Celluloid Heroes: Part I or: You Can See All the Blood as You Walk Down Hollywood Boulevard (With apologies to The Kinks)

David McGowan
January 20, 2002
“Radio and television are psychological warfare.”
Herbert Mullin, falsely accused and convicted Santa Cruz serial killer and the son of a highly-decorated WWII Army Captain
I couldn't help noticing that Black Hawk Down has now gone into general release. When I first heard about this film, I assumed that it would be a shameless glorification of a reprehensible, imperialist, oil-driven U.S. military operation that was itself shamelessly glorified as a humanitarian mission to feed the hungry.
        But I was wrong.
        As it turns out, the movie is much more than that. It is also, for instance, a shameless glorification of a convicted child rapist and sodomizer. And, lest we forget, it is one of the most obvious pieces of government-sanctioned, pro-war propaganda to come out of Hollywood since .... you know, I think we may have to go all the way back to Behind Enemy Lines on this one.
        But at least that film didn't romanticize the military exploits of a child molester. For the record, the 'hero' of Black Hawk Down, Ranger John Grimes, was given a deceptive name-change by the filmmakers following a request from the Pentagon's PR people. It seems the Ranger's real name was John Stebbins – who is currently serving a 30-year-sentence for an attack on a child under the age of 12. Stebbins' ex-wife told the New York Post: "They are going to make millions off this film in which my ex-husband is portrayed as an All-American hero when the truth is he is not." (1)
        He sure looks like one up there on the silver screen though. How could he not be when he is being brought to screen-life by Hollywood hunk Ewan McGregor? Far be it from me to suggest that the larger-than-life hero up there is actually a convicted pedophile. That would be like, say, suggesting that the hero played by Brad Pitt in that wretched movie about Tibet was actually a Nazi seeking 'proof' of Aryan supremacy.
        Of course, using the magic of Hollywood to transform repellent cultural and historical figures into screen heroes is standard operating procedure in Tinseltown. It is something that the film industry really excels at. We are talking here, after all, about an industry that recently gave no less an appalling figure than the Marquis de Sade a Hollywood makeover.
READ MORE: http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/wtc12.html

PART 2: http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/wtc13.html