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Zero Bland Thirty

Posted December 23rd, 2012 by Lesley Hazleton

After a mind-numbing two and a half  hours of Zero Dark Thirty last night, I came away with a single piece of information:  Jessica Chastain has amazing hair.

chastainThat red mane stays toss-worthily silky even in the deserts of Afghanistan.  The dust clouds raised by helicopters landing right in front of her can’t dull her plastic glossiness.  Nor can the sight and sounds of torture alter the uncanny blandness of her expression.

The movie’s much-talked-about scenes of torture are peculiarly sanitized:  shown, but not shown.  There is no real sense of agony or degradation.  The chief torturer’s lines are a bunch of clichés straight out of the Hollywood B-movie playbook.  And the effect of torture on both victim and perpetrator?  So far as this movie is concerned, non-existent.

And this is what’s being touted as some kind of breakthrough for women?  It’s hardly news that there are women CIA analysts, or women movie directors.  And after seeing the infamous photos of Private Lynddie England at Abu Ghraib in 2004, do you really want to join the chorus of “Wow, look, a woman torturer!”

Zero Dark Thirty is a movie with zero point of view.  It has no engagement with any of the political and ethical issues it indicates but never explores.  Despite its subject matter, it is, in the end, a movie as bland as its star.  Its “reality-TV” lens on the slow accretion of intelligence work is merely confusing.  And I suspect director Kathryn Bigelow knew this, interspersing moments of ham-fisted emoting to keep her audience from nodding off.

All of which raises the question of why this movie was made at all.  A question whose answer apparently lies in the swell of orchestral music toward the end, signaling American triumphalism.

But my reaction was more of a shrug.

“We” killed bin-Laden, true.  And…?

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File under: ugliness, US politics, war, women | Tagged: Tags: Afghanistan, Bin Laden, CIA, Jessica Chastain, Kathryn Bigelow, torture, Zero Dark Thirty | 2 Comments
  1. tamam Kahn says:
    December 25, 2012 at 1:00 pm

    One more thing, Lesley. The identification for the raid reportedly came from faking polio vaccines, and by doing so, obtained info on ObL. That allowed for the raid. The horrible consequence is that polio workers are being gunned down and many more people will get this disease in the Pakistani/Afgan area! The director had an opportunity to include this but did not mention it, I understand. What a lost opportunity! What a sad thing! Tamam

    • Lesley Hazleton says:
      December 25, 2012 at 4:17 pm

      There was one very brief scene — a few seconds — of a medical worker calling at the Islamabad house, and a voice-over from a CIA discussion saying, as best I can remember, “we tried using medical personnel, but that didn’t work.” (i.e., though the script didn’t make it clear, they didn’t manage to get DNA.) That last phrase — “that didn’t work” — certainly jarred like hell.

Sleaze

Posted May 27th, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

File this under Annals of Ugliness.  And have paper towels handy to wipe off the sleaze if you watch it.

It’s Dutch über-racist Geert Wilders at a ‘Christian’ megachurch in Nashville, TN, getting standing O’s for tripe like “Muhammad was a terrorist worse than Bin Laden ever was” and “If Jerusalem falls, Nashville falls.”  Which makes me think that if this is Nashville, its fall might be a thing much to be desired.  And that with friends like this, Israel needs no enemies.

Transcript follows, courtesy of Loonwatch:

[youtube=http://youtu.be/ToIBXT9U_Yo]

Geert Wilders: “Its Islam Stupid (raucous applause). We must stop the Islamization of our countries, more Islam means less freedom”…”And now, now Europe is looking slowly but gradually like Arabia”…”It was the land of our fathers, it is our land now, it is our values, our values are based on Christianity, Judaism and Humanism and not Islam, it is that simple (applause)”…”and I have a message for all those people who want to rob us from our freedoms, and my message is stay in your own country (loud applause)”…”we are not going to allow Islam to steal our country from us (applause)”…”if Jerusalem falls, Athens, Rome, Amsterdam and Nashville will fall therefore my point is we all are Israel (applause)”…”the only place where Christians are safe in the Middle East is that beautiful country called Israel (loud applause)”…”Make no mistake, please make no mistake, Islam is also coming to America, in fact Islam already is in America. America is facing a stealth jihad, the Islamic attempt to introduce Sharia’ law bit by bit”…”what we need my friends, what we need to turn the tide is a spirit of resistance, what we need I repeat it again is a spirit of resistance”…”we must repeat it over and over again, especially to our children, our Western values and culture based on Christianity and Judaism is better and superior to the Islamic culture (applause), and leaders who talk about immigration without mentioning Islam are blind (applause)”…”we must stop the immigration from non-Western countries and we must forbid the construction of new hate palaces called mosques (applause)”…”the press calls it an Arab spring, I call it unfortunately an Arab winter (applause), Islam and freedom, Islam and democracy are incompatible (applause)”…”the so called Prophet Muhammad was a terrorist worse than Bin Laden ever was (applause)”…”neutrality my friends, neutrality in the face of evil is evil itself (applause).”

I’d say that Wilders should stay in his own country, but that’s not fair to the Dutch.  So Harold Camping, where are you now that we need you?  Could you please arrange for this scumbag to be Raptured?

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File under: Christianity, Islam, ugliness | Tagged: Tags: Bin Laden, Cornerstone Church, Geert Wilders, Harold Camping, Islamophobia, Israel, Jerusalem, Muhammad, Nashville, racism | 3 Comments
  1. Rabeeh Zakaria says:
    May 27, 2011 at 1:23 pm

    A quick recipe for success:

    If you are a woman, having a Middle Eastern origin, then just write a fictitious book about the “crazy” muslim traditions and how suppressed you were.

    If you are a westerner then become a preacher: Twist reality and attach terrorism with Islam and attack a full nation… It’s also easy

    We Muslims are unfortunately the guilty ones. We have a very few “International” Muslim raw models (Hamza Yusuf is one).

    We need to show the world more how good Islamic teachings are and how lovely Islam is.

  2. AJ says:
    May 29, 2011 at 10:08 am

    This sickness and perversion may become mainstream….The fear is viable.

  3. Philip says:
    June 5, 2011 at 9:09 am

    It is past time that the United States passed laws against hate speech, Virtually all other western democracies have such laws. Free speech has limits even in American (Try calling for the assassination of the President and see who comes calling and who will stand up and defend your free speech). In Canada, it was felt necessary to warn Ann Coulter, when she came to Canada and spread her nutty ideas, that we have laws against hate speech, She of course, was outraged that we did not have “free speech” in Canada. I am glad we do not. Hate speech is just a form of libel against a group or an individual . I believe the United states has libel laws. Laws against hate speech would help to lower the tone of political and social discourse.

    It is a testament to the Dutch patience that they tolerate Wilders. Of course, he is being halled into court even in the Netherlands. He is dangerous. Germany learned its lesson. It has very strong laws against neo-Nazi hate speech,

Can We Please Go Home Now?

Posted May 2nd, 2011 by Lesley Hazleton

No exultation.  No victorious “mission accomplished.”  No jingoistic “Rah rah, USA USA.”   What a relief that Barack Hussein Obama is the president of the United States.

While students cheered wildly in front of the White House as though their team had just won a major football game, Obama’s announcement last night was characteristically calm and realistic:

Bin Laden’s death does not mark the end of our effort. There’s no doubt that Al Qaeda will continue to pursue attacks against us. We must –- and we will — remain vigilant at home and abroad.

Obama is clearly aware that the killing of Bin Laden is more a symbolic victory than anything.  “Emblematic” is the word being used.  Al Qaeda is a loose alliance, with no reliance on a single leader.   But the fact that this happened on Obama’s watch and on his orders is a huge shot in the arm for the voices of calm and reason in the United States.  And a brilliantly timed one.  Bin Laden’s death may finally give Obama the respect and authority he merits in Congress, especially since it has to be clear as of last night that he is all but assured of a second presidential term.

We need it.  The US is still reeling from the racist absurdities of the “birther” luantics (how many hours until they start demanding Bin Laden’s “long-form death certificate”?).  It’s still in deep recession.  It’s still enmeshed in Iraq, newly mired in Libya, and floundering in Afghanistan. And, as Steve Coll makes clear on The New Yorker blog, bamboozled in Pakistan, where Bin Laden was hiding out just a thousand feet from a major Pakistani military base, “effectively housed under Pakistani state control.”

So I know this is naive.  I know it’s not going to happen soon.  But really, all I can think right now is this:

Mr President, can we please get out of Iraq and Afghanistan and Libya?

Can we please go home now?

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File under: Middle East, US politics | Tagged: Tags: Afghanistan, Al Qaeda, Bin Laden, Iraq, Libya, Obama, Pakistan | 4 Comments
  1. AJ says:
    May 3, 2011 at 10:12 am

    Lez
    We hardly know
    This war on terror is principled or cost effective.
    One thing we know
    Al-Qaida is not into making the weapons and have no control over Arm Trafficking.
    These terrorists are getting enough resources to execute where they are allowed to execute i.e.Iraq, Iran and Pakistan.
    Although to them biggest culprit is Israel but thats where they are not allowed to execute.
    Amazingly soft targets like Dubai and Saudia and other Gulf puppets are nowhere in the list.
    Thought provoking question is when terrorists have no access to Banking system and money smuggling is also curtailed, how they get the finances and who chose their targets.
    My take is trillion dollars war was not needed in the first place…just cut their roots and access to arms and that was enough at mush less cost.
    Hopefully I am not in violation of allowed quota of words.

  2. Lesley Hazleton says:
    May 3, 2011 at 10:53 am

    So far as I know, two major financing sources are 1. opium, and 2. Saudi (partly in protection money?)

    • Shishir says:
      May 3, 2011 at 2:57 pm

      That may not be true. It is known that OBL lived and
      worked in Iran for some time, it’d be wrong to rule out money from Iran. In fact given the whole “nation of islam” thingy I’d be surprised if money wasn’t coming in from almost all Islamic states. The money that was being pumped in Pakistan and Afghanistan, some part of it either in form of technology transfer to Al-Queda or weapons or straight forward money, would also be contributing.

  3. AJ says:
    May 3, 2011 at 11:34 am

    Unfortunately both routs with our permission

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