chanster

Has anyone seen that 3 Doors Down "Citizen Soldier" movie ad with images of the Revolutionary War, Iraq, 9/11, World War II, and some other unnamed disaster on American soil?

Talk about military garbage..they have a nice little "Revolutionary War" montage of some militia guy avoiding cannons and then firing on a squad of red coats? Anybody note the irony that Americans might be considered the "red coats" of Iraq? I mean cmon..then the crass images of 9/11were then thrown in..

Whats going on in this country? I don't mean to make this a political debate., but I saw the ad in front of I am Legend and visually, whoever made this video didn't have their head screwed on straight..

Giles

you're sooo anti-american...







I personally find the ad and the song hideous. I find it sad that American values are so entrenched in our Military and not say educating our children, in my mind, education should come first but hey that's my opinion.

Daytripper

I saw this (endless) clip before "Blade Runner: the Final Cut" at a very crowded theater and people BOO'D and were screaming back at the screen afterwards "I want my tax dollars back!!". I kid you not. Yes, it is a hideous song and film.

Mopower

Yes you are right. There were never any "citizen soldiers" in any of those wars. In fact the military shouldn't ever show it's history to anyone to try to get them to join. Nor should anyone be proud of them or their sacrifices for this country. No one should ever say anything positive about the military or be proud of the men and women in it. Because everyone knows the military is full of a bunch of maniac Iraqi baby killers.

Daytripper

Here, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LJRthpxDM10

chanster

Oh please. Thats not what I was saying and you know it.

Mopower

Well then change your post because that's exactly what you are saying.

chanster

Did I ever mention maniac Iraqi baby killers? No.
Did I say people shouldn't be proud of past achievements? No.
Did I say anything about citizens soldiers? No.

dick_grayson

that's a slippery slope fallacy, holmes

Mopower

Calling the soldiers in Iraq "Red Coats" was enough for me. I'm out.

nemein

Why? What is your main objection to it? I see a lot of ranting in your post but no explanation as to what you found so objectionable. Was it the fact they were advertising at all? Was is the image they were trying to projection that you disagree w/? Why do you call it garbage? Personally I saw it and while I don't really object to it I thought it was kind of silly in the sense of mixing in the pics of the band playing.

xfilefanfreak

its not to bad everybody has there way of looking at it .i kind of liked it

Brent L

I've seen the add and didn't mind it at all. If you think I'm a warmonger because of that, then more power to ya. I've had friends and family members fight in wars in the past and present, so I feel proud and hopeful when I see things like this, even if I don't care for the song they used.

Mr. Cinema

I usually plan my trip to the bathroom around the same time the expected National Guard commercial comes on. It usually kicks off the 10 minute non-movie related commercials.

Maybe we'll get back to the days where all you see on the big screen at the movie theater are things that are actually movie related.

Giles

it also doesn't help the ad is so damn long.

chanster

To put it frankly, I thought the use of historical comparisions was misguided and wrong. Whatever you think about the invasion of Iraq, the U.S. is definitely occupying the country at this moment. Whether that is a good or bad thing, I don't know, but it is still a form of occupation.

So lets look at what historical snippets they pulled from the military archives:

1.) British occupation of colonial America
2.) Nazi occupation of France

Now, please don't start screaming bloody murder, I'm not comparing Nazis to the United States. However, in both historical instances, the U.S. forces were fighting for their freedom or liberating a previously occupied country.

Now in Iraq, the U.S. is the occupation force. So I thought the analogies were all wrong. I'm sure the British and German forces both had the motto "We will never lose"

Legolas

If a pro-military ad is propaganda, is an anti-military ad not?

On a side note, speaking of Nazis, if Islamic terrorists did to the Jews what the Nazis did, they wouldn't be viewed as negatively as Nazis under today's PC standards because their skin isn't white.

Brack

I can't help but laugh at that video. 3 Doors Down suck anyway.

Mopower

You honestly can't see the difference between the reasons Germany occupied France and The US occupying Iraq? So were the US soldiers that occupied Germany at the end of the war just as bad as Nazi's occupying France? Is the world really that black and white to you?

chanster

Again, thats not what I said. Of course the U.S. has different reasons for occupying Iraq then what the Nazis had for occupying France. I agree that there can be such a thing as a beneficial occupation.

Of course the reasons for occupation are much different, but the fact remains, the U.S. is occupying another country.

Brack

why do you hate freedom?

maxfisher

Antoine Fuqua directed the ad, if anyone was curious. I think it's pretty crappy in terms of quality, but that goes for most propaganda on both sides of the aisle. I also don't find it offensive for the national guard (or any branch of the military) to take pride in its history.

inri222

http://nymag.com/daily/entertainment...join.html#more

If you've attended any kind of action movie over the past couple of weeks — if, for instance, you were one of the 7 billion Americans who checked out I Am Legend — you probably saw the above music video/PSA, called "Citizen Soldiers" and sponsored by the National Guard. In it, 3 Doors Down plays some truly awful post-grunge while singing from the perspective of the archetypal Guardsman: brave, vigilant, and selfless. "Hope and pray that you never need me," front man Brad Arnold sings, "but rest assured, I will not let you down." As the band plays, the video shows brave Guardsmen helping bedraggled disaster victims, rescuing prisoners, and fighting.

We're sort of surprised that the Guard has basically given up trying to sugarcoat things. There's no talk about money for college or building skills for the workplace; most everyone in this video — with the exception of 3 Doors Down — is in the shit. The video includes expensive-looking scenes of brave soldiers fighting Redcoats in the Revolutionary War and storming the beach at Normandy. (In the WWII scene, one soldier even nervously kisses his wedding ring before he charges; he's filmed in jittery, washed-out Private Ryan–O–Vision.) Combine that with scenes of contemporary Guardsmen in an unspecified desert nation, and the message is clear: If you join the Guard, you'll be sent to Iraq. But you'll be joining the proud American tradition of shooting people! Oh, and helping people. Different people!

All in all, it's a fairly expert piece of propaganda perfectly pitched at its target market; at the movie theater where we saw it, a certain kind of audience member — the young, well-muscled guy kind — responded positively, one of them even shouting, "Fuck yeah!" The YouTube clip above currently features over 2,100 comments, many of them along the lines of this one from "Patriotsremain":

To begin with, I call the young men and women who serve the U.S. military my brothers and sisters. Their blood is strong, their minds are strong, their spirits devoted. The battlefields of our history are painted with that blood. Their courage and commitment will not be forgotten, neither heroes fallen nor veterans remaining. To all of you anti-military trippers, whether young and ignorant, brain-washed, or enemy I say this: Your not anti-war/military; You are anti-freedom.

Greg MacGuffin

Oh, word. I think that regardless of our politics, we can all agree that 3 Doors Down is one terrible band.

Bluelitespecial

Hey it could have been nickelback they are worse then 3 doors down if you ask me.