A quick addendum to my recent Hollywood-and-the-war piece : I just saw Paul Greengrass’s The Bourne Ultimatum and it is indeed one of the most anti-American movies made since the early 1970s. It’s abundantly clear that the people who made it believe that there is no real threat from terrorists or rogue states — merely a mirage conjured up by sinister right wing politicians. Never mind that there are real international conspirators who carry out murders in foreign cities: in this film the only dangerous people on the planet are the CIA — depicted as a high-tech international gestapo whose many targets are all innocent victims. It’s bad enough that people all around the world already believe ridiculous things about the CIA and its activities — this film will only encourage that paranoia. If I were Osama bin Laden, Fidel Castro, or General Chavez I’d give the guys who made this film a medal.
The Bourne Ultimatum’s other creepy implicit message is that anyone who works for the U.S. military and security forces is at best the dupe of an evil empire. The idea that any of the key filmmakers — director Greengrass or writers Tony Gilroy, George Nolfi, and Scott Z Burns — are going to shape the international public’s view of the Iraq war is depressing in the extreme.