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Air Force One | |
The title for the summer action flick Air Force One could just as well have been James Bond for President. Get rid of the English accent and the super models and you've got Harrison Ford as the new-and-improved Bill Clinton. And this imperialist dream president did go to Vietnam. VVAW AI wants to thank Hollywood for helping the ruling class live out their perverse fantasy on screen instead of in real life for once. But really boys, we would have rather you didn't share your testosterone-laced hallucinations with us, the movie-going public.
But before we go on, let it be said that the action and the special-effects were spectacular. StormWarning! is the last magazine to criticize a good shot of an American president being ripped through the air held only by a broken cable swinging from a speeding plane. However, it's the illusory plot fashioned around the action and special-effects that concerns us, brothers and sisters. We suspect that the amazing action sequences aren't enough to completely distract the viewing audience from the insidious plot. What if the imperialists are using this movie as a way to infect the general public with the same mental illness obviously being suffered by the ruling class? What if Air Force One is simply another tool toward one ultimate aim: brain washing all of us into confusing the U.S. government's fantasies with the world's realities; thereby getting the people behind the Man's plans for continued world domination??!!! If you think this analysis is a little over-the-top, wait until your hear the movie's story line...
The film begins with U.S. Special Forces engaged in a covert operation with the aid of the U.S.S.R. Their mission is to instigate a military coup against General Radek, the leader of Kazakhstan, which is a former republic of the U.S.S.R. General Radek is deemed a terrorist threat because he possesses nuclear weapons. Hmmm. Now this poses an interesting question: What country is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons in a global conflict? And so the bullshit begins...
Following this great victory for democracy, President Martial of the United States (Did I say Martial? I meant Marshall.) goes to Moscow and makes a speech apologizing for not intervening in Kazakhstan sooner: 'Only when our own national security was threatened did we act. We watched innocent people die under the harsh rule of General Radek. Never again will I allow our political interests to get in the way of what's morally right. America will no longer tolerate the existence of any neo-communist, terrorist government.' Blah blah blah.
After the speech, the first family boards the bullet-proof, nuclear blast-resistant Air Force One. So do the terrorists, who manage to allude security by disguising themselves as a Russian news crew. Soon the plane takes off, the president's daughter is tucked safely into bed under an in-flight blanket decorated with the Presidential seal, and all hell breaks loose as the red menace takes control of Air Force One.
The terrorists take hostages and make one demand: the release from prison of General Radek. But the stakes are much higher. In case the audience couldn't quite catch this (those special-effects sure can be distracting) the McCarthyite screenwriters threw subtlety to the wind and wrote it right into the script. The leader of the terrorists, Korshunov, reminisces about Mother Russia, calls for the downfall of capitalism, and dreams of the re-emergence of the U.S.S.R. as a world super power.
Now what would the president of the United States do in a situation like this? Wait! Don't answer! What would James Bond as the president of the United States do in a situation like this? Well, he wouldn't look out for 'number one' and ditch the plane in the emergency escape pod. The movie makes damn sure of that. He sacrifices his own safety for the lives of his family and the people of the world. He takes on the terrorists with his own bare hands because he's an experienced combat vet who knows how to fight for his country.
So let's make a long story short. For a time, the Russian terrorists have the upper hand. They kill a number of hostages and promise that the president's family will be next. We have to admit that the terrorist leader's 'quality time' with the first family certainly made for some interesting dialogue. He said to the daughter in his Russian accent, 'Your father has also killed for a cause. Why is that so different? Because he kills while wearing a tuxedo and pushing a button to release a smart bomb?' The president answers that it's different because that was a war and 'In war, people get killed.' 'You killed 100,000 Iraqis!' Korshunov yells. (Actually, 250,000 Iraqis during the Gulf War and more than half a million Iraqi children in the aftermath, but who's counting? WE are!) It's just all so confusing, but what the movie is trying to say is: terrorism-wrong, imperialist war-right, and no-they are NOT the same thing.
When Korshunov holds a gun to the daughter's head, the president agrees to release Radek. But Radek is shot down within minutes of his release when the president manages to turn the table on the terrorists and call off the deal. In case the audience has any doubts that terrorism equals communism, Radek is assassinated to the tune of thousands of prisoners singing the Internationale as he crashes to the ground wearing a red flag on his lapel. But communism is not dead yet! Radek's loyal military starts shooting MIGs at Air Force One in retaliation for his death. Now for the grand finale: The president throws Korshunov off the plane, U.S. air fighters are sent up to defend Air Force One, the hostages escape, and, you guessed it-U.S. troops are deployed to Kazakhstan.
The moral of the story? It's a crime against humanity to not support 'humanitarian' intervention by the U.S. government. Not only is it morally wrong to withhold from the world's people invasions and occupations of the high caliber only the U.S. can provide, but if the American people hesitate to lend their full support to the troops, if they take time to question the role of the U.S. as the police of the world, it may be too late. We could find ourselves at the mercy of terrorists as the next Hitler comes to power.
Talk about turning reality upside down! The world knows who the real terrorists are, and the flag they're waving is red, white and blue!