Sent to me by Lizza Littlewort, in response to the Nick Ut pics further down the page:

I've spent some time recently looking at the transition from Westerns into war movies, and when I saw those incredible pictures by Nick Ut I was reminded of one of my favourite lines from my favourite anti-Vietnam-war movie, 'Full Metal Jacket' (see pic). So much of war-speak is about defending the women and children back home, and Paris plays a massive role in structuring domestic culture in America. She's the most visible protagonist in an enormous conservative backlash which seems to be taking women into a kind of schizophrenic X-rated version of the 1950's. One of the saddest features of this craze is not so much the sexual victimhood, but that it goes with a culture where women despise other women and become desperate for acceptance as 'one of the boys' in a spiralling absence of self which so reminds one of Paris's emptiness.
While on the subject of Stanley Kubrick's movie, I discovered in my recent movie-fest that 'Full Metal Jacket' is a direct response to John Wayne's pro-war movie 'The Green Berets'. This is probably something everyone gets told in Film Studies 101, but I stumbled across it by myself and it made me think about the media wars surrounding actual wars. Which brings us to the present and the horrible suspense we are caught in as America swivels its sulfurous sights towards its next victim, Iran. And what should emerge from Hollywood just at this moment but the most chillingly unambiguous pro-war movie since John Wayne, the 'historical drama' called '300'. I could no sooner actually watch a load of shit like this than watch Mel Gibson's Jesus Christorama, but here are some reviews which made me long for Stanley Kubrick to come back from the dead.

A Movie only a Spartan could Love by Dana Stevens

Go Tell the Spartans by Touraj Daryaee

Labels: 300, Lizza, Nick Ut, Stanley Kubrick