Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
Unfortunately, an otherwise decent movie was ruined by gratuitous anti-semitism of the new left Jeremiah Wright-David Duke hybrid variety.
The lead bad guy is a Russian speaking Jew (oddly named Christo) in the Ukraine whose specialty is smuggling drugs from Mexico into the into the US (at least he did not confess to developing the AIDS virus to target blacks). The scene introducing him shows him as a hook-nosed, snaggle-toothed, import from a Goebbels poster speaking with a New York Jewish accent. Late in the film, it is gratuitously announced, by an American interrogator, that Christo is Jewish (more below).
The other lead bad guy is Christo's childhood friend (unclear whether he also was Jewish) who is now a Chechen terrorist leader (having adopted the nomme de guerre "Abu Shamal"). Abu Shamal is purported to be a convert to Islam (although it is unclear whether he is sincere).
The main actual Muslim characters in the film are innocent looking Filipinos (stereotypes of people intimidated/duped into their roles rather than more active intellectual participants) who are used by Abu Shamal to smuggle suicide bomb vests into the US via Christo's smuggling routes. Abu Shamal conspicuously does not join in their Islamic prayers, thus further drawing his conversion into doubt (originally hinted at by Christo mockingly addressing him by his Russian name).
In the scene where the interrogator notes Christo's Jewishness relative to the Muslim nature of Chechen terrorists, Christo goes into an odd soliloquy about some sort of yin-yang relationship with Abu Shamal since their childhood in which America is now in the middle. Because this dates back to their childhood, it must be Christo's Jewishness rather than his friend's Islam that is the driver. Christo also appears to not well hold his Russian accent, sounding more and more New Yorker during the course of the interrogation. Again, this seems in line with much modern anti-Semitism wherein Islamic terrorism is asserted as encouraged by Jews.
Christo's Jewishness added nothing to the film. If anything its gratuitous addition only created confusion.
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Comments:
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
That's the point. The gratuitous casting of the villain, Christo, as a Jew was part of that PC censorship and more.
Making him a Russian/Ukrainian of unspecified religion was, along with the convert nature of Abu Shamal, more than enough to satisfy the basic PC requirement to not single out Muslims. The casting him as a Jew was more of a concession to Muslim anti-Semitism.
It's as if they first thought: "Let's make the villain a Russian to avoid charges of Islamophobia. Even better, we'll name him 'Christo' to emphasize his non-Muslimness." Then they later decided it was not enough to avoid denunciation so then they made him a Jew in a way utterly unrelated to the basic plot.
This kind of pandering is only going to further encourage Muslim anti-Semitism.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
BTW, what makes you think this is "our movie" and not the left's (or at least the left's hijacking of a basic theme that was otherwise ours)?
Obama has been riding the SEALs' glory since the Bin Laden raid.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
katievs: I don't call every movie with a corrupt bishop or a faithless priest or a drunk Irishman, or whatever, anti-Catholic.
Are there no criminal Jews in the world?
If a Jew is portrayed in an unflattering light, must it me motivated by antisemitism? · 25 minutes ago
Those are false analogies.
If one were making a movie about the corruption of Goldman Sachs, presumably there would be a whole bunch of Jews (in addition to non-Jews like Corzine) shown in bad lights. No anti-Semitism would necessarily be involved.
As for your priest comments, what if Act of Valor appeased Muslims by making the villain a Catholic Bishop who had a network for smuggling underage boys?
FYI, IMHO much Hollywood casting of corrupt bishops and faithless priests is anti-Catholic bias. Corrupt (or worse) WASP and Jewish businessmen are also Hollywood staples. On most detective shows it's likely that the killer/rapist is usually the WASPiest of newly-appeared characters.
This is far more severe: gratuitously singling out the Jew as principal of a mass murder in a world where those who really are target their murderous rage at Jews and assert any pretext as justification.
Dec '10
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
OMG! A Jew! And he's a criminal! OMG!
I was very impressed with the lack of political correctness in this film. The enemies were Islamists of Russian decent, Spanish speaking smugglers and drug dealers, Mexican employees of Mexican druglords. And you want us to run in circles with our skirts over our heads because an ethnic Russian Jew is a criminal in the film. Not a practicing Jew, mind you, just a character who's ethnicity is Jewish?
I can hardly wait for the anti-Islamist and anti-hispanic lobby to pitch in.
Edited on February 26, 2012 at 11:10pmDec '10
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
ctlaw
Those are false analogies.
If one were making a movie about the corruption of Goldman Sachs, presumably there would be a whole bunch of Jews (in addition to non-Jews like Corzine) shown in bad lights. No anti-Semitism would necessarily be involved.
As for your priest comments, what if Act of Valor appeased Muslims by making the villain a Catholic Bishop who had a network for smuggling underage boys?
FYI, IMHO much Hollywood casting of corrupt bishops and faithless priests is anti-Catholic bias. Corrupt (or worse) WASP and Jewish businessmen are also Hollywood staples. On most detective shows it's likely that the killer/rapist is usually the WASPiest of newly-appeared characters.
This is far more severe: gratuitously singling out the Jew as principal of a mass murder in a world where those who really are target their murderous rage at Jews and assert any pretext as justification. · 17 minutes ago
Just to set the record straight, the ethnic Jew was not the principal. The Chechen Islamist was. The ethnic Jewish character was simply an enabler.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
What makes this an outrage is:
1) There was no reason to make the character a Jew, other than to make the character a Jew.
2) The particular circumstances of this character as taking away from the Muslim involvement is troubling in a reality where the Islamic world's reaction to a major terrorist event alternates between: "It must have been the Jews. Death to the Jews!" and "This is a great victory over the Jews. Death to the Jews!"
3) This is an official act of my Government! It's not Mel Gibson spending his own money. I wonder if one could file a FOIA request for all original footage and then recut it into a hardcore politically incorrect film. Could one also demand that the SEALs be made available to shoot some new politically incorrect scenes?
Mar '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
katievs: I don't call every movie with a corrupt bishop or a faithless priest or a drunk Irishman, or whatever, anti-Catholic.
Are there no criminal Jews in the world?
If a Jew is portrayed in an unflattering light, must it me motivated by antisemitism? · 2 hours ago
They also made the character in question look a lot like Frank Zappa.
I guess they are saying that they really didn't like Don't Eat the Yellow Snow.
Jun '10
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
That's unfortunate, but something tells me it won't hurt foreign box office. It's probably only Americans, and Israelis, that are even sensitive to it.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
I think at least part of the motivation was to help foreign box office.
Mar '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
ctlaw
BTW, what makes you think this is "our movie" and not the left's (or at least the left's hijacking of a basic theme that was otherwise ours)?
Obama has been riding the SEALs' glory since the Bin Laden raid. · 2 hours ago
My first clue would be how the Left is calling it a new "Triumph of the Will".
Second, under your reasoning, there'd be no way to create a Jewish villain without being called a Jew hater. Why can't the villain be Jewish?
What other religions and peoples are exempt from villain roles? Just so I know the ground rules from now on.
Mar '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
I'm offended the villain isn't English - he usually is.
Sep '10
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
Interesting comments from a blogger who wrote an outraged post, then wrote a semi-retraction after, she says, receiving an email from someone close to the film:
“Act of Valor” shoots self in foot with bullet packaged in a “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” label *UPDATED*
“Act of Valor” cleared of antisemitism
From the second post: 'the email writer explained to me that, in the context of the scene (and I am going to quote here) “it was a device to try to separate Christo from Shabal by appealing to the natural enmity between Jews and radical islamists.” '
Edited on February 27, 2012 at 12:52amMay '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
Douglas
Second, under your reasoning, there'd be no way to create a Jewish villain without being called a Jew hater. Whycan'tthe villain be Jewish?My first clue would be how the Left is calling it a new "Triumph of the Will".
What other religions and peoples are exempt from villain roles? Just so I know the ground rules from now on. · 3 minutes ago
Some leftists (dare I say the more consistent/principled ones even though they may be the more extreme ) may say that; others are the modern analogues to Ron Silver's "those are our planes now."
As for Jewish villains, you clearly mis-characterize my position. My prior posts make it clear that the appropriateness (for any group) depends on the context.
For a long time, there has been deliberate obfuscation in films. Villains could be vaguely foreign, perhaps with a regional flavor, but not identified with a specific group (even where there was clear reason to be more specific: crypto-slavic Spies who in reality would be Russian; "Middle-Eastern" terrorists who in reality would be Arab/Muslim; etc.).
This is going out of one's way to libelously target a group.
Aug '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
I saw it today. Very intense. It only reminds me how
little I do to keep our amazing country free. Thank you
service men for all you do.
Jul '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
ctlaw
Douglas
Second, under your reasoning, there'd be no way to create a Jewish villain without being called a Jew hater. Whycan'tthe villain be Jewish?My first clue would be how the Left is calling it a new "Triumph of the Will".
What other religions and peoples are exempt from villain roles? Just so I know the ground rules from now on. · 3 minutes ago
This is going out of one's way to libelously target a group. · 14 minutes ago
Or it's going out of one's way to find libel where it does not exist. If you're looking for monsters to slay, you won't find one in the auteurs behind this flick - and there's an army of real-world monsters quite happy to permanently remove any of your angst about anti-semitism.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
dogsbody:
“Act of Valor” cleared of antisemitism
From the second post: 'the email writer explained to me that, in the context of the scene (and I am going to quote here) “it was a device to try to separate Christo from Shabal by appealing to the natural enmity between Jews and radical islamists.” ' · 27 minutes ago
Edited 26 minutes ago
You are knocking down a strawman.
The article, presumably correctly, says the senior chief (both the character and the real life person) is not an anti-Semite. Nobody here said he was. If presented with an actual Jewish Christo, Alan Dershowitz, himself, would have said much the same thing.
There was no reason for the writers to write in that Christo was Jewish.
The reference to "natural enmity between Jews and radical islamists" smells racist and has the particular odor of bogus "moral equivalence" arguments. But let's ignore that. Would a Russian (of unspecified religion) not have exploitable enmity for a Chechen terrorist? I've heard things about Muslims from non-Jewish Russians that would have made Meir Kahane blush.
Mar '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
Chris Campion
ctlaw
Douglas
Second, under your reasoning, there'd be no way to create a Jewish villain without being called a Jew hater. Whycan'tthe villain be Jewish?My first clue would be how the Left is calling it a new "Triumph of the Will".
What other religions and peoples are exempt from villain roles? Just so I know the ground rules from now on. · 3 minutes ago
This is going out of one's way to libelously target a group. · 14 minutes ago
Or it's going out of one's way to find libel where it does not exist. If you're looking for monsters to slay, you won't find one in the auteurs behind this flick - and there's an army of real-world monsters quite happy to permanently remove any of your angst about anti-semitism. · 1 minute ago
I agree. ctlaw, you seem to be working harder at being insulted than they worked to insult you. You are talking about maybe 15 seconds of a movie that ran 111 minutes. You should read dogsbody's second link.
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
With such "an army" to chose from, isn't it even more extreme that the nature of the threat is being obscured/misidentified?
May '11
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
I was too caught up in the realism of the military tactics, techniques, and procedures to think that was even worth noting. If that is what you got out of this amazing movie, then you missed the whole point.
Feb '12
Re: Act of Valor = Act of Anti-Semitism
Act of Valor was about acts of valor by our SEALS. It wasn't anti-semitic, for goodness sakes, stop looking to be offended all the time.
Maybe the point about Christo being a Jew was to show the extent that evil will take a person--so far that a Jew would collude with a Muslim to wreck carnage on innocent people.
Try focusing on the heroics of our SEALS; some pay the ultimate price. I'm glad they're on our side. I pray for them nightly.