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Benghazi, The Expendables, and Conservative Action Heroes
The Expendables movies are good, silly, manly fun. The many references to classic action movies are rewarding. The older actors poke fun at themselves and harass each other, as men are wont to do. And there’s a lot of cool guns, hard hits, and big explosions. It’s G.I. Joe for adults.
I caught the third movie last night, and was surprised by a clear reference to the Benghazi scandal. Contrary to claims on Breitbart and Fox News, the character Galgo (Antonio Banderas) does not mention terrorists or diplomats. His experience is only a reflection of the real attack and not the murder specifically. Nevertheless, it is an obvious allusion to reality.
“It all went bad,” Galgo says. “We waited for support. No one ever came. Everybody died,” Galgo tells Barney.
I wish I could thank Sylvester Stallone for including it in the script.
Maybe Rob could invite him onto the podcast. I know Kelsey Grammar is generally conservative, as is (my favorite actor) Mel Gibson and Robert Davi, who are also in the film. Grammar and Davi both acted in a mildly amusing parody of liberalism called An American Carol back in 2008.
Now that I think about it, previous Expendables actor Bruce Willis votes Republican as well. And Schwarzenegger ran as a Republican, even if he wasn’t all Republicans hoped he would be as governor.
Is there some reason that action stars in Hollywood so commonly break from the liberal mold?
By the way, The Expendables 3 is worth seeing if only to witness Harrison Ford making fun of Jason Statham’s accent.
Image Credit: Flickr user Gage Skidmore.
Published in Culture, General
I thought The Expendables 3 was the best of the series. Interesting congruence on the politics (though I would classify Gibson’s politics as “nuts” not “conservative”). Certainly seems like a statistically significant deviation from the Hollywood norm. Here’s a review I wrote of Expendables 3 which includes a link to an earlier review of Expendables 2.
I did miss Chuck Norris… who incidentally might be called the most conservative of the bunch on account of his regular column. And he’s a Texan. He might be the better option for a podcast guest.
Norris would be a great choice for a podcast. Plus he was awesome in that Expendables 2 cameo.
Haven’t seen E3 yet. Looking forward to it and people that like movies I like like that movie. Plus, asides from all that testosterone simmering from the male action dudes, the movie also stars Ronda Rousey, who is not only cute as a button, but a world class (real world, not movie world) judoka:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bA12qAz2E80
There is no theory of evolution. There is only a list of animals Chuck Norris allows to live.
I still haven’t seen E3. Very much looking forward to it cuz I am a big Ronda fan. She’s totally hot and badass too. I love the first two movies cuz they don’t take themselves seriously.
Rousey has some cool moves in the film.
I was with you guys until this last sentence. I enjoyed the first movie, the second one was really horrible. I thought Norris’ “acting” in it made him look like DeNiro in Walker Texas Ranger by comparison. :)
I too hated E2. The franchise took a turn from tongue-in-cheek to outright camp. But, I’ve heard good things about E3, so I’m willing to give it a shot.
I just watched Live, Die, Repeat – the Cruise one. I really enjoyed it – oodles of fun to see Groundhog Day meet Starship Troopers.
I really enjoyed it ’cause I got to see Tome Cruise get smoked. Over and over again.
But, but, but it was Chuck Norris!!
And didn’t you enjoy how Schwartzenegger and Willis encapsulated existential angst as they careened around that airport terminal shooting thousands of rounds and only hitting bad guys? :)
Actually, I think this is his best:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwXxZF8GWEs&index=3&list=FLQsX7ifDLD1y50pB-WM6h9A
Stiff as cardboard, yep. The rest of the cast were Olivier at the Old Vic in comparison.