ISTANBUL, Turkey -- In the most expensive Turkish movie ever made, American soldiers in Iraq crash a wedding and pump a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.
They kill dozens of innocent people with random machine gun fire, shoot the groom in the head, and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison - where a Jewish doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.
"Valley of the Wolves Iraq" - set to open in Turkey on Friday - feeds off the increasingly negative feelings many Turks harbor toward their longtime NATO allies: Americans.
The movie, which reportedly cost some $10 million, is the latest in a new genre of popular culture that demonizes the United States. It comes on the heels of a novel called "Metal Storm" about a war between Turkey and the U.S., which has been a best seller for months.
One recent opinion poll revealed the depth of the hostility in Turkey toward Americans: 53 percent of Turks who responded to the 2005 Pew Global Attitudes survey associated Americans with the word "rude"; 70 percent with "violent"; 68 percent with "greedy"; and 57 percent with "immoral."
Advance tickets are already selling out across Turkey for the film, which has dialogue in Turkish, Arabic, Kurdish and English. In addition to Turkey, the film is set to be shown in more than a dozen other countries _ including the United States, Britain, Germany, The Netherlands, Britain, Denmark, Russia, Egypt, Syria and Australia.
The movie's American stars are Billy Zane, who plays a self-professed "peacekeeper sent by God," and Gary Busey as the Jewish-American doctor.
U.S. soldiers have become hate figures in Muslim countries around the world after the unpopular war in Iraq. But here in Turkey, a personal grudge fuels the resentment.
"Valley of the Wolves Iraq" opens with a true story: On July 4, 2003, in Sulaymaniyah, northern Iraq, troops from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade raided and ransacked a Turkish special forces office, threw hoods over the heads of 11 Turkish special forces officers, and held them in custody for more than two days.
The Americans said they had been looking for Iraqi insurgents and unwittingly rounded up the Turks because they were not in uniform. Still, the incident damaged Turkish-U.S. relations and hurt Turkish national pride. Turks traditionally idolize their soldiers; most enthusiastically send their sons off for mandatory military service.
In the movie, one of the Turkish special forces officers commits suicide to save his honor. His farewell letter reaches Polat Alemdar, an elite Turkish intelligence officer who travels to northern Iraq with a small group of men to avenge the humiliation.
There they find a rogue group of U.S. soldiers led by officer Sam William Marshall - played by Zane. In the bloodfest that ensues, the small band of Turks bonds with the people of Iraq and eventually ends American atrocities there, killing Zane and his men in the final scene.
"The scenario is great," Istanbul Mayor Kadir Topbas told The Associated Press after the film was shown at a posh opening gala Tuesday night. "It was very successful. ... a soldier's honor must never be damaged."
But Topbas and other Turks at the premiere weren't too concerned about how the movie would be perceived in the United States.
"There isn't going to be a war over this," said Nefise Karatay, a Turkish model lounging on a sofa after the premiere. "Everyone knows that Americans have a good side. That's not what this is about."
If it had levelled its guns at America, fine, and its dramatic exaggerations would be no worse than those Hollywood levels at the British semi-regularly.
But why does it get sucked into this anti-Semitism? Why does the film feel the need to portray a Jewish Doctor harvesting kidneys from prisoners and sending them to Tel Aviv?
That's where any respect for the film vanishes.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Gender: Male Location: Sailing the seas of cheese.
I wouldn't get pissed off if I saw this. Just because some Americans are sick and twisted doesn't mean we all are. I just live here and try to get by. The American Government is only watching out for themselves, sure my life is directly impacted by them, but as a civilian, I don't make the choices, especially when my losing vote doesn't count. Oh well. Life goes on, or it doesn't.
This movie is pathetic, how much I hate the US government and army I still think this movie is pathetic and totally exagerated.
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It's an image worth pondering for a moment. Maybe, when you cut past the instrumental and songwriting virtuosity, the funny voices and characters, what is left is a man alone in his recording studio for days at a time.
It doesnt means that muslims hate American nation.These people are also trying to have a good life like us.This film is anti American government and I think everybody in Middle East is in the same opinion.
What a dodgy sounding movie. Still, many nations have had films of a similar nature at some point, just with different villains. Be it Nazis, the Chinese, the Vietnamese, Communists, terrorists or evil Columbian drug lords.
Though I guess the US did on occasion accidentally bomb wedding parties, but then again they also accidentally bombed the British in the early days of the war. Also seems odd, the Turkish are/were one of the marginally more supportive nations in the region of the west.
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From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent.
I know that, only some of you are a bit weird. I do know that America is very...how do you say? Conservative. You guys are offended easily-take the Janet Jackson Superbowl incident. This is the sort of movie that would raise more than a few eyeballs, but America has to remember, that whenever Hollywood makes a film about terrorists, the bad guy is almost always of Arab descent. On the TV show 24, the terrorists are of Middle Eastern appearance.
America seems to think that all terrorists are Muslims, but I am willing to bet the shit will hit the fan when another country portrays America in a bad light.
KMC Community Forums
the Truth
Feb 4th, 2006 10:12 AM
By Barker
