Debbie Schlussel: Another Schlussel Prediction Comes True: Clint Eastwood Favors Movie on "Great Stories" From Qaeda's Point of View; Admits He Falsely Defamed Troops
I predicted this, and it should be headline news. Dirty Harry's made the final plunge into the dark side.
Last year, when Clint Eastwood made "Letters From Iwo Jima"--a story of the Battle at Iwo Jima from the Japanese point of view, I noted two things. I pointed out the unfairness of portraying U.S. soldiers as shooting Japanese soldiers, who'd already surrendered. Frankly, I wondered if he could point to a real example of that. AND I predicted--sort of tongue in cheek, but also to make a point--that Eastwood's grandchildren would make a movie from Al-Qaeda's point of view:
[A] few brief--but patently unfair--scenes showing Americans shooting Japanese soldiers who'd already surrendered. There is no evidence anything like this ever happened, but the point is to make American soldiers look bad. And it does the trick. . . .I only hope that when Clint Eastwood's grandchildren, 60 or 70 years from now, make their movie "from Al-Qaeda's" point of view, it is equally boring and ineffective.
In a previous post on the movie over two years ago--when it was still being made--I also asked when Eastwood would make a movie from Qaeda's point of view:
The only question I have for Eastwood is this: When is his pro-Bin Laden/Atta "perspective" film coming out about what happened on 9/11? That's the logical progression of this outrageous "two morally equivalent sides to every story" BS that Eastwood is now pushing.
And in another review of "Letters," I noted:
[T]he brief scenes of American soldiers show them to be creepy murderers who kill Japanese soldiers in cold blood after they've already surrendered. This is Director Clint Eastwood's gift to the America that his given him so much--a huge slap in the face, after the first slap he already gave American Iwo Jima veterans with his specious, "Flags of Our Fathers," earlier this fall.
Well, sadly, now my words have been borne out on both counts (though Eastwood's grandchildren don't figure into the mix).
Last night, on ABC News' "Nightline," Clint Eastwood admitted that 1) he basically made up the part in the movie about American troops murdering Japanese soldiers who'd already surrendered. And he thinks it will be a good idea to do a movie from Al-Qaeda's point of view. When asked if there should be a movie made from the point of view of the Iraqi insurgents who've murdered our troops, Eastwood responded:
Sure. I'm sure there are some great stories there. Fifty years from now, they probably should make a movie like that. If I'm here . . . .
When asked, "Did American soldiers really shoot Japaneses soldiers who'd already surrendered, at point-blank range [as they do in "Letters from Iwo Jima"]?" Eastwood answered:
I'm sure that happens in every war.
In other words, he has no proof anything like that ever happened. He made it up. So, he resorts to the glittering generality about how that happens in all wars.
Keep this in mind the next time you see a movie directed by this liar and defamer of U.S. troops. Or better yet, skip his movies and rent "Dirty Harry" movies . . . when Eastwood was still proud to be an American.
Posted by Debbie on December 26, 2007 12:56 PM to Debbie Schlussel