Some comments on the Memorial Day Movie Marathon

My vacation last week consisted of dog-sitting at my parent's house down in Hollister. They have a big four bedroom house that they share with two small Lhasa Apse dogs, and when they head off someplace over a weekend, or vacation, they usually ask me to look after their dogs. It is usually a nice change of pace. The real drag for dog-sitting at my parent's place is that they have a very slow dial-up internet connection, of which I usually have trouble trying to connect into. So for the entire week, I was off the net.

(Insert Internet withdrawal joke here).

I was pretty much out of the news loop. The nice thing about this is that I can come back to this blog with a fresh eye on the issues, having pretty much avoiding watching Faux News during that week. The bad thing is that I have no idea what went on for that past week within the liberal and progressive blogs of which I get my news from. But during that week, I've had a few thoughts on the Memorial Day that I would like to share.

Memorial Day is a day where we Americans honor the sacrifices our soldiers make for our country. It is also the day where the cable stations play all their war movies. Yes, we're talking War Movie Marathon here. Both American Movie Classics (AMC) and Turner Classic Movies (TCM) had ramped up their war movie schedule for the Memorial Day Weekend. AMC had such films as The Enemy Below, To Hell and Back, A Bridge Too Far, The Great Escape, Von Ryan's Express, and even First Blood. Turner Classic Movies were playing From Here to Eternity, In Harm's Way, and The Longest Day. There were quite a few other classic war movies that both AMC and TCM were playing that I have forgotten, or didn't catch. The History Channel was pushing the Band of Brother's miniseries. I even saw Saving Private Ryan on one of the stations over the weekend (I think it was an ABC station). What really struck me over that Memorial Day weekend were that all the war movies that the television stations were playing, focused on the Second World War. I didn't see any war movies on TV that looked at the Korean War, Vietnam, the Persian Gulf War, or even some of the smaller conflicts that the U.S. was involved in, such as Panama or Grenada--AMC did play First Blood, and I'll get to that movie in a moment. It was WW II and WW II only for that weekend. Why is the Second World War so special?

The Second World War was the last great American war. America was brought into the war through the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941. It was the last war where Congress actually used their constitutional authority to declare war against Japan, after the Pearl Harbor attack, and then against Germany and Italy. It was the last war where the entire American society was mobilized to fight against the Axis powers—young men were drafted into the military regardless of money and class. Food, gasoline, rubber, and other commodities were rationed in American society, with the bulk of these products going to the military. Factories were converted from producing consumer goods to war goods. Taxes were raised and war bond rallies were held to pay for the war effort. The Second World War affected everyone in the United States—socially, economically, and politically. It was a war where the American public knew their goals and their mission—the unconditional surrender of Japan, Germany and Italy--and they could track the progress of the war with each battle, with each invasion. The American public could also track the progress of the war within their own factories as they mass produced thousands of tanks, ships, planes, guns, and bombs. And finally, the American public knew when they succeeded in accomplishing their war goals and mission as each Axis power unconditionally surrendered to the U.S. and Allied powers. These were the reasons why the Second World War was the last great American war.

So it is certainly interesting to see how the Bush administration has constantly tried to link the Second World War with their Great War on Terror, and subsequently, with the War in Iraq. The terrorist attacks on September 11 have been constantly compared to Pearl Harbor. The Bush White House has constantly compared Iraq’s Saddam Hussein with Germany’s Adolf Hitler. Even now, the comparison is shifting with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad being compared to Hitler, just as the U.S. is preparing for a military showdown with Iran over Iranian nuclear weapons development. The Bush administration has also constantly linked the War in Iraq with September 11th, just as America’s entry into the Second World War is linked to Pearl Harbor.

But there is more here. This constant propaganda from the White House has filtered down into the corporate media outlets. War movies have always played in cable and television stations during Memorial Day and Veterans Day, but it has been an eclectic mix of movies showing the various wars that Hollywood’s America has fought. For the Korean War, you might see Gregory Peck in Porkchop Hill, or even M*A*S*H. I will say for AMC's credit, they will show M*A*S*H on June 11th, and AMC was showing commercials of this upcoming movie during the Memorial Day weekend. There has been a whole host of movies for Vietnam, starting with Platoon, Good Morning Vietnam, The Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Born on the Fourth of July, Full Metal Jacket, The Green Berets, and more. You’ve got The Three Kings showing the First Gulf War, Heartbreak Ridge showing the U.S. invasion of Grenada, and even Blackhawk Down showing the fighting between U.S. Rangers and Somali fighters. None of these movies were shown on Memorial Day weekend. It was all about WW II. When you look at these movies with their backdrops in the later American wars, you can see that the soldiers in these films have to fight battles with other enemies, than the ones who are shooting at them. There are complex battles to be fought against post-traumatic stress, drug abuse, ethnic cleansing, disillusion, incompetence, arrogance—enemies that cannot be classified in simple black-and-white terms. In fact, in some of these movies, you can’t even tell who the enemy really is. In Casualties of War, is the real enemy of the film the Viet Cong, or the American soldiers who participated in the Mai Lai Massacre? There are complex social, political and moral issues that these later wars, and Hollywood, raised within the context of the films. And they are issues that still have not been resolved today.

But the Second World War was a simple war, at a simpler time. We knew who the enemy was. Adolf Hitler was the bad guy. All German soldiers were Nazi fanatics. All Japanese soldiers followed the samurai warrior’s code to the death. March to Berlin and Tokyo! Kill all enemy soldiers that stand in your way! Post Traumatic Stress Disorder—there’s no such thing! With its simple black-and-white terms, the Second World War movies make excellent propaganda tools to try and rally an eroding American public support for the War in Iraq. It was all about guns, bombs, and killing bad guys, knowing that victory was just around the corner. The American soldier was going to persevere and win the Iraq war—just as they had during WW II! The Bush White House has constantly linked its Great War on Terror with the Second World War. The corporate media blissfully follows along with this propaganda spin. That is what the Memorial Day Movie Marathon appeared to say during last weekend. It was a rallying call—Support the Troops! Support the Cause! Support the War! And Support the President!

It is an ironic linking of the Iraq War with the Second World War. In the Second World War, the entire country mobilized all its resources to fight against the Axis powers. As I’ve said, taxes were raised, commodities were rationed, a draft was instituted, and factories were converted from producing consumer goods to war goods. And what have we seen from this Bush administration? Taxes have been cut—especially for the rich elites and corporate businesses. There are no shortages of meat, gasoline, or sugar, as there was in the war years. The U.S. military is an all-volunteer force, rather than a force comprised of draftees. With a draft army, the government takes all young men—regardless of class or social status. With today’s U.S. military, I doubt that today’s young rich elites are willing to join the Army out of duty and patriotism—remember, Dick Cheney got five deferments to stay out of Vietnam, and President Bush got into the Texas Air National Guard to protect the U.S. homeland, and Texas, against possible Viet Cong air attacks. Finally, we’re not seeing a wholesale conversion of factories towards producing war goods, but rather American factories are closing down and outsourcing to low-wage countries of China for producing consumer goods. And the Bush White House and corporate media tells us that it is our patriotic duty to spend and consume cheap Chinese imported goods, sold through Wal Mart, as we fight to win the Great War on Terror. So while we are engaged in a war in Iraq, the American public back home has no sense of sacrifice for this war.

There was one anomaly. And that was AMC’s showing of First Blood. It is an interesting pick, since the film shows ex Green Beret John Rambo’s problems trying to fit into a post-Vietnam War era of American society, while being haunted by his own memories of the war. Rambo ends up fighting in his own little war against a small-town sheriff, who at first tried to push Rambo out of town and then jailed and mistreated him. In one sense, it is a film showing a simplified struggle between Vietnam War veterans, and an ordered American society that wishes to forget them. The film also introduces the issue of post-traumatic stress that soldiers face after experiencing combat, and the problems they have had after coming home to a country that refuses to acknowledge their sacrifices. It is a simplified movie to deal with these issues, considering that both The Deer Hunter and Coming Home delved into the issues of Vietnam War vets coming back to the U.S. in greater detail. The key here is that First Blood is a simplified movie to deal with post-traumatic stress among American war veterans. This simplification fits in nicely with the Second World War movies’ simplified messages of supporting the troops and ultimately supporting the Iraq War. It skims over the complexities that such stress may have against veterans, nor does it provide an opening to a dialog in how the U.S. can treat its traumatized veterans so that they can live a normal life. After pretty much ripping apart the small town, and the sheriff’s office, with his M-60 machine gun, John Rambo finally breaks down and cries in Colonel Trautman’s arms, just before he is led away by the police and Trautman. Just as Rambo was pushed away from the small town by the sheriff at the beginning of the movie, so Rambo is led away from the small town, and possibly to jail. In today’s war in Iraq, you really don’t hear much about the struggles or problems that American vets must confront, after coming back from Iraq. It is like the corporate media doesn’t really want to delve into this story. And of course, the Bush administration has been cutting veteran’s benefits as a means to balance the budget.

So what does this all mean? Perhaps the content programmers at AMC and TCM randomly picked these Second World War films for their Memorial Day Movie Marathon. And perhaps independent TV stations across the country decided to show some of the movies with their war backdrops in Korea, Vietnam, Grenada, and such. But still, the showing of these Second World War movies with their simplified themes, their black-and-white, good verses evil message, coincides nicely with the Bush administration’s continued insistence that we’re not only winning the war in Iraq, but also the Bush administration’s own simplified comparison of Iraq with the Second World War. And as more Americans become disillusioned with Iraq, it is going to become even more difficult for the Bush administration to rally public support for their war. If Second World War movies won’t help rally the American public towards the war in Iraq, what will?