'Stop Loss' bombs: Why do Iraq war movies fail?

The Associated Press

Director Kimberly Peirce and actor Ryan Phillippe might be talented, but audiences don't want to see their latest movie.

Featured Topic | Posted 1 year 13 weeks ago

'Stop Loss' bombs: Why do Iraq war movies fail?

Kimberly Peirce’s “Stop-Loss” is the best fictional film yet inspired by the Iraq war … or at least it’s in a dead heat with “In the Valley of Elah” for that honor. Which doesn’t mean “Stop-Loss” will be any more successful at the box office than its predecessors. As of late Saturday night, "Stop-Loss" was performing poorly. As much as Iraq dominates the country’s political discourse, it hasn’t been welcome on our movie screens. Still, it’s a topic filmmakers seem determined to tackle.

Why does Hollywood persist in making war films that American audiences refuse to see? Do Americans only want pro-war films? Or is it possible that the nightly news is enough to turn audiences off of fictional accounts of the war?

Ben likes: Unbelievably melodramatic

Libertas

Undoubtedly, being stop-lossed has to suck something fierce, and I feel for the thousands pulled from their lives and loved ones for a contractual obligation they’re well aware of but probably never imagined would be brought to life. But they deserve better than this. Stop-Loss is Exhibit A -- no, D -- no, J in the case proving Hollywood can’t stand the troops. This insistent portrayal of these men and women as unstable and dangerous -- dehumanized and psychotic -- is outright stereotyping and the building of a stigma. It’s a monstrous act performed by these filmmakers and yet they remain undeterred even by box-office humiliation in their cruel objective to lose a war by tearing down our finest.

Joel likes: Why are Iraq war movies box-office flops?

Sudhir Muralidhar/The American Prospect

Are audiences suffering from war fatigue, as many have suggested? Do they have little interest in following a war on the big screen when they are surrounded by images and stories of it on the small screens in their home?

Moviegoers will not leave their homes unless they're being offered something in the theater they cannot find elsewhere, and what is notable about many of this year's political films is that very few of them actually stand up as triumphs of cinematic art and storytelling. In many respects, the greatest risk of making political art during wartime is that heightened political passion will trump artistic judgment, which in the case of moviemaking means that expressing a political stance will take precedence over character development and plot structure.

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These are for what purposes?

Submitted on April 6th, 2009 by Kale F

These are for what purposes? Well it would be really great to do something new and changes to improve our technology. The latest headlines are how Obama is turning them down for their requested bailout money. He has refused further aid to the ailing auto firms, after they were given large sums of money to keep them afloat. He has, however, given them 60 days to come up with a better plan to come back to the forefront of the auto industry. Otherwise, it will be no more payday loans for the ailing automakers.