Hollywood and the Military: Courting Controversy
Military.com - Mary McIntyre Brown
Oct 03, 2008
MILITARY HOLLYWOOD INSIDER
Controversy and politics abound in Hollywood proper and in the movie theatres these days and it shouldn’t surprise anyone since political campaigns are now in overdrive, but it’s also not surprising that depictions of the military are at the heart of much of the discourse. Tim Robbins’ portrayal of a soldier returning from Iraq in “The Lucky Ones” and “An American Carol,” David Zucker’s spoof of Michael Moore/homage to the troops are just a couple of the current films depicting the military, courting controversy and hoping for box office dollars.
KEVIN FARLEY TAKES ON MICHAEL MOORE…I MEAN “MALONE”
In “An American Carol” Kevin Farley (Chris Farley’s younger brother) plays Michael Malone, an anti-American documentary filmmaker who wants to abolish the Fourth of July. He is visited by the ghosts of General Patton (Kelsey Grammer), George Washington (Jon Voight) and John F. Kennedy (Chriss Anglin) who try to show him the true spirit of America.
MMB: I was so surprised by how much you look like Michael Moore.
KF: Wait a second, I'm not that fat!
MMB: No, no I mean with the hair and the glasses and the hat -- were you shocked when you first saw yourself in character?
KF: I was, you know, when I got the wig and the glasses on, I was a little freaked out because I saw a picture of me and I thought, ‘geez, I do look exactly like him,’ it's a little weird, man.
MMB: Great cast in this film -- Kelsey Grammer, Dennis Hopper, Jon Voight -- and of course, Paris Hilton...um, had you met her prior to this?
KF: Yeah I've met her before and she's really nice. I do like Paris. She did a great job in the movie, you know, and I tell you, Paris leads an exciting life compared to my life. So every time I see her, I always have to get updates on where the latest parties are because she's always in the know on that. I just feel like an ancient old man.
MMB: Having read some of the press coverage leading up to the release of “An American Carol” describing it as a “conservative” film “attacking liberals” – I was surprised that it didn’t feel mean-spirited…
KF: No, it's not mean-spirited at all and people say it's like a conservative film. But, honestly, it's just pro-troops and pro-America. I mean all this stuff is pretty -- you know, we support the troops; we believe that this country is a faith-based country. I don't know why people wouldn't agree with any of those things. I don't really look at it as a hard-hitting political film. I look at it as a very American film that's just real positive about the troops.
MMB: But it is a funny send-up of Michael Moore -- broad comedy so to speak...more than political diatribe.
KF: I think you'd be surprised though. The reason it’s getting this much attention is it's a different kind of film coming out because back in the John Wayne days all the troops in the movies were the good guys. There's been a lot lately about the troops being kind of the bad guys in a lot of films. So I think we're just different in that way. I think it's refreshing for people and I think they're hungry to see something like that coming out of Hollywood.
MMB: The movie is very pro-military.
KF: Yes and there's a scene near the end where everybody is having fun at a concert and in the concert audience there are soldiers from each war that we fought. And we start to realize that as we're having fun, we must always remember there are a lot of people that died for us to have this kind of fun.
MMB: Did you tell people you were working on the movie or did you keep it under wraps?
KF: Yeah, I told people we were working on it. I think that everyone was pretty happy that I got a nice part -- my friends were all like, 'geez, finally for Farley.' And I think that as far as the content, people are ready to just laugh. I think that's the number one thing that they'll go to the movie for is laughs-- you know, if your politics coincide with it, then all the better.
MMB: I'm guessing Michael Moore hasn't called to congratulate you on your portrayal of him?
KF: No I have not spoken with Michael Moore, but if I ever see him, I hope he has a sense of humor.
MMB: Everything is so political these days, no matter what you're talking about it, it seems to come around to politics. How do you navigate it?
KF: Well I was having conversations last night with some friends of mine and I think we just have to remind ourselves that there is free speech and free country and that the good thing about this country is that we can say whatever we want. Obviously if we start to call each other names, that's when we all have to draw the line. But there's no reason that we can't debate any kind of politics, but we always at the end of the day have to value our free speech more than anything. We have to keep in mind that this is a free country. And we're exercising our freedom of speech here.
MMB: You go through a lot of physical stuff in this film - you get your face stepped on many times, so many seemingly painful things happen to you -- you gave all to your art in those scenes!
KF: Well, I'll tell you, it was rough, at the end of the day I took an Epsom salt bath and recuperated and then I went in for the kill the next day. It was a long run for me, that's for sure.
MMB: When did you first want to make people laugh?
KF: Oh geez, I grew up in a funny family so it was early on that we started to make each other laugh. You know, I grew up with Chris my brother and so being in that household, I think it was just natural for us to make each other laugh. We were doing it since we were young, you know,
MMB: Did he pull any pranks on you?
KF: Oh I could write a book of the pranks he pulled on me! But, you know, some of them I probably can't print. But they were fun. He was a lot of fun as a brother and I miss him very much so, yeah he was a crack-up.
MMB: Every so often someone comes along that the world just embraces and it just must be an amazing gift to know that one of those people was your brother.
KF: Yeah, you know what, people still come up to me and they say they miss Chris and they say they love Chris and it always touches me because I was very close to him and I looked up to my brother a lot so it's nice to hear it from people. He was a beloved guy and he lived a really good life though it was short.
DAVID ZUCKER’S CONSERVATIVE REBELLION
David Zucker [“Airplane!”, “Top Secret”, “The Naked Gun”] has never been shy about stating his opinions and this interview is certainly no exception when it comes to his stances on politics, and as you can see in this interview, he went right to it from the get-go.
DZ: Did you see all those movies that came out [about Iraq]?
MMB: I think I’ve seen most of them.
DZ: And they were just horrible, huh? I never saw any of them.
MMB: It was an interesting mixture for sure over all.
DZ: Well 'Redacted' was supposed to be really…
Q: Yeah I couldn’t quite sit through the whole thing…
DZ: And 'Redacted' was about the soldiers who raped an Iraqi girl?
MMB: Sadly, yeah…
DZ: Well the question you ask after a movie like that - 'why out of hundreds of thousands of possible stories would they pick that story to tell?'
MMB: I guess it's what attracts the filmmaker?
DZ: Well it attracts them to do something to just tell something bad about the country I guess.
MMB: It's hard not to take it that way.
DZ: It just makes me so angry, I mean, it's embarrassing actually to be a part of Hollywood and to see this stuff happen.
MMB: I read a quote in an article that you had said 'Republican is the new gay' and you feel like you sort of have to hide it.
DZ: Well actually I got that quote from Kelsey Grammar, he said it. We were at a big dinner for a bunch of people in Hollywood who were starting to identify as Republican.
MMB: Sounds like a support group…
DZ: It's terrible, like what I encounter at our kids' school, which, I don't know, there may be three families who would identify as conservative, but they're so radically left, and wow they look at me like 'eek'.' It's another world in Hollywood. They're around the bend.
MMB: It's fascinating
DZ: Yeah, and to be in the middle of it-- but you know I can't say I don't enjoy a little bit being the bad boy -- maybe I've been that all my life and you know, I'm suspicious of running with the herd. I have a suspicion of that. You know, I'm a big fan of the Marx Brothers. And the Marx Brothers were subversive and they were anti and they were the kids that said 'hey, the emperor has no clothes' -- you know they said the unacceptable and they did the impermissible and I like that, I like being the naughty boy. So maybe this is the continuation of that.
MMB: It's your rebellion -- your conservative rebellion.
DZ: Oh it is, no question about it -- it's rebellion. And just this political correctness and this blind obedience and the conformity and the talk in the agencies and the boardrooms and the script meetings and the studio meetings -- the currency is you know 'Bush is an idiot' and they just talk as if everybody agrees with them. The thing is they don't talk to anybody else. It's a pretty insulated community. So I kind of look forward to the reaction to "An American Carol."
MMB: What have you heard so far from people who have seen it?
DZ: Not too many people have seen it but they all seem to have opinions about it. But mostly newspaper reviewers and a lot of the comments seem to be now "I liked the movie; I thought it was funny but I didn't like the politics." (LAUGHS) But I'll take that, it's fair.
MMB: For some reason it didn't hit me too hard as politics instead I took it as a funny send-up of Michael Moore.
DZ: Yeah and really I think we were pretty gentle with him, I mean; he's the hero of the movie. I think you come out really liking him.
MMB: In this movie, Kevin Farley looks so much like Michael Moore -- it's remarkable.
DZ: Kevin is so sweet. He's just a great guy, not actor-y at all. And the funny thing was our first meeting -- I met him with my co-writer and co-producer and we were saying how well we were really 'centrist,' without saying that we had become Republicans. We were saying that we were very much admiring of John F. Kennedy--he was a our hero and that was what the movie was celebrating John F. Kennedy--anything but saying we were Republicans 'cause I mean this is Hollywood -- we didn't want to scare him off or turn him off because I think there's a lot of fear in Hollywood about--you know, if you join that 10 per cent and fewer, who would admit it, who are on the right, you know, that you could endanger your career. And he said 'Yeah, I agree with that. That's okay. That's good.' And then we said 'Here read the script but don't show it to your agent' because we thought his agent would talk him out of it.
MMB: You’ve got a great cast for this film, Kelsey Grammer, Jon Voight…
DZ: I had a great opportunity through Gary Sinise who does a lot of shows for the troops. We have this little organization called "Friends of Abe" and that's a group of more centrist and right-leaning people -- a lot of former Democrats -- so we've been meeting for lunches and that's how I met Jon Voight. So I got to know him before I even mentioned to him that I was doing a movie. And then I gave him the script and he loved it. In fact, in true Voight style, he wrote some of his own dialogue and had a prosthetic nose made for himself. We were so lucky to have him. And I was surprised Kelsey wanted to play Patton, but the more I thought about it, the more the fit was perfect. He is a smart actor, as well as being flat-out funny. He knew where the jokes were. He's the only Patton I could ever imagine now.”
MMB: I was amazed at Jon Voight’s transformation as George Washington -- he kind of looks younger as well.
DZ: Yeah he really goes into these roles and has himself transformed -- he spent hours and hours in makeup and hair for the role and really became George Washington. Plus he really had a personal affinity for that character anyways. He has read a lot about George Washington.
MMB: And speaking of in depth researched acting, you have Paris Hilton in your film as well…
DZ: Yes. I know Simon Rex who was in 'Scary Movie 3" and '4" -- I used every possible contact I ever had in my life for this movie - that's how I got David Alan Grier who's a Democrat and of course Leslie Nielsen. But, Paris Hilton was a friend of Simon Rex and I said "Simon I really want you to be in this and bring Paris along" and he told her and she got all excited about it, you know, she had always loved my movies.
MMB: Do you think the scene with the ‘Christian terrorists’ will raise some eyebrows?
DZ: I mean it certainly will, it's out there, but it's something I thought was really important to say, you know, Christians are the only group that you are allowed to completely persecute now. It's outrageous and I got the idea for the scene when Myrna showed me this clip from The View where Rosie O-Donnell said 'The right-wing Christians are just as bad as radical Muslims' -- so I thought 'Ok, I've got to do that, I'm going to show just how evil Christians are.' And to hear Christians blamed for this – every time I go to an airport I'm angry, I've got to take off my shoes and this is the world that we live in and it's certainly not because of the Christians.
MMB: What's the most painful thing you've been able to make a joke about?
DZ: Well it's probably that 9-11 scene in “An American Carol” -- that was something that one of my co-writers, Myrna Sokoloff, said, 'We have to do this in the movie. We have to do this chapel scene where George Washington meets Michael Malone and takes him on this tour of the church where he prayed and the doors open to reveal the ruins of the World Trade Center' Hardly the stuff of comedy. So I said Myrna, ‘I'm not going to tell you flat out 'no' because I realize it could be a great scene, but the trick is how do I make this funny?’ We had to have a comedic ending to that scene or else what are we doing? We can't completely stop the movie for seriousness. But I think that's the scene I'm proudest of.
MMB: It’s interesting that in the film Michael Malone’s hero is JFK and you kind of turn that on its head, don’t you?
DZ: In the film, the main character is basically saying ‘Bah, humbug!’ to the Fourth of July, so he’s approached by the spirit of his hero, John F. Kennedy, who’s also my hero. I think people have different interpretations of JFK’s legacy. I love JFK and the things he stood for, which I believe to be a strong military and lower taxes and a strong America, and I think the current left has strayed away from that.
TIM ROBBINS IS ONE OF “THE LUCKY ONES”
Tim Robbins portrays Sgt. Fred Cheever, a National Guard Reservist returning from Iraq to find things have gone south in his marriage in “The Lucky Ones,” a film about three soldiers who end up on a cross-country road trip together. Robbins hopes that veterans will see and also like the film…
MMB: Your character is older than most soldier depictions in movies these days.
TR: Well, there’s a lot of them. There’s a lot of guys over there that are National Guard, in the Reserves, people that have been in that kind of situation for 20, 30 years, who are reactivated. So Cheever is one of them. He’s in his 40’s. There have been a lot of these guys that have been called up and put into hostile situations.
MMB: Throughout the movie your character encounters people thanking him for his service to the country. Have you talked to real soldiers about whether or not that happens to them?
TR: Yes. As a matter of fact, one of the vets I know said to me, “It really bugs me when they say, ‘Thank you for your service.’” I said, “Why?” He goes, “I don’t want to hear that. All I want to hear is, ‘Welcome home.’ And the other thing about ‘thank you for your service’ that really bugs me is that I feel like they’re saying it to absolve themselves of the guilt they feel for not serving.” And I thought that was a really interesting perspective. It was almost as if they felt that, by saying that, in this veteran’s mind, that was their service to the country. And he said, “That’s not enough.”
MMB: We don’t really see very much of the war itself in the movie—but do you think the movie has a point of view on it?
TR: That was not part of the equation here, for me. I’d rather people make up their own minds. How do you feel after you see this movie? Probably, people will see it from their own perspective. My main objective with this movie, though, was not to express an opinion or make a movie that’s a tract on war, but a movie that told a human story about three of the individuals who are faceless and nameless in our public perception right now. I wanted to give some three dimensional life to the character I’m playing so that when you think of the war, it’s not just a concept, that there are real people there and real lives being effected. And yes, there are veterans returning from that war to find that their wives are no longer with them. And there is betrayal like that happening on a large scale with the VA hospitals and the mental healthcare that’s available or not available to veterans returning home. Mainly, I wanted to make a film that a veteran would see and like.
MMB: There are films dealing with veterans coming back from war that are rather harsh, it’s nice to see one with some humor.
TR: Well, it’s difficult because those stories need to be told as well. And I’m not saying here that we shouldn’t be telling those stories. And I don’t know that, if you do a story about a veteran that’s damaged by the war, you have to be realistic. And you can’t shy away from that. That’s just not what I was interested in doing with this movie. For me, I wanted to make a movie that was accessible for a veteran to watch. And I’m sure there’s veterans that are -- There will be some that will say, “That’s not my experience.” Some might say that it is. Some might find it helpful. Right now, it feels like the country needs a comedy, a few comedies. I think that the people not going to see some of those Iraq movies, I would suggest that there’s a damaged psyche and the American public doesn’t want to be reminded of something that they might have been complicit in creating. And so it’s delicate times for this kind of material.
MMB: The director says he sees this movie as a ‘snapshot of America’ -- is it difficult to capture?
TR: Yes, but I think we see a kind of a cross section of the kinds of people that are out there. For the most part, most everyone is well intentioned in their response to these three soldiers. A couple of them are insensitive, but that’s reflective of the experience that the veterans I’ve talked to have been through. Certainly, we haven’t been asked, as a country, to think about this much, to really deal with the hundreds of thousands of people that have been through that experience and what we can do to help beyond just putting a magnet on our car. I think there is so much more that we can do. And one of the ways to begin that process is to open our hearts to what they’ve actually been through. And that was part of what was so attractive to me about this script was that it had such a level of compassion and humanity in it about the experience of coming home after having served.
MMB: You’ve talked to a lot of veterans. Did anything surprise you? Did you have an idea already of what military people are like?
TR: I haven’t had that since I did “Top Gun”. And for me, it was a great opportunity to come to understand the varied kind of person one finds in the military. It’s not all one kind of person. You’ve got hotheads. And you’ve got poets. So it’s about as diverse as any other cross section of the section. In fact, the Army is probably the most diverse organization in the country.
MMB: Have you found that films dealing with socially relevant issues have opened discussions?
TR: They always have. And that’s why they’re an important part of what we do. Think about “To Kill A Mockingbird”. That movie had a profound effect on the Civil Rights Movement.
MMB: Traveling across America is a great way to get an idea of what’s going on outside of the places you usually are. Did you see anything that surprised you?
TR: Well, one thing I’ve learned on the road is how mind numbing hotel rooms are. And so I tend to go out pretty much every night, either to a restaurant or to a club to hear music. And I’ve had great conversations all over the country when I did “The Lucky Ones,” particularly in regard to the situations we’re in domestically and overseas. And the insight of average Americans is a lot more progressive than you would think. I think we’ve been led into this false belief that there’s this yahoo redneck out there in any kind of majority. And it’s just not true. It’s not been my experience, although I’ve met some progressive rednecks that I liked very much. And even the ones that might disagree have a level of maturity in them and an idea of what it is to be an American to honor someone’s difference of opinion instead of trying to marginalize them or demonize them. I was very inspired by that trip in particular.
MMB: This film doesn’t necessarily get into the political differences of the war, but you do have a pivotal scene where its touched upon when your character is ask at a party what he’s doing over there in Iraq.
TR: Yeah, I liked that scene when I read it. And that line that I say is a line that I heard more than once. And they say, “What are you doing?” ‘Quite frankly, we’re just trying to survive.’ So when I read that, it really rang true to me. I’ve met some veterans that will get into it politically with you. They’re not afraid to express their opinion. In that circumstance in the movie, it just seemed -- I think, for the characters, it seemed inappropriate for the moment. And really, how do you -- These three people that are investment bankers expressing their opinion on what’s happening over in -- For most veteran’s ears, that’s kind of irrelevant.
MMB: You’re a lightning rod for people who disagree with some of the things you publicly say. Can you draw the line between yourself and the characters you play?
TR: That’s up to the media. They’ve been a very effective propagandist against people that choose to express their opinion. I think it’s no accident that a certain level of that intimidation has led to silence. And I think that’s part of the whole strategy of it. When someone does step out of the status quo and raise questions about an issue that people might not be thinking about, they tend to be attacked pretty vociferously and quickly. And that’s been happening for the last 20 years. And I think it’s resulted in less and less people doing that. I think the assumption or what they’d like you to believe is that it’s somehow going to hurt you. And maybe the propaganda is effective enough to affect you. I don’t know if that’s true or not. But I’m not going to change the way I live. I’m not going to be intimidated by a bunch of bullies or cowards. And the truth is that I’ve come to know some incredible artists that I don’t know I would’ve met if I had been someone that was quiet and talked about my shoes and my clothing and irrelevant things. And it’s -- I don’t think I ever would’ve met Robert Altman if I’d been one of those people. So there’s -- It really is a matter of the way words are used. When you define someone as a political person, when what they’re doing is more interested in storytelling and humanity, it affects the way people think. It does, in effect, marginalize you as someone who you’re not. And that’s frustrating.
PVT. RACHEL MCADAMS VISITS FT. CAMPBELL.
In “The Lucky Ones” Rachel McAdams plays Pvt. Colee Dunn, an injured soldier who is returning home on convalescent leave and on a mission of her own to return her boyfriend’s guitar to his family after he died saving her life.
Listen to Rachel McAdams talk about the sense of responsibility she felt about her portrayal:
Mary McIntyre Brown has interviewed practically every star in Hollywood. But, before Brown started chatting up the stars, she served in the US Army for 8 years as an Intelligence Analyst and Reporter.
Throughout it all Brown has always been a writer whether writing poems and short stories while on CQ duty when she was a soldier; or writing about the local art scene in the Panhandle of Texas; or music, television and movies in Hollywood. She takes the "Be All You Can Be" motto to heart and has worked as a consultant on news pieces and documentaries with major media organizations MTV, NPR, New York Times, ABC's 20-20. Her work can also be found in the National Gallery for Women in the Arts in Washington D.C.
