My 2007 Hero of the Year is General David Petraeus. He is one of the driving forces behind the recent move forward that seems to have been made in Iraq this year. The military architect of the surge, Petraeus has led the New War Forward, a long overdue policy change by the Bush Administration, brilliantly.

I was skeptical of the surge in the beginning, as I didn't think we needed more troops. What convinced me was taking a closer look at the strategic shifts being made in conjunction with the troop increase and the leadership Petraeus showed.

See here, here, here, here, and here for related posts from this year.







My 2007 Hack of the Year is Hollywood. While the big studios turned out a lot of crap this year (thinking about Spider-Man 3 still makes my blood boil a little bit), they also released a tremendous number of films directly opposing the Iraq War. Nominally, I don't care. Both Across the Universe and The Bourne Ultimatum had some sort of anti-government/anti-war/CIA themes to them, but I still found them enjoyable despite this because those themes were appropriate for the characters, etc.

Now, making a watchable film with a political bent, but the box office suggests that the highest profile 7 anti-war films to be released in the past 6 months are not great films to begin with, or that the public is just not interested in anti-war propaganda masquerading as entertainment. Charlie Wilson's War, Redacted, In the Valley of Elah, Grace is Gone, Southland Tales, A Mighty Heart, and Lions for Lambs have currently a box office total of $50.956 million. For comparison, the patriotic and family fun film National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets made more than those 7 films during its first week of release!

You're telling me that Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Robert Redford, Tom Cruise, Meryl Streep (twice), Tom Hanks, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julia Roberts, Tommy Lee Jones, Charlize Theron, Susan Sarandon, John Cusack, The Rock, Justin Timberlake, Seann William Scott, and Sarah Michelle Gellar, with upteen Oscars and billions in past box office performance couldn't make a film that can even match box office performance of a film about the guy from Con-Air and Ghost Rider peaceably kidnapping the President while looking for a City of Gold? Pitiful. That's why Hollywood is the 2007 Hack of the Year.

By the way, go see National Treasure 2 if you get the time. Almost as good as the first one, and a ton of fun.

Labels: Hero/Hack, Iraq, Movies, Petraeus

Posted by Ryan S. on Friday, December 28, 2007 at 2:00 PM | Permalink |