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Apparently my new hobby is analyzing what international action movies have to say about foreign policy - and whether their word should be trusted. In terms of Taken, for example, just run away. Far, far away. The Losers is irrelevant. The A-Team is okay, although quite fantastical.
The Expendables is actually remarkably accurate. The gist is "an American is always behind everything," and by "American" we mean a CIA agent. Thus we actually have CIA agents backing puppet dictators in sad little Latin American republics so that they can get rich off coca - clearly "director" Sylvester Stallone read up on the United Fruit Company and perhaps Manuel Noriega. Of course, the movie is at minor pains to make sure we understand that the CIA itself does not condone such undemocratic behavior - that the Big Bad was a CIA agent gone rogue, gone bad, gone greedy, and the CIA's now trying to clean up his mess. Just ignore this disclaimer bit, and you will have the basic idea of Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow. We even have some exaggerated waterboarding (done by the CIA).
None of this is made all that complicated or nuanced - the mercenary heroes don't think barely at all about their role in the system (they're too worried about having lost their souls), the evil (rogue) CIA agent is just like, "I am greedy, greed is good," and... that's about it. There's some blather about patriotism, but it's the poor little Latin Americans that have this patriotism, not the Americans. I think I could count on one hand the number of times the American flag makes an appearance in this movie.
And about that little bit of anti-colonial patriotism that blossoms in the Latin American republic? Well, the Americans quickly stomp it out. The mercenary heroes don't know why these fools don't just leave their fucked up country. The corrupt puppet dictator makes a turn for the better at the climax of the movie, when he tries to make the (rogue) CIA agent take the money back and leave the country. He tells his idealistic, patriotic daughter that "you are who I was supposed to be," and he goes to his balcony to shout to the only people in the vicinity, his bored and confused soldiers, about his mistakes and his greed and "this American disease" that has infected their country. He asks for his people's forgiveness and vows to stomp out the foreign invaders - and then gets shot off the balcony by the CIA agent still inside his room. There's a definite under-current of the death of idealism, and perhaps any kind of moral passion, or even values, going on here - even though the heroes make it out, they don't seem to have returned to much except throwing knives at walls. Kind of a downer, if you think about it.
So good going, Expendables. That was more than I expected.
The Expendables is actually remarkably accurate. The gist is "an American is always behind everything," and by "American" we mean a CIA agent. Thus we actually have CIA agents backing puppet dictators in sad little Latin American republics so that they can get rich off coca - clearly "director" Sylvester Stallone read up on the United Fruit Company and perhaps Manuel Noriega. Of course, the movie is at minor pains to make sure we understand that the CIA itself does not condone such undemocratic behavior - that the Big Bad was a CIA agent gone rogue, gone bad, gone greedy, and the CIA's now trying to clean up his mess. Just ignore this disclaimer bit, and you will have the basic idea of Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow. We even have some exaggerated waterboarding (done by the CIA).
None of this is made all that complicated or nuanced - the mercenary heroes don't think barely at all about their role in the system (they're too worried about having lost their souls), the evil (rogue) CIA agent is just like, "I am greedy, greed is good," and... that's about it. There's some blather about patriotism, but it's the poor little Latin Americans that have this patriotism, not the Americans. I think I could count on one hand the number of times the American flag makes an appearance in this movie.
And about that little bit of anti-colonial patriotism that blossoms in the Latin American republic? Well, the Americans quickly stomp it out. The mercenary heroes don't know why these fools don't just leave their fucked up country. The corrupt puppet dictator makes a turn for the better at the climax of the movie, when he tries to make the (rogue) CIA agent take the money back and leave the country. He tells his idealistic, patriotic daughter that "you are who I was supposed to be," and he goes to his balcony to shout to the only people in the vicinity, his bored and confused soldiers, about his mistakes and his greed and "this American disease" that has infected their country. He asks for his people's forgiveness and vows to stomp out the foreign invaders - and then gets shot off the balcony by the CIA agent still inside his room. There's a definite under-current of the death of idealism, and perhaps any kind of moral passion, or even values, going on here - even though the heroes make it out, they don't seem to have returned to much except throwing knives at walls. Kind of a downer, if you think about it.
So good going, Expendables. That was more than I expected.
