Movies
The Mossad was responsible for one of Squint Eastwood's sorriest films.
I shall explain.
The Mrs was poking around the Internet Movie Database, that unbelievably comprehensive and endlessly fascinating storage of arcane cinema fact and opinion, looking for some flicks to seek out and watch. She came across some vintage Clintage called Where Eagles Dare from 1968 co starring Richard Burton. Yeah, we'll probably see it, interesting though, it brought back memories of another Eastwood war outing about twenty years after that one was made.
Next month will be the 27th anniversary of a deadly day for american marines. On October 23 1983 a truck bomb blew up the lobby of the Beirut International Airport where the marines were housed and 300 military personnel were killed and injured. Two minutes later another truck blew up a building that was being used as a French barracks and killed 58 of those guys. Hezbollah was immediately blamed. That's the official story.
This is what I said about that incident, two and a half years ago:
"Lebanon is a small country that Israel has repeatedly invaded and destroyed. In 1982 it invaded Lebanon and massacred 30,000 civilians and had laid siege to Beirut, surrounding it to crush the city and slaughter many more. Under international pressure American, French and Italian peacekeepers arrived to escort around 14000 Palestine Liberation forces out of the city and the country, a action that enraged Ariel Sharon and the zionists. The Multinational Force in Lebanon therefore wasn't seen by the arabs as an antagonist, but was regarded as a buffer that stopped the barbarous Israeli onslaught. After the palestinians left, so did the peacekeepers.
But the Israelis didn't care for the interference in their invasion plans. Part of the agreement to let the PLO members evacuate was that their families would later join them after remaining safely in palestinian refugee camps. Instead the zionist butchers sent their Lebanese Christian Phalangist allies into the Sabra and Shatila camps to slaughter indescriminately. Thousands of innocents were murdered in an unholy massacre."
"Back came the international peacekeepers, a new MNF force of about 1400 marines with French paratroops and Italians. The marines were stationed at the Beirut airport.
The following year on October 23 suicide bombers in trucks drove into and blew up the marine barracks at the airport and also the French barracks in west Beirut. 299 soldiers were killed altogether.
As Wikipedia puts it "Responsibility for the two barracks blasts has not been definitely determined." But that wouldn't stop the US from subsequently declaring Hezbollah and it's sponsor Iran for the bombing. For years now that blame has been repeated over and over again just like in the Times article linked to above. No doubt Al Qaeda would be immediately blamed today.
The reasons for Israel to be behind the carnage are legion. The zionists have always been fond of false flag attacks, the let's-you-and-him-fight scenarios where they bomb a target and blame the patsies. They were and are quite capable of killing americans as evidenced by their vicious attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. The Israelis wanted the peacekeepers out of Lebanon which they considered their backyard; they didn't want interference in their plans. After the barracks blew up you would have thought Reagan would have gone medieval ballistic on the arabs in some face saving, righteous explosion but in fact aside from lobbing a few shells, nothing was done in retaliation. Also, after the bombing the marines probably recognized the real culprits when they refused Israeli medical assistance. Hezbollah has always denied responsibility for the barracks, as a matter of fact it didn't even exist (as a unified, cohesive group) until two years later in 1985."
There's a lot more but suffice it to say the Mossad facilitated the killing. It was a really black day for american prestige and the Reagan mob pretty much was taking a real beating for it. What to do? Why, invade a country, that's what.
Two days later on October 25, american forces invaded Grenada. No matter that it was part of the British commonwealth, over 7000 troops stormed the island, ostensibly because of political instability that endangere american students at St. George's School of Medicine on the island and a long runway being built at the airport. (With Cuban help, the horror) Both reasons being flat out lies of course. The students were "rescued" from the school's rooftops where they were drinking beer and watching the fireworks, and that runway along with new hotels were for increased tourism. But no matter, operation "Urgent Fury", it's actual name, served it's purpose to knock that icky marine carnage in Beirut off the front page. It was pretty much a cakewalk to overwhelm what little opposition there was but the invasion was balleyhooed as the end of the dreaded Vietnam syndrome doncha know. Hoo rah.
Which gets me to Squint's 1986 "Heartbreak Ridge". I like Eastwood, especially his later directorial efforts. This one, which he also directed, is ostensibly about those PR military theatrics on Grenada but continually gets sidetracked with cartoonish cardboard cutout characters and their bufoonish antics. It's a weird combination of scowling unpleasantness and predictable attempts at comedy, somewhat patterned after The Dirty Dozen but with a minimal amount of character development for the cutouts, with it all wrapped up in a really pathetic appeal to sloppy patriotism in the end. Over Grenada? The cavalier treatment of discipline with more than a little artistic license in this flick seems to have pissed off real life marines, judging by the comments section on IMDB. The fans of Heartbreak Ridge seem to be the viewers easily amused by the TV sitcom type witty insults and comebacks, with which this picture is overloaded.
The movie drags on too long with Eastwood's crusty veteran with his predictable battles wearing pretty thin. Why did he make this recycled drivel? It was the Reagan mob era with it's pretend flag waving jingoism, so maybe he was just going with the flow of the times. But when you base your efforts on a phony "war" that is itself based on a phony, false flag terror attack, you're going to have a hard time coming up with something that was worth all the trouble.
I shall explain.
The Mrs was poking around the Internet Movie Database, that unbelievably comprehensive and endlessly fascinating storage of arcane cinema fact and opinion, looking for some flicks to seek out and watch. She came across some vintage Clintage called Where Eagles Dare from 1968 co starring Richard Burton. Yeah, we'll probably see it, interesting though, it brought back memories of another Eastwood war outing about twenty years after that one was made.
Next month will be the 27th anniversary of a deadly day for american marines. On October 23 1983 a truck bomb blew up the lobby of the Beirut International Airport where the marines were housed and 300 military personnel were killed and injured. Two minutes later another truck blew up a building that was being used as a French barracks and killed 58 of those guys. Hezbollah was immediately blamed. That's the official story.
This is what I said about that incident, two and a half years ago:
"Lebanon is a small country that Israel has repeatedly invaded and destroyed. In 1982 it invaded Lebanon and massacred 30,000 civilians and had laid siege to Beirut, surrounding it to crush the city and slaughter many more. Under international pressure American, French and Italian peacekeepers arrived to escort around 14000 Palestine Liberation forces out of the city and the country, a action that enraged Ariel Sharon and the zionists. The Multinational Force in Lebanon therefore wasn't seen by the arabs as an antagonist, but was regarded as a buffer that stopped the barbarous Israeli onslaught. After the palestinians left, so did the peacekeepers.
But the Israelis didn't care for the interference in their invasion plans. Part of the agreement to let the PLO members evacuate was that their families would later join them after remaining safely in palestinian refugee camps. Instead the zionist butchers sent their Lebanese Christian Phalangist allies into the Sabra and Shatila camps to slaughter indescriminately. Thousands of innocents were murdered in an unholy massacre."
"Back came the international peacekeepers, a new MNF force of about 1400 marines with French paratroops and Italians. The marines were stationed at the Beirut airport.
The following year on October 23 suicide bombers in trucks drove into and blew up the marine barracks at the airport and also the French barracks in west Beirut. 299 soldiers were killed altogether.
As Wikipedia puts it "Responsibility for the two barracks blasts has not been definitely determined." But that wouldn't stop the US from subsequently declaring Hezbollah and it's sponsor Iran for the bombing. For years now that blame has been repeated over and over again just like in the Times article linked to above. No doubt Al Qaeda would be immediately blamed today.
The reasons for Israel to be behind the carnage are legion. The zionists have always been fond of false flag attacks, the let's-you-and-him-fight scenarios where they bomb a target and blame the patsies. They were and are quite capable of killing americans as evidenced by their vicious attack on the USS Liberty in 1967. The Israelis wanted the peacekeepers out of Lebanon which they considered their backyard; they didn't want interference in their plans. After the barracks blew up you would have thought Reagan would have gone medieval ballistic on the arabs in some face saving, righteous explosion but in fact aside from lobbing a few shells, nothing was done in retaliation. Also, after the bombing the marines probably recognized the real culprits when they refused Israeli medical assistance. Hezbollah has always denied responsibility for the barracks, as a matter of fact it didn't even exist (as a unified, cohesive group) until two years later in 1985."
There's a lot more but suffice it to say the Mossad facilitated the killing. It was a really black day for american prestige and the Reagan mob pretty much was taking a real beating for it. What to do? Why, invade a country, that's what.
Two days later on October 25, american forces invaded Grenada. No matter that it was part of the British commonwealth, over 7000 troops stormed the island, ostensibly because of political instability that endangere american students at St. George's School of Medicine on the island and a long runway being built at the airport. (With Cuban help, the horror) Both reasons being flat out lies of course. The students were "rescued" from the school's rooftops where they were drinking beer and watching the fireworks, and that runway along with new hotels were for increased tourism. But no matter, operation "Urgent Fury", it's actual name, served it's purpose to knock that icky marine carnage in Beirut off the front page. It was pretty much a cakewalk to overwhelm what little opposition there was but the invasion was balleyhooed as the end of the dreaded Vietnam syndrome doncha know. Hoo rah.
Which gets me to Squint's 1986 "Heartbreak Ridge". I like Eastwood, especially his later directorial efforts. This one, which he also directed, is ostensibly about those PR military theatrics on Grenada but continually gets sidetracked with cartoonish cardboard cutout characters and their bufoonish antics. It's a weird combination of scowling unpleasantness and predictable attempts at comedy, somewhat patterned after The Dirty Dozen but with a minimal amount of character development for the cutouts, with it all wrapped up in a really pathetic appeal to sloppy patriotism in the end. Over Grenada? The cavalier treatment of discipline with more than a little artistic license in this flick seems to have pissed off real life marines, judging by the comments section on IMDB. The fans of Heartbreak Ridge seem to be the viewers easily amused by the TV sitcom type witty insults and comebacks, with which this picture is overloaded.
The movie drags on too long with Eastwood's crusty veteran with his predictable battles wearing pretty thin. Why did he make this recycled drivel? It was the Reagan mob era with it's pretend flag waving jingoism, so maybe he was just going with the flow of the times. But when you base your efforts on a phony "war" that is itself based on a phony, false flag terror attack, you're going to have a hard time coming up with something that was worth all the trouble.
posted by nolocontendere at 6:38 PM
2 Comments:
2 noteworthy points about "Heartbreak Ridge":
1. It was indirectly related to the "war on drugs" as the enemy was also suggested to be involved with "illegal drugs and arms dealing" which, of course, somehow had an evil nasty effect upon every American kid at that time.
2. Eastwood's "little brother" subordinate, in this case, was a brown-skinned Latino-American who needed to learn to respect big-brother and learn his ways more to be a better robot fighting for the "American Way".
My point is, "Heartbreak Ridge", I believe, was much more about the "war on drugs" which had been escalated during Reagan's term than anything else, even if they were still killing commies in South America. Of course, it also made the connection between "socialists" and drug-dealers, an exaggerated lie which helped Reagan also destroy many worker's unions.
Btw, I was in USAF basic training in Lackland, Tx at the time of the Beirut FF and heard absolutely nothing about it until years later. My poor Catholic hardliner mother was so dumbed-down by the propaganda, she no doubt bought into the Zionist Jewish lies and blamed it on Muslims (as did many such Americans). I was homeless in the mid-80s, out in the cold, and really just too busy surviving to know much about anything at that time.
That's an interesting take on it and considering the times really does have merit.
In any event, Squint really lost his way with this movie, going to extreme with his hard bitten veteran, pretending the Grenada invasion had merit enough to be put in a film, appealing to the bullshit political sentiments of the era. His career showing "man out of his era" from Harry Calahan to "In the line of Fire" to "Gran Torino" went over the top with HR, someone should have been tapping him on the shoulder telling him to cool it.
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