Collateral Murder

[poliphilo]

They're saying the footage that's up at Wikileaks under the title Collateral Murder comes across like a bunch of guys playing a video game, but that's not the only cultural resonance. As we watch the dying journalist try to crawl away from the killing zone we hear one of the soldiers in the circling gunship urge him to, "reach for a weapon." Sound familiar? Yes, of course; it's an echo of Dirty Harry's, "Go on, punk, make my day". So I guess art does have a corrupting influence after all.

Comments

[jenny_evergreen]

I suspect people were saying that sort of thing long before Dirty Harry. Dehumanizing is all part of how we can do these things. Which, of course, ought to be a clue that these things are NOT GOOD, but I'm in the minority there. :\

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What makes Dirty Harry (which is a brilliant movie) so questionable is the way it endorses brutality. It seems to be saying that you can behave like brute without becoming a brute- and this, I think, is a lie.