Bruce Willis

Never mind that Iraqis are dying all too easily these days. Seeking to combine his pro-militarist political views with the teenage boy-focused popular entertainment centered on blowing the fuck out of things, Bruce Willis is going to make his own alternative vision of how the war on Iraq is going.

On the surface, it doesn't seem to be an ideological tract:

It will be based on the exploits of the heavily decorated members of Deuce Four, the 1st Battalion, 24th Infantry, which has spent the past year battling insurgents in the northern Iraqi town of Mosul.

Personally I think any movie that realistically portrays our soldiers' stories is a good thing. How would we understand World War 2 without the hundreds of movies about that conflict and aftermath?

But Willis seems to be coming at this with an agenda.

ANGERED by negative portrayals of the Iraq conflict, actor Bruce Willis is to make a pro-war film in which US soldiers will be depicted as brave fighters for freedom and democracy.

Willis said it would be wrong for Americans to give up on Iraq just as progress was being made.

"The Iraqi people want to live in a world where they can move from their homes to the market and not have to fear being killed," he said. "I mean, doesn't everybody want that?"

The question is how. Can democracy be imposed by generous application of cluster bombs, phosphorous and heavy machine guns? What are our goals in this civil war we've unleashed? Are we doing the Iraqis any favors by making every place we occupy a target?

Willis seems to be upset that the news today does not reflect what he saw in 2003, when he toured Iraq with his rock band. (Yes, he has a rock band.)

Willis visited the war zone with his rock and blues band, the Accelerators, in 2003.

"I am baffled to understand why the things I saw happening in Iraq are not being reported," he told MSNBC, the US news channel.

Of course, 2003 was a long, long time ago.

The movie represents an interesting gambit. The movie seems to be a pro-Bush propaganda piece about a war that's vastly unpopular with Americans. But lots of people are sure to die in graphic detail, with plenty of explosions and humorous one-liners -- a Hollywood recipe for a high chance of success for the past 20-30 years.

So the real question is: If he blows the shit out of people and things, will the audiences come?