American actors make anti-Semitic, anti-U.S. film abroad

It used to be when an actor's career tanked he could wait tables at Jerry's Deli. Now, one can lend his acting talents to anti-American propaganda -- sure, you might sell out your country and hurt the War on Terror in the process, but in this case gain a bunch of rabid Turkish fans. From the Daily Telegraph:

"A virulently anti-Semitic film about the Iraq war has provoked a storm of protest in Germany after it sold out to cheering audiences from the country's 2.5 million-strong Turkish community.

Valley of the Wolves, by the Turkish director Serdan Akar, shows crazed American GIs massacring innocent guests at a wedding party and scenes in which a Jewish surgeon removes organs from Iraqi prisoners in a style reminiscent of the Nazi death camp doctor Joseph Mengele.

... The £6 million film, the most expensive Turkish production ever made, had already proved a box office hit in Turkey, where it first opened last month at a gala attended by the wife of the country's prime minister.

The production went on general release in Germany a fortnight ago (scene still at left) and has had full houses ever since. More than 130,000 people, most of them young Muslims, saw the film in the first five days of its opening. At a packed cinema in a largely Turkish immigrant district of Berlin last week, Valley of the Wolves was being watched almost exclusively by young Turkish men. They clapped furiously when the Turkish hero of the film was shown blowing up a building occupied by the United States military commander in northern Iraq.

In the closing sequence, the hero is shown plunging a dagger into the heart of a US commander called Sam, played by Billy Zane. The audience responded by standing up and chanting 'Allah is great!'

Afterwards, an 18-year-old member of the audience said: 'The Americans always behave like this. They slaughtered the Red Indians and killed thousands in Vietnam...'"

In addition to Billy Zane, who played the dissed boyfriend in "Titanic," the film stars former star Gary Busey as that evil doctor, frequent TV and bit actor Spencer Garrett as the journalist, and Huntington Beach native and "ultimate fighter" Tito Ortiz as a lieutenant. Makeup and hair was done by Lynda Armstrong, who has worked on many films including "Troy" and "Die Another Day." Special effects coordinator was Mark Meddings, a Brit who also did "Kingdom of Heaven" and "Beyond Borders."

Says Variety of the Busey bit:

"...The basic format is peppered with some pure trash-exploitation elements, such as a strung-out U.S.-Jewish doctor (Busey) at Abu Ghraib who's trafficking inmates' organs to London, New York and Tel Aviv. Busey's few scenes -- and the whole tiny, undeveloped subplot -- are disposable."

Granted, actors in Hollywood are free to make crap -- it happens every day. But either these are supremely ignorant "thespians" who don't know how to read a script, or they don't care that their work will only serve to ignite radical Muslim tensions and harm Americans and Jews, or that may be their intention. Regardless, they need to be called out over it. Now.

(By the way, we're not supposed to get mad at the film. Only cartoons.)

Comments

[Tugboat Phil]

Some may call me an extremist, but I see no reason to watch anything that comes out of Hollywood today, or the past few years. I just can no longer seperate the character on the screen from the ranting idiot that I see on TV, spewing anti-American bile.

I love indy films, up to the point that the unknown actors start mimicing their more well known counterparts. When I go to see a story on the screen, I want it to be a story, not a lecture on American Imperialism.

[ned]

We can't ask these actors to give up working in anti-American movies during a time of war. That would be imposing on the freedom that is being fought for by the military of this country. These men and women, of the military, who are being killed and wounded, who are giving up their youth,leaving their families and missing moments that can't ever be replaced. We can't ask that of these actors, it is their fate to enjoy the fruits of freedom, not to plant, grow or pick the fruit. Someone else does that chore. Their job is to criticize how the work of maintaining freedom is performed and then enjoy that freedom as they please.

[Christopher Taylor]

You know, I used to like Billy Zane.

[Bill]

Hmmmmm. I predict lots of "Academy Award" nominations from Hollyweird for this one.
I'll put up $5.'Anyone want to bet?

Bill

[Lewis B. Sckolnick]

The continuation of the Holocaust by other means and with many new recruits. Many anit Jewish novels a and other anti Jewish books are published in Japan, with a Jewish population of Japan 127,417,244 0.0008% 1,002

[NerdMom]

People need to only make statements that they believe in. If these actors mean it, they need to act on it. I can prattle on more on my own;).