If You Want a Film to Fly, Make it anti-American - Valley of the Wolves

[ECH1969]

The crowd cheered, clapped and whistled as the Turkish agent plunged the knife into the chest of the enemy commander.
"Valley of the Wolves — Iraq," which opened last week in movie theaters in Turkey, Austria and Germany, is a Rambo-like action story involving Turkish gunmen who seek revenge against a tyrannical occupying army.

Other scenes show ruthless marines killing Iraqis and soldiers mistreating inmates at Abu Ghraib prison, as well as an American Jewish surgeon, played by Gary Busey, who takes what look like kidneys from inmates during surgery to New York, London and Israel — all, according to the screenwriter, Bahadir Ozdener, inspired by real events.

As a result, popular opinion of the United States has been steadily declining. Anti-American novels, including one that portrays a war between the United States and Turkey, have been selling briskly, and Hitler's "Mein Kampf" was a best seller last year.

"It doesn't show anything that we did not already know," said Fahri Kaya, 22-year-old private security guard. "It was more like a group therapy that gave people a chance to let go of their negative feelings against what's been happening in Iraq as they shouted, clapped and cried."

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/14/international/europe/14turk.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[cali]

1. Ugh.

Although I generally try to refrain from commenting on movies I haven't seen, this sounds repugnant.

[thebigidea]

2. Turkish cinema is hilariously bad. And Gary Busey? Bwhahah.

Sounds deliciously awful.

My favorite Turkish movie features Captain America vs. an evil Spiderman, with mexican masked wrassler Santo thrown in for good measure. They've done great Star Wars and Star Trek ripoffs too... beyond the valley of copyright infringement!

Still, I find it a bit funny that some Americans are getting snippy about other nations' trashy exploitation cinema. Coming from the county that has pioneered racist villains for a century!

[marmar]

3. Kind of like Germany and the Soviet Union in different eras...

That's really rather depressing. :cry: