I enjoyed many parts of this movie
until I realized what kind of anti american bull it is.
the bad guy always wins, evil always prevails, america is the bad guy(the president being the worst)
the wost 5 dollars I've ever spent on a movie
this one goes straight to the trash
I cant believe cage lowers himself to such ignorant 4th grade politics
garbage
two thumbs way down to this 2 hours of ridiculous crap
Why is it anti-american?
share[deleted]
@ gaspergomez... you probably have a point ;)
im an american to. i think the movie is GREAT (10/10). it was like a fine wine it got better with age. my first viewing i would say it was about a 7-8/10 ... after a few watches it grew on me even more and now i give it a 10/10.
i dont think it's anti-american like in the sence it's saying "down with america" .... cause i think it's safe to assume NO COUNTRY on the planet is perfect. ;) ... each country has there shady areas.
cause after all i think most powerfull countrys had to step on people to get where there at... cause after all each country tends to put itself above everything else for survival etc etc.
I'm American and this is one of my top 50 movies of all time.
I think perhaps he missed at the end where it says The U.S., U.K., France, China, and Russia are the top 5 arms dealer, and the only 5 permanent members of the U.N. Security Council (or something like that). If anything, the movie is saying those in power find supporting worldwide conflict more profitable than not. It is absolutely not singling out the U.S. by any means.
"What's wrong?"
"Everything."
Once Upon a Time in Mexico
Yeah you're right, every country has it's dark days where they did things they shouldn't have. Especially back in the old days (say 100 years ago and before give or take) they particularly didn't care about other countries. To be frank though I think the OP misinterpreted the movies' message horribly to come to the conclusion that it's anti-american. The basic idea in my opinion is that there will always be money in the business of supplying people with the means to kill one another. Sad but hey it's still the truth and has been since the dawn of man.
America has been in a lot of wars during the 20th century though and has been leaving quite a few weapons behind in the countries where the conflicts took place. That's not being anti-american that's the truth.
Either way I think it's a great movie, going to re-watch it now :)
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I know less than all but more than many who know less
I don't think the movie is anti-american per se, even though America is the one pointed out due to the fact that the movie is made for an American audience. But truth is a lot of states are guilty of the same thing. I'm French and France has most likely done it was well (nothing really proven, but "come on, we all know what's going" on type of thing): supplying arms unofficially to countries that they can't be seen trafficking with. I saw it as an accusation against all permanent members of the UN Security Council. The US just happen to be one of them. You can't call a movie crap just because it gives you a couple of home truths.
Eibhlinn Savage
[insert movie quote]
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It is hard to listen to the truth I can understand, so just go to the next video store and rent a chuck, sly or steven movie. I still cannot understand how it is possible that people cannot recognize what is really going on and believe in what their fabulous government is telling. Just inform yourself a little bit about conflicts and US actions in the world but better I guess rent a video since you won't anyway understand it!
shareIt said at the end of the movie that the five biggest exporters were the USA, Russia, and I think the EU. I thought that painted the whole civilized world as the bad guy rather than just the US.
share[deleted]
Didn't you learn anything from this movie? "Guns don't kill people, people kill people."
shareDude
It is precisely like the USA armed Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein - you helped finance Bin Laden when he was fighting the Sovients and you helped Saddam Hussein fight the Iranians in the Iran Iraq war.
That's not a political comment - it's a fact - more proveable than evolution in Kansas.
That's not to say that the USA isn't a great country which has done a huge amount of good in the world - but it does suggest PLEASE STOP ARMING SMALL COUNTRIES WHO ARE CURRENTLY YOUR FRIENDS - it often doesn't pay off.
Especially going to war in Afghanistan. They even mention it in Princess Bride. But it's kind of coded so you might miss it.
divvy
L
Good call, I totally agree.
It just amazes me that the US government can be that ignorant and stupid.
What you pointed out is like for example in the case of Vietnam.
American helped the North Vietnamese under Ho Chi Minh proclaim their independence, hell their declaration of Independence was even based on the Americans, but then later on the US decided that the North Vietnamese were the bad guys because they were communist (a fact which they knew when they helped the N. Vietnamse instate their government as Minh was a well known pupil of communist thought), and then started fighting them.
Arhh, it just frustrates me!
Actually we sotr of did
shareActually that's exactly what the US did. The CIA provided the Taliban with weapons (including the famous stinger missiles) to fight the Russians... Too bad those same weapons were later used to kill american soldiers. That kinda backfired didn't it???
shareI'm gonna have to go ahead and sort of...disagree with you there.
The U.S. supplied the Mougahdine(ok, its late and I'm not gonna go look up how to spell it) who were the fighters in the north. The very same men that we supplied, helped us in our fight against Bin Laden and provided much needed intellegence. Also the formal Taliban wasn't formed untill after the Soviets pulled out.
The U.S. supplied the Mougahdine(ok, its late and I'm not gonna go look up how to spell it) who were the fighters in the north. The very same men that we supplied, helped us in our fight against Bin Laden and provided much needed intellegence
who supplys the arms dealer *beep* geez
shareI think you should see what the US did in Afghanistan in 1987 ;)
(They armed the Afghanies versus the Russians.)
Who are you fighting now?
"...it is not the world or US that is evil, the arms dealers are the evil ones."
You missed it. In the text shown at the end:
"THIS FILM IS BASED ON ACTUAL EVENTS
WHILE PRIVATE GUNRUNNERS CONTINUE TO THRIVE, THE WORLD'S BIGGEST
ARMS SUPPLIERS ARE THE U.S., U.K., RUSSIA, FRANCE AND CHINA
THEY ARE ALSO THE FIVE PERMANENT MEMBERS OF THE U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL"
Frequently arms dealers are working with the knowledge and (sometimes plausibly deniable) consent of those governments.
We've learned nothing from the mistakes of Charlie Wilson, Ollie North or Vietnam.
While the sensitive hand-wringers of the world cry over which governments abuse, torture and kill people, politicians continue to do what they do best, posture for votes. Foreign conflicts present an opportunity for governments to arm and/or finance the enemies of their enemies. The arms so acquired are frequently later used to kill citizens of the nations that sold/supplied them.
Guns supplied to the RVN have found their way to terrorists and drug cartels.
So have arms given to Contras in the Ollie North deals.
Charlie Wilson armed the Taliban.
A quote from the movie: "The first and most important rule of gun running is never get shot with your own merchandise."
Right now Viktor Bout is in jail in NYC.
Hillary Clinton lobbied the Thai government for his extradition.
Another quote from the movie: "I knew that just because they just needed me that day didn't mean that they wouldn't make me a scapegoat the next."
Right now Hillary Clinton wants to arm the Libyan rebels.
That's all really just due to our countries sheer size. If America was as small as hati would we export or import so much many weapons, guns or ammo? I highly doubt it since we wouldn't be a big countries unlike Russia, China or India.
This movie is not anti american at all. The movie's main point is being anti arms dealer and maybe anti-war to that extent. But until there's global peace there will always be a need for them. I am sure the US has given weapons away for other countries to do our dirty work. Such as what happened in charlie wilson's war, which more or less did happen like that.
and charlie wilson recieved a medal and was played by tom hanks for his role of a gun runner. only our involvment in the afghanastan war against russia might be more alligned to ian holms character than nick cages, in that we chose a side and wrapped our denial in a worthy cause.
i do believe the original posters high horse his giving him a nose bleed. lol
if it wasn't for my horse, i wouldn't have spent that year in college
I agree. We trained Bin Laden, we put the Shah into power, Iran-Contra, armed Saddam Hussein, trained the death squads of Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador before setting them against each other, we buy from Iran, we buy from China who supports the janjaweed in Darfur, we're best buds with Saudi Arabia, we even have lobbyists for dictators in our government.
shareI love the US so much and I'll protect the bashing of it any day of the week. But the country is not perfect and a lot of people here do bad things. It's the truth you gotta get used to it. This movie is awesome, one of my favorites and it is no way anti-American.
shareThis movie is awesome, one of my favorites and it is no way anti-American.
I also didn't think it was anti-American at all.
I believe it was more of anti-weapon-dealers...Hence, the movie was against the people and politicians who support arms-dealing.
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I think if this movie is anti-anything it's anti-people. Just people in general. If this movie has a message it's "people are a problem." The overall message I got from it is that you can't change you who you are, your nature is what it is. They give you this message several times throughout the movie, like the "Beware the Dog" conversation between Yuri and Vitali, and when Yuri talks about the vestigial lizard tail of a human fetus, and how he can't keep away from gun-running because it's in his nature to want to do it, and in the very last line of the movie--"Never go to war, especially against yourself."
The thing that makes this movie good is that it DOESN'T put the blame on any one group of people. It tells you the much more horrifying and difficult to accept truth, which is that people, per se, are a problem. For whatever the reason, people all over the world can't and won't stop killing each other. That's why we have guns.
This is not an easy thing to accept, so it's natural that most people will be like the poor child who made the original post on this thread--when confronted with a truth that doesn't fit our worldview, we panic and respond with automatic rejection, anger, hatred, hostility. We try to push it away, wailing "This is bull****! It's anti-American and I won't listen to it! It's going in the trash right now!! Waaahhh, somebody please agree with me and tell me it's all BS!!"
Sorry, kid. I guess somebody should've warned you this is a movie for grown-ups.
Poor guy. Terrible. Can't be that there is someone of another opinion. Sent them straight to hell!
shareYour ZOMG TeH AnTI AmeRICAN thoughts are ridiculous.
shareThis film has many anti-war sentiments in it, many of them directed at the U.S. But this film is not anti-american. It portrays a very realistic sense of what the world of weapons trading is like. It is an ugly world where governments and private gunners alike are selling weapons to people who do very bad things. You can call it unpatriotic all you want but you cannot avoid many of the true facts of this film. The U.S. is the largest weapon supplier in the world. We have supplied weapons to some very bad people in the past including Osama Bin Laden and the Late Saddamm Hussein. In the Afghan war of the 1980's we gave Osama bin Laden and his comrades literally billions of dollars and CIA training to kill soviets. In the Iran-Iraq war we sold weapons to Saddam as well as to Iran. Many of the weapons that Saddam used to commit genocide with were weapons we had sold him. Disagree and call me a traitor all you want, but the facts I have presented above are undisputed even by the U.S government when asked publically about such issues. This film much like the main protagonist, or antagonist depending on how you see it, it doesn't take sides or tell a pack of lies, it just tells us what happened
shareI am in the military and I am a conservative, but this movie is amazing! I don't believe the movie is anti-american. I believe the movie paint's a picture many have not seen, nor even know about. The movie was well acted and severely underrated in my book. How this movie did not win or get nominated for any awards is a travesty. Andrew Niccol is easily one of the top screen writers in Hollywood these days. The Truman Show, Gattaca, and The Lord of War are all firm fixtures in my top 20 movies. All of his movies cause you think and stay with you long after you have viewed the movies.
If you haven't seen this film, please watch it. I have seen this film 4 times already, and each time I see it, I enjoy it more.
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This film has alot of truths to it. But just because the U.S. is involved in many of the issues covered, does not make America a filthy country. The actions done in the film are done withtout consent from the public and is done in secret so the American people and most people in general most people never know about it. Those actions are taken by a small part of a very large country so don't go hating all American for the actions taken by less than 100 people.
shareI am so shocked by this posting, shame on you Jules.
What we have here is a great movie with a message that isn't 'star spangled' (for once).
Yes, it is policial.
Yes, it is well written and I'm sure written with the best intensions.
BUT having just watched it I am confused by it's intentions...
though not to the point that I accuse 'U.S.of A' of being 'country hoppin' cowboy'(s).
Come on Jules...they're not all that bad...are they?
Maybe the people aren't. But Bush sure as hell is.
shareyou have a right to state your opinion, but please refrain from calling this country filthy and calling Americans country hoppin cowboys, where ever your from, I'm sure I could find plenty of things to say about what indiscretions your government has committed.
shareThey just arent as filthy as the ones your country has commited you filthy cowboy Yank :)
shareI strongly agree with your points djmark99, but I also feel that the movie does present an anti-gun message to most viewers. I'm not saying I agree with the anti-gun message, but I bet a lot of people changed their views on the Second Amendment due to this film which is unfortunate.
http://imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=25710215
If Music be the food of love...Play on - Shakespeare
I would like to add to jeanbed's post.
in the scene when valentine confronts yuri on the dirt highway, yuri says "i don't want people to die either. i just want them to buy my guns. i'd much rather prefer it if they shot all the bullets in the air."
i think that clearly promotes the anti-war policy; in a screwed up way, but it's still there.
I loved the soundtrack of this movie... absolutely Brilliant.
Heaven: A reason to believe in lies and Hell: A fear to disbelieve in the truth
Look man, Im normally right with people when it comes to the average anti-American bs that goes on, but this movie was far from "America is a evil empire!"
It was showing people what goes on behind the scenes and I liked that...a lot. People just need to realize that this kind of stuff happens every day....with every country, not just America.
Patroism is a bitch, huh?
shareyour film choices are an absolute and total disgrace
sharewhats so bad about having supplied Saddam in the past with weapons? I mean how did the USA know they were for a genocide and not for the Iran Iraq war? and Osama Bin Laden was fighting against the soviet union at the time the US gave him guns and stuff and The USA was the only country strong enough to fight the soviet union, if they hadnt taken part in foreign affairs then wouldnt the Soviet Union still be around. I personally rather live in the USA then USSR.
shareYou douchebag. Reagan continued sending weapons to Saddam even after it was already known that he was using chemical weapons in both Iran and in Iraqi Kurdistan. Look it up. The U.S even blocked the UN from condemning Iraq for its war crimes.
Lenin zhil, Lenin zhiv, Lenin budet zhit'!