Debbie Does the Movies 09.26.08

Leonard DiCrapio's (No Typo) , Director Ridley Scott's New Anti-American, Islamofascist Film; Devout Muslima Girlfriend

By Debbie Schlussel

You've probably already seen the TV trailers for "Body of Lies."

The movie debuts in theaters in a couple of weeks (October 10th), and at least they got the title right. I haven't screened it yet for review, but based on what I've read and based on the comments of writer/director Ridley Scott, that's what this movie is: a Body of Lies. A Body of anti-American, sympathize-with-the-terrorists Lies.

Ridley Scott is a talented director. He is the man behind one of my favorite movies, the great "Blade Runner," and a few other decent films.

But he is also the guy who made, "Kingdom of Heaven"--the Islamic propaganda film glorifying Saladin and lying about history.

Now, he's yet again decided that making great movies gives you leeway to make horribly anti-American ones to "make up for it":

Based on the novel by Washington Post correspondent David Ignatius, Lies tells the story of two CIA agents, played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Russell Crowe, searching for an Islamic terrorist. DiCaprio's character takes a more sympathetic worldview as he travels the Mideast; Crowe's character is a single-minded agent running the war from his laptop in suburban Washington, D.C.

Translation: Dicrapio's "more sympathetic worldview" means he loves Muslims and isn't so crazy about America--so he's the hero. Crowes' "single-mindedness" means that he actually gets it about Islam--so he's the bad guy.

Scott pulls few punches in the film, in terms of both action and polemics. In one scene, a terrorist torturing an American says, "Welcome to Guantanamo."

"Of course it's a political film," Scott says. Ignatius "has this great knowledge about what makes the Arab tick and what makes us tick, and how we misinterpret and underestimate each other."

Scott says he wanted to make a film that is as morally conflicted as his views about the Iraq war.

"Should we have gone in?" he says. "No, I don't think so. Are we going to get out soon? No. Now we're up to our necks. To leave now would be terrible."

[Scott] says that many of the earlier war-related films were "kind of jingoistic."

Those movies intimate "that we are right and they are wrong," Scott says. "No one's ever totally right or wrong. What makes a difference is there are a lot of reality checks in this film."

Wrong. Americans have shown--with the bombing of several such movies, "Lions for Lambs", "In the Valley of Elah", "Redacted", "Rendition", etc.--that they don't buy this moral equivalency BS.

So sad that Ridley Scott didn't get the message and has chosen to produce yet another anti-American, pro-Islamic terrorist film that will hopefully die at the box office.

If this movie--which sounds like a "Munich" clone--does succeed, it will probably be because of star power, not content and message.

FYI, in this movie, DiCrapio's love interest is a devout Muslim in a hijab (Muslim headscarf). I guess Hollywood is trying to tell us something about who is hot and what is sexy. Don't bother.

She is played by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani--who proudly lives in Iran and is very protective of her extremist country and its Shi'ite Islamic extremism:

Farahani had insisted in her contract on wearing the Islamic headscarf or a wig in the film in order to respect Iran's law, which requires every post-pubescent woman to cover hair and bodily contours in public.

In real life, DiCrapio's girlfriend is far-left Israeli model and draft-dodger Bar Rafaeli, who bragged about her draft-dodging.

Can't decide which of his girlfriends--on-screen or real-life--I dislike more.

Posted by Debbie at 11:50 AM | Comments (22) | Printer Friendly