Collateral Damage

The post-9/11 action/terrorism movie is now a genre all of its own. If this movie is interesting at all, it's through the prism of September 11, a day that changed culture as much as it did politics. Our perceptions of Black Hawk Down, Behind Enemy Lines, and now, Arnold Schwarzenegger's Collateral Damage are shaped - nearly haunted - by the World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks and the subsequent military operations in Afghanistan. Some movies - Black Hawk Down - are greatly enhanced by 9/11. Because it was true and well done, it hits us between the eyes. But for poor aging action-pioneer Schwarzenegger, whose movie was postponed for three months by his nervous studio, the opposite is true. This movie comes from another time, not enlivened by reality but diminished by it. Spoilage warning: plot discussed, not ending.

The plot is vintage Arnold. He plays firefighter Gordon Brewer, who is drawn into international terrorism when his wife and son are blown up in a bombing carried out by Claudio ("The Wolf") Perrini. In pre-9/11 movies, the U.S. is nearly as evil as the terrorists, as the perennial bumbling evil C.I.A./NSA secret agents do absolutely anything at all costs by any means to get their way -- just like the terrorists. At the moment, that plot line seems a dubious one. When Brewer figures out that the ever politically squishy U.S. government isn't going to catch the Wolf (to avoid ruffling the feathers of the Columbian government), he decides to do it himself, tracking the Wolf through Panama to the dense jungles of Columbia, where he spends as much time dodging evil U.S. agents as he does hiding from evil Columbian guerrillas.

The movie is full of the now vintage Schwarzeneggerian repertoire of narrow-eyed stares and clunky one liners and explosion after explosion. And let's face it, Arnold is no action adventure spring chicken. His face is lined, his visage distinctly middle-aged. We see him in relatively few action sequences, and he is undoubtedly keeping platoons of stunt men working, judging from the credits.

Watching the film, you can't help but identify with the helplessness of a man who sees his family blown to bits for no particular reason by murderous fanatics who use high-blown rhetoric to justify their butchery. I suppose there are lots of people who wish they could get their hands on Osama Bin Laden's throat.

What makes Black Hawk Down so jarring and effective a film is that it's about a real story. U.S. soldiers really did find themselves in a horrific shoot-out in Somalia, and really did behave heroically under awful pressure. These same soldiers are now crawling around the hills of Afghanistan, their cause clear and powerful. That movie is thus a terrific salute to ordinary people who have to take a deep measure of themselves in extraordinary situations.

But Schwarzenegger's clunky ham-handedness is diminished, not enhanced by reality. The movie is too long, the ending loopy. What was once an entertaining Hollywood cartoon figure now just seems a dinosaur, his sensibility outdated and irrelevant. Schwarzenegger has made some first-rate action stuff. His Terminator series was great (he's making another). He ought to ride off into the sunset while he still has his dignity and pride, and acknowledge that while he had a great ride, the reality of the world has finally overtaken him.

Comments

Re:I reckon

[EggplantMan]

Why is it that every Slashdotter who hates Jon Katz' opinion thinks that everyone else cares to hear his?

Re:Black Hawk Down

[lblack]

What an unabashed coward. An email? How about laying down your life in an all out struggle to get home alive to see your loved ones. What a pussy, what a wimp, what a disgrace to the human race.

Try laying down a line of fire to cover your buddy's ass as he scrambles for refuge. Try firing at everything that moves in an atempt to keep your own ass alive. Try listening to the lead ping off of everything around you while you pray to god you make it out in one piece.

Heroism? You want fucking heroism? Put yourself in the gunsights of the enemy then tell me about heroism.


Oh look, it's one of those 14 year olds who likes to pretend he was a Navy SEAL, and does so by referencing descriptions at-home in pulp-fiction war books and Soldier of Fortune.

Is that heroism, or is that war? If you would like to define heroism as being under enemy fire, I have no argument to offer against your viewpoint. I would note, however, that many Taliban members had exactly those thoughts flitting through their heads as bombs exploded all around them.

"Try firing at everything that moves", though, I must take issue with. Is it heroic to fire at everything that moves, mauling civilians and combatants alike? That strikes me more as being "panicked" than "heroic".

You missed, unsurprisingly, the point of my post -- which was that I could hardly send an e-mail, or really any other form of communication, to "Stebby". He's currently serving 30 years for anally raping a 12-year-old girl.

Regards,
l

Re:Sure, it was started by the DoD, but...

[Zed2K]

Hey if you don't like it here then leave. We don't want you here either. Go find a nice little cave to live in in some 3rd world country. And while your starving and thirsty because you can't drink the water because its all contaminated we'll be sure to tape your name to the next cruise missle we send over.

Tired of people pissing on this country. You don't like it then get out. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out. Oh wait...you won't leave because you like to have certain freedoms that you just wouldn't get if you lived in a cave. So maybe we should just call you a hypocrite?

IT'S 11/9 NOT 9/11 IT'S 11/9 NOT 9/11 IT's 11/9 NO

[Theodore Logan]

I don't know if something noteworthy happened on the ninth of November, but if your talking about the day when a bunch of Islamic terrorists crashed a couple of planes in NY it reads 11/9!

Re: Cardiac Damage?

[thogard]

Last reports were Al-quada is at 70% strength.
Talban will be back home and back in positions of power inside 6 weeks.
17 out of the 22 top Al-quada are missing and haven't been found in the dead. There are reports that most of them are alive.
The economy of the US is messed up as bad as its been in decades.
bin Laden is no where to be found

Result: bin Laden won this round. The us beat the shit out of bunch of rocks and harrased a bunch of young guys but failed to deal with the leadership it blamed for the problem. Looks like the same result as the Gulf war -- no problems solved but lots of problems are made worse.