Quote Originally Posted by JarodParker View Post
The story was written in collaboration with the villagers… this is a story about them told in their own voice. The main actor (the father) is a Pashtun-Afghan refugee, there’s some reference to him being a mujahedeen against the soviets. The rest are Pashtun from the Pakistani side.
OK, and how is that relevant to someone 300km away in Helmand -with an entirely different set of problems. As concerns strategy, we don't want the Pashtun to debate. We want them to comply with our intent. Why risk them coming up with the wrong answer. We are fighting their to force our ideas upon them.
Call me a bigger cynic but this film has as much a shot as changing things as anything else we’re doing over there. There’s been several comments on this board regarding the need for more IO (not sure if that’s the correct term) such as establishing NATO friendly radio stations and etc. I don’t see this as being any different except maybe having just a tiny bit more credibility for being made independently.
What most folks simply don't get is that you can do all the IO and propaganda you like, but it all comes apart when a local authority figure has a simpler more compelling message. The Taliban's ability to kill you, trumps all the message stuff. IO is a paint job on a fast car. It doesn't make it go faster. The CIA had it right in 1956 when they said "Psychological Operations target people with an existing pre-disposition."
One of the men in the CNN piece even talks about watching Rambo 3 a long time ago and enjoying it because “the heroes were Mujahadeens.” Good stories, whatever the format, usually present an argument or a lesson.
I've watched American movies all over the Middle-East and North Africa with rooms full of Arabs. None of them changed the basic way they thought of America. The Israelis make lots of movies about their conflict with the Arabs. The Lemon Tree being one. It changes nothing and even I would dispute it's accuracy.
Films hold far more power to distort than they ever do to tell the truth. Are 911 Conspiracy Documentaries ever going to change anything?
As far as the entertainment people getting involved in these things, I’d say, better with us, than against us.
The Beast
....silly movie and not a good story.

If people want to make money, making movies, good luck to them, but it is about making money. Nothing wrong with that. I see nothing more here than film makers promoting a film - maybe even a good one.