MovieChat Forums > American Soldiers (2006) Discussion > What's with the hate?

What's with the hate?

posted 16 years ago by flashmalmquist
9 replies | jump to latest

I understand the movie was very low budget, therefore I judge it less harshly.

However, either people have rated it so low because they are against the War in Iraq and misunderstood the whole purpose of the movie, or your are for the War and you got the point.

Personally, I found this movie to be no gem. However, I recognized it was working off a poor budget and took from it the overall theme that is: The fighting in Iraq is doing nothing but bad things. People are dieing for the sole reason of death. The movie was not a pro war movie in any way. I truse most of you saw that.

But honestly a 2.3? (The Marine got a 4.4, and it was horrendous!)
"There's nothing you can do that can't be done. There's nothing you can sing that can't be sung."

[–] jsl_ 16 years ago

I think the main reason for the (well deserved) low rating is, that this movie is basically shameless and disgusting propaganda. It's an insult to human intelligence.

[–] flashmalmquist 16 years ago

Propaganda in what way? As in pro-war propaganda?

"There's nothing you can do that can't be done. There's nothing you can sing that can't be sung."

[–] jsl_ 16 years ago

Propaganda as in "USA are the Good Guys!", "We invade this country and kill a lot of civilians because we want to do GOOD!", "Our heroic boys, fighting at the other side of the world to defend our homes and the free world!", etc... rubbish like that, you get the picture.

[–] R011DaveAAA 16 years ago

Propaganda as in "USA are the Good Guys!

That's certainly the truth, especially compared to people who use the developmentally delayed as suicide bombers attacking innocent civilians.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,,2251283,00.html

We invade this country and kill a lot of civilians because we want to do GOOD!

Actually, US forces have taken great care not to accidentally kill a lot of civilians compared to what anyone else has done before. Contrast that to the people who deliberately murdered hundreds of thousands before the invasion and who continue to kill thousands more now - far more than tthe US does inadvertently.

Our heroic boys, fighting at the other side of the world to defend our homes and the free world!

True again. There is massive media coverage given to a few criminal incidents, and next to none of the professionalism, bravery, and outright heroism shown by the overwhelming majority of US troops. I'm sure far more people know of Lyddie England of Abu Graibh infamy compared to Jason Dunham or Paul Smith.

From the spoilers here, it seems we won't see any of that in this film. We see instead a distorted and negative view of US forces in action.

[–] flashmalmquist 16 years ago

So I guess no one else noticed the STRONG anti war themes?

Like the mexican guy...saying why are we even here and such?

Or the last quote? Something to the effect of "We shouldn't send our soldiers anywhere unless it's completely necessary."

The message I got out of it is: It's a terrible war, our soldiers don't want to be there, and it's not necessary to be there. Maybe I just looked too far into it.

[–] tvashtar2919 16 years ago

I was prepared for a little bit of propaganda. Both sides can find a few lines to support there points. While knowing little about the story, I inferred by the title and the description, that it was real. It was going to be shown in a documentary style or portraying actual events. I believe what we ended up with is a few facts, such as the death of real soldiers and some battles. Everything else was a lame script, which didn't even come close to looking believable. The Lifetime channel does better work than this every week. None of the actors talked like real people under any peaceful or war like conditions. All we were missing was a laugh track for the bad one liners the actors had to say. Major disappointment all the way around.

[–] So_In_Love 16 years ago

I definately agree with you there.

But my opinion on the movie was not based on the propaganda side of the war, my opinion is based on the terrible acting and the bad writing.

The actors just don't sound real! I mean, some of the kids on the old Nickelodeon shows can pull off a more realistic war movie than these guys!

I am definately an advocate for the United States, I plan to attend a military college and go to the Naval Academy or enlist. I don't get easily tied up into the "news" about the war. They try so much to brainwash the public of the bad things in the war, I can't help but ignore it because I know the people that are out there are doing a lot of good for the civilains, did any of you know that they do assist the people they've shot? I thought it was stupid to do, but they do-do it.

But this movie, I have to say is the third worst movie I have ever seen, the #1 being All In.

Always an active duty Jr. American Gladiator!

[–] user-19604 16 years ago

I hate to sound repetitive, but if you set your mind to make a project, and it turns out tiny things like actually filming this in a desert, or getting actual "iraqi" looking actors that speak arabic, or employing someone to write a script that doesn't insult even the dumbest of movie goer's intellects (or lackthereof), would cost more than all the investors you'll ever meet would ever be able to afford... THEN DON'T DO THE PROJECT. The filmmakers sold themselves short here, if they had something "greater" in mind. There's no going around that fact with any excuse you guys make. So basically, to answer you, that's how you get hated my friend, by simply making pure cheese, especially about such a sore topic. I can't even blame the actors, the film was just poorly executed, blame it on whatever you want, just don't disillusion yourself into calling this a "GREAT" film or wondering why people give it 2 stars.

Just as a movie goer, taking my filmmaker hat off for a moment, I'm telling you, no one in their right mind could ever believe ALL of this happening to one unit in the given time frame... AND they had time to put a stop to torture! How heroic, how cheeseball is more like it. I can break out a ton of technical film words, but Cheese and Cheeseball best describe this film.

"God Damnit sarge"
Lol...

[–] cinema_forever19 16 years ago

Quote: "The message I got out of it is: It's a terrible war, our soldiers don't want to be there, and it's not necessary to be there. Maybe I just looked too far into it."

I disagree to that message. I think most of our soldiers, if not all of them, wants to be over there. I've seen many of our troops on TV (like KERA) that showed a lot of courage. They want to defend our country. Does people not remember 9/11? That's suppose to be the reason why we're over there. We would have been attacked again if it wasn't for our troops going over there and fighting.

Yes, I've heard people saying things like; our troops are murdering innocent people in cold blood, but I pray that not to be true. I pray that it's a complete lie made up by the media to make Bush look bad. For some reason, people seem to hate President Bush, and blame him for everything. But I believe he's the reason why our country has been safe since 9/11. Hopefully McCain will be an even better President anyway.