Unrealistic


I don't understand how the movie got such high ratings. It is not realistic at all. I simply don't "buy" the story that US soldiers/police/whatever are 1) psychopaths 2) mass murderers and 3) slaughter defenseless people in front of cameras. It is also extremly unrealistic that they would allow media to document a kangaroo court.

Nothing in the movie made any sense. It was also very black and white. The establishment being 100% evil and the activists being portrayed as saintlike.

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Well, I don't agree with on certain points about the movie--you're right about the fact that the media probably would have NEVER been allowed to follow this whole process being carried out, but the part about people being judged without an official trial and being locked away for an indefinite period of itme without knowing when they will ever be released---that HAS actually happened since 9/11---I have read actual news stories of people being accused of terrorism who actually went through all that. Also, the MCCarran Act is an actual law that was passed back in the 1950's which was reactivated by the Bush administration to search out terrorists. So, NO it's NOT entirely made up.

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Camera crews were allowed in Vietnam when the US invaded it. Only after realizing that the gruesome images turned a great deal of the American public against the war, the independent press was banned.

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Uhhh... the film is a metaphor.

Try thinking outside the box.

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I was gonna say the same thing. The 'Punishment Parks' in the film are a metaphor.

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In 1973 at least 3,000 people were rounded up and executed by military thugs without the benefit of a trial. The Nixon administration fully supported these actions. The only thing that was really different from this movie is that it happened in my home country of Chile and not in America. But do you really think that it is impossible for this to ever happen here? (It is unrealistic that they would allow a TV crew to film everything, but that's a conceit of the movie).

One of the reasons Americans protest things like Abu Gahraib and Guatanamo is they don't want something like this or what happened in Chile to happen to America. Many loud-mouth "conservatives" like to point out that Abu Garab and Guatanamo haven't gone nearly this far--well, no sh*t. But are we supposed to just wait around and not say anything until things really do get that bad? Trust me, by the time that happens it's already too late.

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Thumbs up!! Haaa :D Love this response !!

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Unrealistic? What's all the talk of polices about 911 truthers, how they want to kill us?

Neo-cons, global warming cult members, democrats, republicans, La Raza... all those groups could do this kind of things to anyone in america.

Some people like power, some people think that they can manage the lives of others and force them to do so and punish them if they don't... like the global warming crowd. La Raza wants to kill everybody. The neo-cons just want to wage war against brown people and give all power to the FEDs, if you're against it, you're a terrorist and you should be tortured and killed.

If martial law ever comes in America, it will be worse than in the movie. It will be high-tech torture, no trials at all, concentration camps. I've seen videos were foreign troops were training with US troops, training them to take guns and kill americans. They hired actors to do americans. This was training IN THE US FOR THE USA.

And yes, there are concentration camps in america. Some were builts with Rex-84, some before the 2000 bug scare, some after 911 for terrorists. And let's not forget Wal-Marts and airports that can be used.

A recent example of concentration camps being used in the US was during the 2004 republican convention and Katrina in the stadium. Katrina was a test. Imagine a Katrina nation-wide, with foreign troops and mercenaries killing political dissidents and taking guns?

Most democrats will go to concentration camps because they don't have firearms.

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"It was also very black and white. The establishment being 100% evil and the activists being portrayed as saintlike."

Totally agree with this. There are many counter arguments that could have been used but none are given. The real world isn't black and white.

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...In the interest of fairness, to say nothing of sanity, it should be pointed out the events in this movie were inspired by the Chicago seven trial and other things associated with the unrest at the 1968 Democratic convention and the Chicago Democratic machine; the nice folks who are bring us Obama during this election cycle. Also right now, forty years later, the Denver Police Department is fencing off a warehouse to imprison protesters at this months Democratic political convention. It hasn't been specified whether they're planning to incarcerate hardcore Hillary Clinton supporters, pro-life and gun rights people or folks who object to being forced to eat organic health food and the convention sites, but it has been compared,by some civil liberties groups, to a concentration camp. During the 04' Republican convention, in New York, an area was fenced off for protesters to vent their anti-Bush angst, but were allowed to leave afterwards. Most just walked around the streets making a nascence of themselves. They'll probably to the same in St Paul at this years Republican convention. At most they'll get cuffed and stuffed on national TV which is what many of them seem to live for. They certainly won't get locked up at Wal-Mart as a privious poster has suggested.
People are just getting dumber, but more opinionated-Ernestine (Silks) in "The Human Stain"

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I disagree. The governmemt side explained their part exactly how they tend to do it, and some of their arguments were valid or at least represented different opinion.

Also not all of the dissidents were shown in good light and they were shown to contradict themselves.

While certainly anti-establishment, the film was somewhat balanced and apart from the TV crews part and the massacre, very realistic/believable.


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You are correct crevy - the stereotypes of law enforcement ruin the credibility of the message which otherwise has some validity. It would have been pretty boring though, with just the tribunal stuff. The exaggerated cowardly brutality of the police and National Guardsmen ruins any supposed 'metaphoric' use.

I think the film does a disservice to people involved in real events back then, like Kent State and the 1968 Democratic convention.

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Unrealistic?

"When soldiers in his California based unit returned from the war and described in detail numerous atrocities they had either witnessed or participated in – killing unarmed civilians, running over children with trucks, shooting at vehicles that cross checkpoints – Johnson decided that he simply wouldn't do it."

"Key was trained as a combat engineer and immediately sent to Iraq in March of 2003. He says that he participated in over 100 home raids that netted no evidence of terrorist activities, stood at traffic control checkpoints at which innocent civilians were frequently killed by trigger-happy and untrained soldiers, and witnessed what appeared to him to be a mass killing and beheading of Iraqi civilians in Ramadi."

These are just a few accounts by U.S soldiers in Iraq. They're are plenty from other eyewitnesses.The civilian death toll in Iraq has exceeded half a million.Most the victims were killed intentionally or unintentionally by U.S forces, and you think this film is unbelievable ?

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I just caught about 3/4 of this film. Where have I been? I'd never seen it before. I was a protester in the 60's and a draft rejector in the 70's. (I rejected the draft, I didn't dodge it.) Like the guy said, "I just ignored the letter".

The film is representative of the times. The only reason we don't have mass protests today is because there's no draft. Start sending those "young republicans" who are hiding in the colleges and serving internships on wall street off to basic training and see how quickly the Peace Movement gets rolling. All those former middle class suburbanites will hit the streets trying to keep little Johnny, Biffy and Muffy from going off to war.

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Great post. Though I wonder how many draft loopholes would magically appear for the privileged.

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Yes, yes indeed.

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They have switched from mandatory draft to extreme brainwashing of youth. The recruiters hit young, and hit hard -- through TV ads, US Army video games, TV shows, positive depictment of military careers throughout the mass media, etc. Billions get sunk into this each year.

They still consider the mandatory draft, it is still legal. But they don't want to do anything major enough that people protest. Like the frog who will jump out of a hot pot of water, but won't notice a gradual change if it starts cold, even until they die from the heat.

What is going on in the USA today is a steady, methodical, scientifically based brainwashing at every level of society.

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I found it really hard hitting that the "qualified" members of the panel were blue collar union leader, various big business reps, and a chick representing parents (whom i believe is based on Pyhlis Schiafly). Those days really were "US V THEM" as far as right wingers were concerned. Many in the Nixon administration truly believed it. Many people these mention "Weather Underground", and fair enough. But what about Karl Rove and the other original 'rat *beep* from the Committee to Re-Elect the President? Which as we know, was known as CREEP.

Not much is mentioned about the right wing organised "spontaneous counter protests" like the "hard hat riot" in NY which was co-ordinated by such seemingly different groups as the Mafia, NYPD & CREEP. The oft shouted slogan during the 68 Dem convention was "the whole world is watching" as Mayor Daley's storm troopers belted people on the actual convention floor! Forget about the street riots, there was more fun watching blue rinse house wives getting clubbed.

And who is the most vocal, the most supportive of crushing any idea's that dont agree with "the machine? Chickenhawks like Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly & Limbaugh (when he's not high!).

Ray Manzarak has said "America loves to kill it's children".

It's hard to disagree. The U.S. NEEDS an enemy. Always has done. Just since the 20th century there's been Germans (twice), Japanese, Nth Koreans, Chinese, Russians, Vietnamese, Cubans, Iranians, Iraqis, Iranians again. Communists, athiests - witches for God's sake! lol

Any i missed out?

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