laughing at hollywood hasbara.

This article tends to  reduce a a very serious issue to banter and a bit of a joke.  In fact it does not even address the main issue. An issue that cannot be ignored because it could mean the actual death of millions.  At the heart of  the CIA sponsored Hollywood films is the issue of War !

War that Ergo and films like it, are  leading up to. The work to soften up  the Western audience and demonise the  projected enemy - the Iranians. .

The hegemony of a hasbara driven Hollywood  has to be addressed more clearly. And more critically

I have posted  and linked to articles that show the links Hollywood has to official,  agenda driven, policies and politics. .

Just joking and laughing about it will not do.  

Stereotyping can be, and  is, the norm in cinema around the world. That is how the Other is created. How a superior Self is projected and protected.  Cultural stereotyping that justifies and   leads to actual War that murders millions is a different matter altogether.  Not to be laughed at.

And yes. I have read my share of  Bernard Shaw.

Suing Hollywood? Maybe Iran has the right idea

Date

March 15, 2013

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Karl Quinn

National Film Editor for Fairfax Media

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Iran wants to sue Hollywood over its cultural stereotyping, but perhaps they

 should get in line with all the other offended nations - including ours.

Given that "Hollywood" can hardly be considered a legal entity of any sort, you'd imagine there might yet be a few hurdles to cross before this case sees the inside of a courtroom staffed by anyone other than kangaroos. But still.

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The idea that Hollywood might be brought to book for some of its more egregious transgressions holds a certain appeal, even if it has taken the putative wife of Carlos The Jackal to act upon it. (They were married in an Islamic ceremony in prison in 2001, though they appear to have forgotten that they each were in fact already married to someone else at the time. Consequently, their union is not recognised under French law.)

Imagine what might happen if someone more palatable to Western tastes were to take up cudgels on behalf of the wronged nations of the world – a Geoffrey Robertson, perhaps, or a Julian Burnside, or a Judge Judy even. Why, you can practically hear Hollywood running for the hills already.

As for India, Peter Sellers has a lot to answer for as the havoc-wreaking extra Hrundi V. Bakshi in The Party (1968), but he's so funny that we're hoping the entire country feels as Indira Gandhi reportedly did. According to writer Vinod Mehta, she was fond of responding to the question "Who do you think you are?" with a line spoken by Sellers in Blake Edwards' gloriously chaotic comedy: "In India we don't think who we are, we know who we are."

And what of us down under? We have some reason to be upset too, and not just on account of Quentin Tarantino's insanely bad accent in Django Unchained (2012). It was a place to set the end of the world in On The Beach (1959), a place to send a couple of actors – Don Johnson and Mickey Rourke – at the end of their bankability in Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991), and a place you could always make look like it was another place, preferably America, in Ghost Rider (2007), Knowing (2009), and the Matrix films (1999 and 2003). Oh, and whatever you do don't mention Kangaroo Jack (2003). I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

So, I rest my case. You can mock all you like, but I'm with the good people of Iran. Hollywood is a serial offender and it's time they were made to pay.

Let the class action begin.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/suing-hollywood-maybe-iran-has-the-right-idea-20130314-2g3zg.html#ixzz2NgJrbWOU

http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/movies/suing-hollywood-maybe-iran-has-the-right-idea-20130314-2g3zg.html