Born On The Fourth Of July

I never saw the movie. The prospect of Tom Cruise in a wheelchair was quite appealing (still is, actually), but the idea of sitting through some heavy-handed Hollywood morality tale about Vietnam seems as beneficial as sitting through a drug treatment program run by Method Man. In other words, it's a joke.

Tomorrow is the fourth. Fireworks will burn their images into your corneas and I will think of Land of the Dead and how the zombies were hypnotized by the same fireworks exploding overhead. (Do you think George Romero was trying to say something?) You can call it freedom, but "freedom" is just another pretty word for consumerism in this country. You think you got freedom? Try asking a filmmaker about dealing with the MPAA. Try talking to adult filmmakers who always run the risk of prosecution no matter who is in the Oval Office.

And that's just for the movies. Let's not even get into the inherent sexism and racism of our predominant economic system.

So, yeah, Tom Cruise wheeling his bearded ass around while shouting the usual slogans never really appealed to me. I never bought into the myth. I like to think Maverick became Ron at some point, but I know that's not how it worked. Hollywood's version of a war protest is a fantasy that has little to do with real life. How can Hollywood even pretend to give lip service to that notion when it lets various arms of the government approve scripts in order to gain insight into their world? Talk about biting the hand that feeds ...

So on this Fourth of July, just say no to Hollywood and its fake morality. Instead, say yes to thinking for yourself and calling out hypocrisy when you see it.