My shrink today was talking about how amphetamines gave Phillip K. Dick both paranoia and second sight, and maybe they tie into each other on some far out dimension. That got me thinking about films from the past that have turned out to be trenchant myths prefiguring our current debacle in Iraq. Here is a quick overview along with links to where these eerie similarities are discussed more in detail.
1. THE EXORCIST (1973)
Though most of the film will end up taking place in Washington DC, the beginning is set in Iraq, where an age-old evil is uncovered. The link between DC and Iraq seems to be one of unconsciousness vs. consciousness, with Iraq as the dark archaic dream world, whose animus shadow ego "erupts" into Washington via the vulnerable youth of the tellingly named Reagan (sic!). More on this here.
2. THE BIG LEBOWSKI (1998)
The relationship between the bumbling psychopath Walter, played John Goodman, and Washington foreign policy was very vague at the time -- though the original Gulf war is prominently mentioned. Still, in today's light, the suitcase of $$ can be read as a symbol for Weapons of Mass Destruction and you're off and running. More on this
here.
3. THE ATTACK OF THE CLONES (1999)
The nonexistent link between Iraq and 9/11 and the nonexistent Weapons of Mass Destruction are similar to the iffy reasons for war generated by the shady dealings between the Emperor (Bush) and Christopher Lee (representing the interests of the Saudis). Nothing like some well-timed terrorists to help a shady leader seize control of the senate and initiate a fascist dictatorship! To paraphrase Charles Foster Kane, imagine Bush as the Emperor saying to Christopher Lee, "you bring the terrorists (i.e. tell your brother Osama to get his ass in gear) and I'll bring the war."
4. MANDERLAY (2005)
Recent enough not to count as inordinately premonitive, this acidic meditation on American interventionism still gets mad props for its sheer reckless chutzpah and the fact that Von Trier predicts our current situation 2-3 years later with a dastardly "I told you so" calm. Deborah Cole writes about this one here
Any others you can think of?
Friday, June 08, 2007
Political Premonition in La Cinema
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10 comments:
How 'bout Verhoeven's STARSHIP TROOPERS predicting:
a) The initiation of a war on false pretenses (in a throwaway line we learn that we attacked the "bugs" first);
b) The Afghanistan conflict - deserts and caves;
c) The capture of Saddam in his "spider hole," foreshadowed in this film by capture of the "Brain Bug;" and
d) The U.S.'s tilt toward Nazi-fication following 9/11.
Cool post & comment. Re: STARSHIP TROOPERS: Don't forget the serendipitous linguistic similarity of "Arachnid" to "Iraqi" in Verhoeven's much-misunderstood masterpiece!
And the pathologically murderous impulses abounding: "Kill them! KILL THEM ALL!"
How could I have forgotten Starship Troopers?!?!?
That movie gets better with every viewing. I need to watch it again right now... or soon.
Perhaps we as humans have the ability to use art to perceive the future. It makes sense, since the best art comes from the unconscious, which is outside of space and time and can sense major events coming a mile away, like birds do when they know to run.
Oh another one, BRAZIL!
With its depiction of prison camps and mass trials for native-born American dissidents, Peter Watkins' Punishment Park -- which struck a good many as an outlandishly paranoid vision upon its non-release in 1971 -- has to be the most directly prescient film of its kind; a heated, almost frighteningly accurate glimpse, from thirty years distance, of our present Homeland Security cult (no wonder, despite its having been released on DVD 2 years ago, few have seen it)
on that note also (though it's not quite true... YET) there's the internment camping of all Arab-Americans in Denzel Washington and Bruce Willis movie THE SEIGE
Try to guess the film:
A: This is Afghanistan... Alexander the Great try to conquer this country... then Genghis Khan, then the British. Now Russia. But Afghan people fight hard, they never be defeated. Ancient enemy make prayer about these people... you wish to hear?
B: Um-hum.
A: Very good. It says, 'May God deliver us from the venom of the Cobra, teeth of the tiger, and the vengeance of the Afghan.' Understand what this means?
B: That you guys don't take any shit?
A: Yes... something like this.
Beau Geste (1939)
They weren't allowed to say "shit" in 1939, and them rooskies hadn't even got there yet.
No, I'm a have to guess "Domino."
nope...
It was in fact Rambo III. A film that has many prescient moments, and a film that can now be seen as holding many truths (as well as many lies).
I still say it was Beau Geste
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