see you posting it, though.
Seemless?
soccer brats vs nascar dweebs. How boring. It’s a shitty song too.
Join the National Guard and ship off to a foreign land for a year or three.
A long way from “Serve one weekend a month and get some money for college”
Now you and Dale Jr can be a warrior for freedom.
Keep in mind that until this war the National Guard hasn’t served in combat since WWII (and didn’t really show up well then, at least initially)
kid rock, three doors down, and the walker texas ranger guy are warriors too. LOL! Except for Walker Texas Ranger the other 6 men are old enough to volunteer themselves.