Attention Entertainment Industry: Stop Portraying Us
Dear Decision Makers in the Entertainment Industry,
For years you have been portraying the American service member incorrectly in all that you do. I don't know why you continue to do so and have actors/actresses portraying military when there are tons of veteran, reserve, guard and active duty actors/actresses who would add authenticity to these roles and would prevent them from being portrayed incorrectly. There is just no possible way that someone can understand what it's like to be in the military without them ACTUALLY being in the military. It just can't be done. I don't care if you send your actor to nine weeks of boot camp or embed yourself with a unit for months at a time. A person changes when they sign their life away on that famous dotted line...an evolution happens inside a person...and you can never know what that evolution is like unless you've personally experienced it yourself.
Something happens to you when you sign up and decide to serve your country...when you take that step to serve a cause higher than your own. You know full well that there is a chance you are going to war...that you could die...but instead of giving in to that human desire for self-preservation and survival, you deliberately go against that instinct and sign up to potentially sacrifice your life for ANY cause the American people deem worthy of sending you, and others like you, to die for no matter your personal belief.
This is a profound event in a person's life and the only thing I could compare it to is being a woman, being disabled, or being any other ethnicity or race other than my own. There is no possible way for me to know what it's like to be a woman or black or a Native American or to be paralyzed from the waist down and that is what it is like for a service member. It might sound silly, but casting a woman AS a woman is a necessity because it adds authenticity to that role. Casting Native Americans as Native Americans adds authenticity to that role. Casting a person with disabilities in a person with disabilities role adds authenticity to that role. And finally, casting a military veteran or service member in a military role will authenticate that role because ONLY THEY KNOW WHAT IT IS LIKE.
This goes the same for music. Unless you've been there, don't put out a song about war or the service members. It is much too complicated. You either miss the entire point or make it seem like a movie. We never want to go to war and we fight purely out of an instinct to protect the men and women we serve with. The overwhelming emotions are not what they are commonly portrayed as and NOT every service member that goes over to Iraq and Afghanistan is a hero! A hero is someone who jumps on a grenade or pulls his buddies from a sure death or jumps out and saves innocent civilians from being killed. That is a hero. I am not a hero. I went to Iraq with my unit, went out and interacted with Iraqis every single day and did what I thought was right. Period. It is enough to say that I am a war veteran and even then I am not so sure I am, because I was never actually engaged in a firefight. These are all the complicated issues and thoughts in every single service member's mind and course through our veins. These types of emotions and feelings do however come out, expressed in our music or in our movies or in everyday life and conversation...but we are never asked about them or asked to share them with the public.
Instead we are portrayed on screens and on radios across the country by people who have no clue who or what we are. This is unfortunate because the talent does exist. I represent over 1,200 military musicians who, given the proper studio and backing, could blow the doors off the garbage that's on the radio today. It's just sad that some people would think that everyday Americans would rather hear from an actor PLAYING a soldier about the war, than the actual soldier fighting it. I hear Ryan Phillipe talk about the Stop Loss/Stop Movement Program and the effects it has on service members and I cringe. It's also sad that there is not ONE song from an actual service member that is playing on the radio today...not ONE. Not one song about him missing his family, his friend that was killed, being in a foreign land, being scared, his anxiety, fear, exhilaration, hope, feelings, or emotions...sadly...not one. Of course there are a lot of songs being made "dedicated" to the service members that talk about them being heroes and patriotism, because that's the current fad.
Ladies and gentlemen, we do exist. Please stop portraying us.
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I don't fully agree (Top Gun was never intended to be a war movie -- it was a chick flick for potential military-wives!), but I do 100% agree that Hollywood should show its support for our troops in such movies, and I thankyou for your sincerity (and for your service!).
BTW: Have you considered writing a script?
FYI: We hear next to nothing from those who have served.
I'd be very interested in an insider's view, particularly with regard to politics...
But Hollywood can only do so much...
Frankly, I would prefer to see John McCain do more to support our troops.
Why does he refuse to sign the new GI Bill?
Why the numerous votes against health care for veterans?
Why did he get so angry at a woman who devoted herself to help find POWs/MIAs?
I don't understand how an admiral's son (and grandson), seems to vote against the men and women who keep our Navy strong. Maybe somebody can explain it to me here, or perhaps I'll just wait for the movie...
Same reason bush doesn't like the new GI bill. That jerk off thinks that more educational benefits for enlistees will cause them to leave after their first term. It sickens me. If there was a stronger educational program in place when I was in (like the one that officers have in order to go to graduate school while still in) I would have stayed in.
Amazing that the pentagon can get back 2-3 RAND reports showing that education is the primary reason people enlist but they can't manage to convince congress to increase educational benefits.
I can barely write my own name! Haha...but seriously we have started soliciting scripts from military vets and service members after finally having enough of these subpar Iraq war movies! John McCain should support the new GI Bill.
A good post, but don't forget you need a good script that isn't a "blame America first" production.
ResidentChimp, you need a real life.
Why the prohibition on blame? Our country has done some things well, but we are guilty of a selfish and ignorant foreign policy in the Middle East. To say any country is all good or bad is not credible.
One of the things that makes humans unique is their ability to empathise. I'm not saying it is a perfect thing, but i think you should put more faith in people's ability to see through other's eyes.
I'm a vet myself 68-70 and sorry buddy, but I think your a little full of yourself. There is connections in this species we call humans and others can feel that pain, the fear, the loss to a point that they can understand. Some can't, studies show it, but the bell curve tells us most can. This just sounds to me to be a cry for attention, your generation of vets are getting the respect you deserve and the country wants to do the right thing, but this is over the top. The problem I see is that you don't know acting so you assume there are vets as good and that we want to pay to see them. Find real issues to write about and don't make vets sound like cry babies. As a vet, I'm a little ashamed of your outburst.
Jeez...calm down bro. You need to take a Valium. I'm just sick of terrible Iraq war movies that don't do the topic or the soldier justice. Maybe my beef is more with the directors and writers than the actors, but we are just having a conversation. No need to throw personal insults at me.
You are right, your grips should be focused on the writers and the producers. I don't like war movies either for the same reasons most vets don't, you cannot film reality very well in a format designed to entertain. When they get it right, I don't really want to go there cause you never forget and don't need any help at it. I think they do the best they can with so many motivations that must be included such as a profit motive to get anything done.
Let focus on what we can do for vets, my GI bill paid for all my college without a part time job.
THANK YOU. After a year in the Army, I found I could no longer watch war movies with a straight face. Old favorites like "Top Gun" made me cringe. The jingoistic crap I hear on the radio is only marginally worse than the bull**** protest music on the air these days.
But that's the thing about this war that enrages me: unlike the "Greatest Generation," which was almost entirely mobilized for war, only a very VERY small slice of America still knows what it's like to be in the service...and IMHO, that's a damn shame.
I'm with ya bro. I think only 1% have served in this war?...Am I right?
The numbers differ GREATLY across both geographic and economic parts of the country, but
pedro see your point, but you describe no specifics
Let's ignore for a moment this comical assertion that you have to be in the military to make movies about the military...
I was in the first Gulf War before I came to Hollywood (by way of Missouri where I grew up and went to college on the GI Bill). I have worked on military movies, and EVERY one of them had a military expert and others (including, yes, some cast and crew) who were military members advising those who weren't in the military.
How about you withhold your notion that Hollywood is filled with ignorant elites making general assertions and assumptions about the military, using cliche stereotypes - by not exercising your ignorant assumptions and cliche stereotypes regarding Hollywood.
to be fair, a good number of movies could have basically been written without those advisors and looked the same. Plenty of good movies get made about the military (Jarhead, A Few good Men (Not the paragon of accuracy but a great movie), Blackhawk Down, The Hunt for Red October (again, not an award for accuracy but an awesome flick), and so forth), but plenty of TERRIBLE movies get made.
I mean, how do you explain the dozens of movies where the military IS basically reduced to cliche, because they are a hell of a lot more common than the authentic ones.
This movie's "military expert" must have been subbed in from JROTC not to catch some of the mistakes in this one.
See what happens when you come to HuffPost as a vet? You get slammed from every angle.
One thing to be happy for, no one goes to these garbage movies and everyone of the Iraq movies is losing a ton of money. The American people have spoken out against these movies by never seeing them.
Let's ignore for a moment this comical assertion that you have to be in the military to make movies about the military...
I was in the first Gulf War before I came to Hollywood (by way of Missouri where I grew up and went to college on the GI Bill). I have worked on military movies, and EVERY one of them had a military expert and others (including, yes, some cast and crew) who were military members advising those who weren't in the military.
How about you withhold your notion that Hollywood is filled with ignorant elites making general assertions and assumptions about the military, using cliche stereotypes - by not exercising your ignorant assumptions and cliche stereotypes regarding Hollywood.
Go back to redstate. I'm a vet. I see some of those movies. Some of them are good. Some of them are bad.
That's not very nice BOfever. My post is not from all vets...just me bro. Also, people don't go to these movies because they suck..not because they are against the war. You paint HuffPost as some anti-vet venue? Dude, half the people in the military I know use HuffPost to get their news. The other half use Drudge. Surprise, surprise...vets are just like you! (Shock!) Oh my god what are you to do!
You heard it guys.
Let's string up Picasso, for the artist clearly overstepped his bounds with "Guernica" by depicting a traumatic historical event which he neither experienced nor witnessed first hand.
And what about depicting individuals out of different historical periods? For, I'm sure you could understand the difficulty in recruiting people from the Victorian Era to star in the cinematic depiction of a Jane Austen novel, or possibly a re-enactment of the endless deliberations of our "founding fathers".
Granted, I agree in principle that filmmakers and screenwriters should do their research, and at least use the technical consultants who have been commissioned to address such potential inaccuracies in the first place. And inevitably, some Hollywood depictions are bound to be less accurate than others.
But this is clearly overcompensating for a dilemma which has persisted in Hollywood since the inception, and which ultimately pertains, not only to veterans, but a myriad of occupations and ethnic groups which only those possessing first hand experience in such roles could truly understand.
Besides. I reckon that the majority of you guys are far too busy to be starring in movies all the time.
I'm not. Why do you think I wrote the post? (hint, hint)
Clearly, the time out needed to compose a column on the huffington post hardly compares toward commiting oneself to a 12-week shooting schedule. Besides, the majority of career military types who became successful actors have retired and tend to be considerably older and thus more likely to portray the role of seasoned officers, while the availability of 18 and 19 year olds soldiers, upon which so many of these films tend to center upon, would be considerably lower.
Sorry, but I totally 100% disagree. The actor/director in making a film about the military do so in a dramatic fashion that will never be totally realistic... and that's OK. If I really wanted something more realistic I would probably watch a documentary, not a drama made in Hollywood. As long as they make every effort to be realistic, get the important stuff right, and don't make everyone into caricatures, I am fine with it.
And acting is difficult; even if you've been there/done that. Hitting your cues, remembering your lines, and putting forth emotion during a scene requires some talent; talent that not everyone will have. Sure, vets have done pics (one won a special Oscar for "The Best Years of Our Lives"), but mostly as extras.
Sorry, I would much prefer professional film makers to make a film, and professional war fighters to fight a war. Think the training films you see done by your MOPIC office with regulars compared with "Black Hawk Down". And if you have great concern with seeing the conflicting emotions of the average soldier realistically protrayed, feel free to write a screenplay...you never know.
BTW, though I am not a war vet, I am active duty and hit 20 years in Feb. Stay safe.
Thanks for your service. I totally agree. Maybe it's not the actors but the writers and directors I have beef with.
So, if the only way to correctly portray a service-person or any other person belonging to a group is to be a person belonging to that group, then that means that the only possible way to understand a person who belongs to a group is to also belong to that group, which means that it's impossible to expect that someone could possibly understand anything about the people who belong to that group from watching a movie or listening to a song, and therefore it is pointless to be concerned with who is doing the portraying, as the author has so clearly outlined for us that gaining understanding through these mediums is impossible.
...right?
Making movies or any kind of art doesn't necessarily mean that the best means of expression comes from an insider perspective, many times the most brazen depictions of humanity and it's various dalliances happen of an outside perspective. You are right, we cannot know what it's like to sign up for the Military--all we have are movies and tv shows and blogs and other media to get some idea of it--and other art. It's not important that all the details aren't exact, because it's more about an impression, a feeling, or a reaction. Who can watch these war movies and think that war is a good idea? For those of us on the outside, we don't need absolute realism, what we want is an artistic statement--like "Stand up for yourself and respect yourself and don't let the government pull a back-door draft on you." Some of the things our government is doing is wrong--and sometimes it's up to servicemembers to stand up to that--and sometimes it takes ART to get the point across, not cold facts. Movies like "Stop loss" are just part of the dialogue that we need to have to get to a point of clarity and sanity.
I know what it's like to never go to war, and it's a wonderful feeling. I'm not mad at anyone for portraying me in any way whatsoever.
See how we're different?
si, you're a coward, the writer is not
Let me start of by saying I am a civilian. I have friends that serve, but no immediate family. I thought it was a great article. That is why in someway, well I understand people against the war, I find it hard for them to be against something they never had a hand in. But, on the contrary someone might be in Iraq, and never leave the compound, well another might, thus having a different take on the war. I agree with the music piece, how can someone sing a line, "I have been there with the soldiers.." when they have not? (OK it was out of context, but I hope you can, as you have, see my point). Oh, and (sorry to add more fuel to the fire) I was sitting in my class, first day and the prof was ranting about how Arabs are portrayed in movies, and some kid mumbled against what she was saying. She said, excuse me, he said I have been to Iraq.. Well she goes on IN FRONT OF THE CLASS asking him about 9/11,&they comments about us being in Iraq!! That is basically how class was for the term. It was a western civ, but felt more like feminist liberal views of the 21st century American foreign policy.
What?
Because only a serial killer can understand what it's like to be a serial killer and only a wizard can understand what it's like to be a student at wizard school ...
Unlike serial killers or students at wizard schools, there are a lot of war veterans. Like it or not
they view the world through different eyes then those who never served. Just one more division
among our people that we are unable to mend.
perhaps there is a better analogy than a serial killer, eh?
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Posted April 3, 2008 | 08:23 PM (EST)