New Turkish movie showing American soldiers as the "evil ones" and
starring US citizen actors...
http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/13871545.htm
Popular Turkish movie portrays American soldiers as brutal killers
By Matthew Schofield
Knight Ridder Newspapers
BERLIN - A Turkish-made film that portrays American soldiers in Iraq as
brutal and callous killers is setting attendance records in Turkey and
has just opened throughout Europe.
From the opening seconds to the dramatic conclusion, the movie, "The
Valley of the Wolves - Iraq," portrays Americans as wearing the black
hats.
In one scene, an American doctor, played by actor Gary Busey, is furious
because troops keep killing Iraqi prisoners before they reach the Abu
Ghraib prison. The doctor's problem? If the Iraqis are dead, he can't
harvest their organs to send to Israel.
The movie, the most expensive production in Turkish film history, has
been a runaway success in Turkey since it opened Feb. 3. Would-be
viewers must wait weeks for tickets. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan, according to Turkish press reports, recommended the film to
friends after a private screening. His wife noted, "It's a beautiful
film."
It's not clear how well the film will do in its Europe-wide release. No
weekend box-office figures are available. Theaters showing the film in
Berlin were packed, managers said, but much of the crowd was of Turkish
descent. The fact that the film carries subtitles will discourage
Germans, who prefer dubbing.
American military officers have advised troops in Europe to avoid
theaters showing the film and not to discuss it with strangers, though
interviews with filmgoers here found little anti-Americanism.
"This movie isn't about how horrible Americans are," said Beyhan Haci,
60, a Turk who's lived in Germany for years and has seen the film twice.
"It's about the horrible mistakes the American government has made in
Iraq."
Analysts in Turkey say that attitude isn't prevalent there.
"American soldiers are the bad guys around here, no question," said
Sedat Laciner, the director of the International Strategic Research
Organization in Ankara, Turkey's capital. "But we are not so different
in our attitudes than much of the rest of the world. And remember,
Turkey is far less anti-American than any country in the Middle East
besides Israel."
The movie is standard Hollywood action-adventure fare, but with the
villains wearing the Stars and Stripes. The heroes are dapper and kind;
the Americans are slovenly, sadistic and stupid. An American who
questioned why a smiling comrade is spraying a metal container full of
Iraqi prisoners with bullets is quickly killed.
Some of the incidents in the film draw on actual events, though they're
portrayed in such a way as to impose the worst of motives on the
Americans: American soldiers guffaw as they set dogs on prisoners at Abu
Ghraib, lie in wait so they can target wedding guests when they
celebrate with gunfire and open fire on a mosque just as the call to
prayer is sounded.
Other scenes portray Americans as cartoonishly evil. When confronted by
the Turkish hero, the main U.S. villain, played by American Billy Zane,
surrounds himself with little children, saying he knows the hero's "weak
spot."
Yusuf Kanli, the editor in chief of the Turkish Daily News, said the
film is grounded in a real event known as the "bag incident," which
cemented the movie's popularity in Turkey.
"Abu Ghraib is a deep wound, but it's war, and war is never clean,"
Kanli said. "But what happened in July 2003 can never be forgotten by
any Turk."
In that incident, U.S. troops arrested 11 Turkish special-forces
officers in northern Iraq and walked them from their headquarters with
bags over their heads. It was considered a bitter betrayal by a trusted
ally. Turkish newspapers dubbed it the "Rambo Crisis." Recent opinion
polls rank it as the most humiliating moment in Turkish history.
After this scene, the film portrays the suicide of one of the Turkish
officers. Just before committing suicide, the officer writes a letter to
Polat Alemdar, a fictional Turkish secret agent from a popular
television series who's a cross between James Bond and Rambo, and asks
him to "restore Turkey's honor."
The remainder of the film is about Alemdar's efforts to do so by
confronting U.S. evil in Iraq.
Fadi Hakura, who studies Turkish politics and culture in London for the
British research center Chatham House, said that while "the bag
incident" continues to rankle in Turkey, most Turks believe in improving
relations with the United States. He noted that many Turks attend
college in the United States, including the children of Erdogan, the
prime minister.
"There is a noticeable shift in attitudes since the start of the war in
Iraq," he said. "But I wouldn't call it anti-Americanism as much as a
reflection of a great deal of anxiety about what the United States is
doing in the region."
Others agree, noting that attitudes aren't so much anti-American as they
are anti-Bush administration or even anti-Western. Several people
pointed to the protests throughout the Islamic world over cartoons of
the Prophet Muhammad that were first printed in a Danish newspaper as
further evidence of poor relations between traditional Western and
Eastern cultures.
Still, as an older man leaving the film told the British Broadcasting
Corp. in Istanbul on Monday, "If I see an American when I get out of
here, I feel like taking a hood and putting it over their head."
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"I did not have *****-fucking relations with Jack Abramoff" - George W. Bush
Christian Republican Family Values: "If they're too young to vote, ***** 'em!"
"***** Cheney - you ARE the NRA!" --
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