Back in the 1980s and 1990s there were plenty of taut thrillers featuring well written scripts, interesting plots and great characters, usually topped off with explosive action. Films like The Game, Thief, Nighthawks, Mad Max, Angel Heart, Body Heat, Tightrope, First Blood, No Mercy and Scanners are just a few of the great flicks that came out during that time where Hollywood wasn’t completely overtaken with sociopolitical nonsense.
Well, the upcoming Beirut, starring Mad Men alum Jon Hamm, looks like a new-school classic in the making. The film’s screenplay was put together by Tony Gilroy of Michael Clayton and Bourne Identity fame. Sure Gilroy has the less-than-auspicious Rogue One taint to his name, but otherwise he has a filmography to which every other writer could only dream of with envy.
Gilroy is paired with director Brad Anderson, who brought film fans noteworthy slow-burn thrillers like Transsiberian and The Machinist. Such a pairing of a great writer with a notable director should mean that Beirut is a masterpiece in waiting, right? Well, you can view the trailer for yourself courtesy of Zero Media and make up your own mind.
So Jon Hamm is negotiating the return of his friend who has vital information that the U.S., doesn’t want out. The people Hamm is negotiating with want back a terrorist killer. Tensions rise.
While the film looks great, there are a bunch of foreigners in the comment section who are livid; angry that Hamm is portrayed as a “white savior” and that “brown people” are the bad guys.
Apparently Sfeir didn’t grow up watching movies from the 80s, where iconic heroes like Rambo had to save the day against the Vietnamese and the Russians, or failed to check out other legendary flicks like Braddock: Missing in Action, Delta Force, Deathwish or Invasion USA.
I’m sure a lot of Americans are finally glad to see a spade as a spade; terrorists being portrayed as the villains.
Unfortunately, too many people have bitten into the forbidden fruit of Leftist propaganda, believing that American heroes are the villains.
Despite being a quality made trailer for a film that looks gripping, the Lebanese are angered that their people are portrayed as savage terrorists, thus downvoting the trailer in response.
I suppose that’s one of the dangers of YouTube allowing international audiences to chime in on media directed specifically towards Americans and Europeans.
The Lebanese are calling the film Western propaganda, and belaboring the point that they aren’t fond of a “White American” saving the day.
Unfortunately it appears a lot of Social Justice Warrior mindsets have slowly crept up out of the social media circles of Liberal activists and have taken a gripping hold of those who can no longer take entertainment at face value.
In fact, some of them even went as far as to say that America is the terrorist.
It appears the culture war has seeped out well and beyond the confines of industry-cordoned events like #GamerGate or #ComicsGate, and now the anti-American sentiment and anti-Western values seems to be gaining a foothold in other world cultures as well.
If you think Beirut looks like a worthwhile film, be sure to check it out when it hits theaters on April 13th later this spring.
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