It seems like the Film's title is very different from the content of the film. The film tries to portray a conniving schemer trying to suck dry all these sympathetic Americans, but the title "Operation Filmmaker" says it all.
It is parallel to "Operation Iraqi Freedom", which even in the most sympathetic interpretation, is nothing more than stuffing our values and our way of doing things into the Iraqi's throat, be it "democracy" or "free market". Historically, it is more like much of the other Operations around the world, where we would bulldoze in and do what we want, and when our goal has been accomplished, abandon the population and let it pick up the mess.
This is exactly what happened here, with the Hollywood gang doing something that will make them feel good, tell Muthana that "we are doing you a favor", but when it becomes more of a burden, abandon him completely. Instead of helping him on the way of the ropes, they tell the camera how he should be doing major ass kissing. Instead of helping him with his visa before it expires, they berate him for not kissing up to everyone for that favor. From observation, I think that the turning point from the Muthana that didn't know how to get things done (remember, his mom did everything back home) to the Muthana that knew the only way to get it done, which was to extract favors from people.
Kouross Esmaeli, the man from MTV that discovered him, summed it up best when he describes Muthana as seeing his dependents having other ulterior motives (making the film and making alot of $$) and he cannot trust those people. Sounds familiar? We go into Iraq for some other reason and once there, we tell the Iraqi people there that we are there to liberate them.
As Colin Powell once said, "You break it, you own it". But apparently not even the liberals in Hollywood practices what they believe.
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UncleBobMartin
15 years ago
Yes the Pottery Barn rule -- that's the reason everyone felt guilty and responsible, which led to undeserved resentment for the kid.
I'd have guessed younger than 25, by that age I was startiing to clean up the mess. But it's more of a developmental thing than strictly age.
The many metaphoric references to the war were not lost on me, which means, I suppose, that these Hollywood liberals did learn something (at least some of them did).
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lingmeister
15 years ago
"Yes the Pottery Barn rule -- that's the reason everyone felt guilty and responsible, which led to undeserved resentment for the kid."
Pottery Barn rule is you break it, you pay for it. Not you break it, you try to glue it together, and if that doesn't work, just throw it in the garbage, feeling bad about it. That is exactly the way everybody acted. Paying for it means paying to completion.
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spifff-1
15 years ago
"It seems like the Film's title is very different from the content of the film. The film tries to portray a conniving schemer trying to suck dry all these sympathetic Americans, but the title "Operation Filmmaker" says it all. "
The film doesn't try to do any such thing. Muthana did. Or, rather, didn't do much of anything to justify the faith and confidence others placed in him. Unless Nina Davenport has a drawer of unused footage somewhere with all the accolades Muthana was receiving, I don't see your point. Couldn't you tell how genuinely disappointed practically everyone was with his poor performance?
It's not about "we are doing you a favor", as you say. It's about "we have given you this incredibly opportunity that YOU said YOU wanted and we now expect you to make an effort." Liev and company had plenty of their own work to do, but went out of there way to accomodate him. (The woman, for instance, who let him try his hand at editing the video for the wrap party. Guess who had to finish it when time was running out?)
The metaphor with the war is overplayed, I think. Muthana wasn't pressed into servitude. This doc is about a very immature young individual who was not ready to make a difference in his own life. Think about how many people in Iraq even younger than he are proving far more productive and courageous.
The fault of all these sympathetic Americans, as you call them, was that they picked the wrong person to help.
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sadie_001
15 years ago
At first, I did feel for Muthana.. His first job was in an American movie set, he is a lone Iraqi, who never left Iraq, doesn't know American values. Hollywood is the hardest industry to work for for any beginner.
The sh=t hit the fan when he constantly complain about his position. Not that he hated the position (who likes making coffee for a manager) and asking favors from his benefactors. Its funny how he refered to these favors as "small". Help with getting visa, with film equipment (probably worth more than some peoples salaries), with money to live by (like he wasn't getting paid working). The film crew did care about him in the beginning because they tried to talk to him, they tried to give him a projects. If you were an intern in a movie set, you are lucky if the managers tried to even acknowledge you or even give you the opportunity to do one project. When given that one project, it was upsetting that he delayed on it just to party.. You can;t blame Liev and others for giving up on him. He did not give them a reason not to. If he had worked 110% percent each day on the set, been truthful since day 1, plan ahead (learn on the visa procedures, started saving money), lower his ego and stop asking favors, then they would have given him a favor..
I am a daughter from a Peruvian immigrant. When my parents came here, they came with nothing with just the clothes on their backs. Yes, they had such a culture shock. They knew no english. I spoke no english too. They made mistakes on the way but they kept to their toes. They worked their a=- off, pushed themselves to learn english, and lower their ego. Sometimes you got to bend down and get dirty before any opportunity knocks.Even with a scholarship, I worked my a-- off.
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spifff-1
15 years ago
Bravo to you and your family, Sadie. These are the kind of immigrant stories people love to hear. Opportunity does not translate into "gift" or "free ride" in any language I am aware of. My grandparents came to the U.S. with very little in their pockets and no knowledge of English as well. Needless to say, they were too busy to complain much...
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nunquam
15 years ago
I think the difference between your parents and Muthana is that they came to the States as immigrants (sounds like they came as a couple), armed with hope and humble expectations, as many millions have done before them.
But Muthana was individually chosen for a specific purpose by a famous Hollywood actor-director and a producer...and they repeatedly made this point clear to him whenever cameras were around ("Isn't this a great opportunity we've given you?! Aren't you grateful?!") These wealthy and famous people lavished him with praise, focused a lot of attention upon him (apparently for their own self-aggrandizement), but also had high expectations upon him and didn't seem to exactly explain what they expected of him. That's a very different situation.
And when he didn't meet those expectations, they turned on him. He seemed to be under the impression that choosing him, they were acknowledging him as a burgeoning filmmaker and were going to teach him to become a full-fledged one...but whenever the filming started on the set, they sent him to make copies and fetch coffee, and then treated him as ungrateful when he questioned this or expressed dissatisfaction.
Even when they had him do something connected with the film - making the "gag reel" - I have to wonder how clear they were explaining what a "gag reel" is, and how to use the editing software. Programs like Final Cut aren't that intuitive and take some time to learn...certainly more time than they gave him to complete the gag reel.
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lingmeister
15 years ago
"...asking favors from his benefactors. Its funny how he refered to these favors as "small". Help with getting visa, with film equipment (probably worth more than some peoples salaries), with money to live by (like he wasn't getting paid working)."
If you noticed in the film, he did not ask for any favors from anyone initially. It was only after he was asked about his visa status by one of the hollywood guy and he said it is expiring soon, then the hollywood person saying to him, he can't just expect it to be renewed for him, he has to go around asking people to help him. That is when he found out the "American way", which apparently is to use all your connections to get things done. He exploited that to the max, but he was perfecting the way we do things here.
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folawande
15 years ago
Well, you have to take into account Muthana's background. He came from a rich politically connected family. He said that he never had to worry about much of anything in his life in Iraq. He isn't wise to the ways of the world Iraq, Czech, England or otherwise. Yes the filmmakers do look down at their nose on him in a patronizing way, but he is equally culpable for thinking that he can manipulate these peoples to help him. They weren't doing him any favors, These peoples country men invaded his country, ruined his life, and now he is stuck in some nether realm. Neither party knew what they were getting into. I hope Muthana the best, but he is going to have to start from scratch and work his way up. I wonder how many of us would reach having to start live over in another country. I've done it once with my family but it isn't easy. You have to swallow a lot of pride, and Muthana is a prideful man. On top of that he comes from a rich family where his whole life was planned and provided for by his parents, He is not the average Iraqi, He is just an Iraqi. Look at his roommate in london he is a man wise to the way of the world. Muthana is stunted, emotionally, and mentally. His swim in the deep-end of first world crap oughta wake him up.
Muthana will do well, these idiots should have been advising him in the first go rather than assuming that he knew exactly what to do and how to do it. There is blame to go around here. Iraqi are people first and foremost rather than victims, occupied people, extremists, patriots, and whatever.
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UncleBobMartin
15 years ago
"That is when he found out the 'American way,' which apparently is to use all your connections to get things done. He exploited that to the max, but he was perfecting the way we do things here."
His crime was that he lacked sophistication -- didn't know how to "finesse" his connections for more subtle exploitation.
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LaserDoug
12 years ago
Well, his first film job was actually working with a US film production being filmed in the Czech Republic. I know Prague has changed a lot since the big switch in 91, but it's not quite the culture shock of say ending up in New York or
Los Angeles. And I do agree with your view of this young man, he let down everyone that gave him a more than fair chance.
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lingmeister
15 years ago
The only effort the "Moral supramecist" did was tell some assistance to get the kid here, and once the kid is here, they could fill their materialistic souls with moral gratification.
What should have been a mentoring program (as in teaching someone from a different culture on how it's done here), it is presented as "this gift of opportunity is from the higher up", so you better use it or lose it.
Even in Bush's so called bringing democracy to Iraq, at least they taught the ruling elites there on the concept of democratic rule of law, multi-party election process and building ruling coalitions through compromise. If Bush's democracy building took the hollywood actor's process, it would have been, invade Iraq, tell them "we brought democracy to you" and then expect them to pick the pieces and perform "democracy". Not even the most idealistic would expect them to succeed.
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