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Olympus Has Fallen

Peder

Peder

Well-Known Member
After an extended opening battle sequence, where the White House is attacked by a battalion of North Koreans and all of its defensive personnel are killed in the battle, the President and his staff are the only survivors and they are prisoners of the Koreans. Then begin the scenes which I could hardly believe before my eyes, portraying the Koreans as cruel inhuman unfeeling sadistic monsters as they proceeded to brutalise and torture male and female members of the President's staff to elicit vital defense information. Never since the days of WWII war movies, and the fear of the "yellow plague" then, have I seen such explicitly graphic representations of Orientals in such an odiously demeaning and hostile light.

I left early, with the strong feeling that I was watching a vicious racist movie.

I would not be surprised if there were public protests. In my opinion there should be.
 
Too bloody true. :mad:

Ya know the thing that really, well, actually kind of amused me was Scott's dislike of the last Die Hard film. Well.....in a way he is right. But lets face it. DH had Bruce Willis, and HUMOR! Yeah, that old fashioned thing called self-deprecating humor.
The guys in Olympus Down wouldn't know humor if it bit them on, well, for decency's sake lets say their big toe. :rolleyes:
 
well lets see - movies featuring Russia as the bad guys are passé as are movies with Middle Eastern bad guys to some extent. The Iraq war is winding to a close and no-one cares what happens in Afghanistan any more. And the Middle East in other terms is too much of a hot potato. There is a renewed sense of 'yellow peril' in the West and N. Korea are the flavour-of-the-month baddies.

So if you are going to make a gung-ho American ra-ra patriotism movie with generic 'evil' regime bad guys that the underdog but brave American(s) will defeat with ingenuity and stick-to-it-ness (recognise this trope?) what else are you going to make it about?

Attack the image of the nation (I think the slant of the movie can been seen in that they have cast a white president) in the national equivalent of a home invasion which gets every one (of a certain blood type) all hyped up and ready to go and let loose the dog(s) of war on the enemies heads. After all isn't this why every red blooded American (of a certain blood type) needs their own weapon of mass destruction (or whatever they can afford)?
 
Attack the image of the nation (I think the slant of the movie can been seen in that they have cast a white president)
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Perhaps, but imagine the uproar if they had cast a black president. After all, a white president is fairly generic; it doesn't point fingers at anyone in particular, but a black president would be a direct representation of President Obama. I can just imagine the furor on both sides of the aisle over that one.

Thanks for the review Peder, I had thought this looked interesting, but I believe I will pass.
 
kelstan said:
Perhaps, but imagine the uproar if they had cast a black president. After all, a white president is fairly generic; it doesn't point fingers at anyone in particular, but a black president would be a direct representation of President Obama. I can just imagine the furor on both sides of the aisle over that one.

Thanks for the review Peder, I had thought this looked interesting, but I believe I will pass.
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I agree kelstan, and interestingly enough, the casting covered that as well. Morgan Freeman beautifully played the (I think) Speaker and was, by default, the acting President after the invasion.
 
ai well its not really my cup of tea from this review (thanks Peder) even though I do like a good bit of action
 
I think there is a line somewhere between: portraying opponents who have different nationalities or skin colors for purposes of the story, and portraying them in a racist manner. We see the former all the time in movies and books, as noted above. I think this movie went over that line in bringing to mind stereotypical, dehumanizing, racially-oriented, fear-mongering scenes. At that point I became so enraged that I decided to leave -- something I have only done a few times in my lifetime.

I stop short of saying this is a racist movie, but that was what I immediately said to myself, and I couldn't imagine any director being so blind, dumb, insensitive, whatever as to create the sadistic scenes I saw.

I well realize we are all inured to greater or lesser degree to the extreme sorts of situations and violent actions we see in movies, and I don't count myself among the faint of heart. However, if you think my reaction is too extreme, I can only suggest watching the movie itself. I would be glad to hear what other people's eyes see.
 
North Korea isn't even remotely close to being a legit Hollywood threat.

Bring back the Russians as the bad guys!
 
I disagree. North Korea is making a lot of noise about a preemptive nuclear strike at Washington. What was that bit about threatening to engulf Washington in a "sea of fire?"
 
They'd first need a rocket that will work. I'd be more worried for the countries along the missile's flight path than the United States.

Besides, when isn't North Korea rattling its sabre?
 
I agree that at this point, they're just rattling their sabres, but if you have to villainize anybody, why not a country that is on record for wanting to launch a first strike against Washington?
 
The Russians and Chinese at least have the hardware to pull off an invasion. Or at least make a decent effort.

The required Suspension of Disbelief for this movie is too damn high -- and this is coming from someone who enjoys the Riddick movies.
 
I'm not concerned with Russia, the possibility of war with Russia is past. China is a concern, I believe they are already active in a cyber war against the US, but as long as US borders are open for Chinese goods, then I just don't see it.

North Korea may not have the technology or the military to lay waste to the US, but they're not far from being able to cook Washington, even if they have to park a ship off the east coast to launch missiles from.
 
One added thought: The recent remake of Red Dawn had North Koreans as the occypying force. (But they didn't rename it North Dawn did they? Jerks. :D)
 
That's interesting, Peder. I haven't seen the remake of Red Dawn since I'm still a little sorry I saw the original.
 
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