Wednesday, February 09, 2005

Another war movie

Is there an attempt to re-kindle the "bond" between Filipinos and Americans with the film The Great Raid? Or another attempt to play up the image of brave and daring American soldiers?

The Great Raid, starring Benjamin Bratt alongside Filipino movie icon Cesar Montano, tells how a group of US soldiers slip behind Japanese lines in the closing stages of World War II to rescue more than 500 American prisoners in a camp in the northern Philippine province of Cabanatuan. [The New Zealand Herald]


Hmmm... If America hadn't been such a greedy colonialist in the first place, there wouldn't have been any need to "rescue 500 American prisoners" at all.

Gee, I've always wondered why history books glorify conquerors as "heroes". And Hollywood is making them "bigger than life." Julius Caesar. Richard the Lion-Hearted. Alexander. They killed millions to extend their empires. And we're supposed to look up to them? What about the adventurers--the navigators who "discovered" the rest of the world and laid claim on every land they landed on? Why... they are nothing but mercenaries. Paid henchmen who stole lands and lives for the glory of their kings (in some cases, in the name of the king that PAID them). Geez. History should condemn them. They weren't heroic; they were greedy.

2 comments:

Oman said...

i kinda disagree with jenna, we should not be grateful just because they gave us their language as a gift. i'd prefer to be a country like Japan or Korea whose english are indecent but they have food to feed their people.

Erin Eats said...

I don't know enough to really voice my opinion on the politics of this, but, as far as "The Great Raid" goes - at least there was Joseph Fiennes...