Films ruined by propaganda and/or unrealistic situations/stories ....

lumphammer2

What films come to mind as the worst when it comes to blatant propaganda?? …. for me it is anything with Chuck Norris in it …. The Delta Force ….. all his Vietnam films …. in fact most return to Vietnam to rescue POW type films in general …..

Unrealistic situations/stories are harder …. what comes to mind ?? …. not including deliberate sci fi type films here …. films like the Indiana Jones series, Back to the Future series, Matrix series, etc. ….. or speculative possibility type films like the Stars Wars series …. but films that seemingly break their own rules …. Bond film Die Another Day with invisible car comes to mind for me …. Bond is meant to be far fetched at times I know but not this far fetched !! …

magicbastarder

I'd say watching Rambo 3 again would be fun. John Rambo helping the Mujahedeen defeat the Soviets in Afghanistan.

Kaybaykwah

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128324#Comment_122128324

lol. Good call!

whisky_galore

Pierce Brosnan skydiving off a motorbike and grabbing onto an airplane. Really?

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128324#Comment_122128324

I remember a few years ago RTE were showing Rambo 3. The ad for it was hilarious:

Bamboo!!

Plus The Taliban!!

Versus The Commies!!

It can only be "Rambo 3"

But I don't know if you can say films like this and the likes of Delta Force were "riuned" by overt propaganda. That was the whole point of them: America Good. Everyone else bad or weak (Europe). They were xtravision shelf fodder. Rows and rows of cheap "Get the Commies" or "Back to Nam" wish fulfillment movies. Hell, every TV show had an episode or two of the same (Every American TV character seems to be a Vietnam vet).

Used to love them as a kid (15+) but even then knew that they were really garbage. Remember one was Navy Seals with Michael Beihn and Charlie Sheen. Was one of the last of them. Looked very expensive and big cast for the time and so many clichés it looks like a parody. Supremely bad and it came out too late, after people had moved on and flopped hard. Its very enjoyable and genuinely laugh out loud awful

Hande hoche!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128392#Comment_122128392

One of RTE's more daring adverts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6kd9c8hq-c

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128397#Comment_122128397

I wish I could thank you twice!!!!! I've been looking for that for years!!! You LEGEND (Exclamation Mark)

Hande hoche!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128416#Comment_122128416

You're welcome. Was certainly a memorable advert.

Fritzbox

And not accurate at all. The Taliban didn't exist in the 1980s at the time of the Soviet Afghan war.

Hande hoche!

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128526#Comment_122128526

That's what adds an extra comedic effect to the whole thing.

magicbastarder

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128526#Comment_122128526

Rambo didn't exist either.

Agent Coulson

Top Gun.

nigeldaniel

I take every movie as it comes. Sub plots and all. Its no biggie.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128324#Comment_122128324

Well the Soviets weren't exactly difficult to propagandize against, wasn't Afghanistan a plot line in The Living Daylights?

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128397#Comment_122128397

There was another promo around the same time for the Predator on RTE Two that used the Polices Every Breath You Take.

Mickeroo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122128324#Comment_122128324

I could be misremembering but the same guys help out James Bond in The Living Daylights too I'm nearly sure!

In general I think nearly all action films have some degree of propaganda\vague political message in them relating to the time they were made in. I think that can often enhance the film more than anything, even if the ideas have aged badly or you disagree with them now. The 80's was a bit of a golden age for that type of thing due to the Cold War imo.

ELM327

Birth of a Nation. Completely ruined for me by propaganda.

magicbastarder

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb3gdUrIC4Q

i've never seen breakfast at tiffany's, but i've certainly heard of that scene…

thomil

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122131830#Comment_122131830

Strangely, one of my favourite movies, Hunt of Red October, seems to be the complete antithesis to that. Granted, the entire Soviet Navy is out to stop Red October from making it to the US, but whenever you see their crews at work, they're not painted as evil. Rather, they're professionals, doing their jobs. Granted, the skipper of that one particular soviet hunter-killer sub ordered to hunt down Red October is seething, but it's more frustration, and possibly anguish at having to take out Ramius, than mustache-twirling evil.

Meanwhile, a 2011 movie marketed as its successor, Hunter Killer, is effectively unwatchable due to its stereotypical characters and "America - F**k Yeah" jingoism. The piss-poor CGI isn't helping either, to be fair.

Hande hoche!

While on the topic of submarine films with a hefty dose of jingoism, a classic example would be U571.

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122131973#Comment_122131973

I haven't seen that Hunter Killer film.

But yeah, it's worth remembering that 80s Reagan-era America was even MORE 'MURICA than today as it was less polarised than it is today. The rich were getting richer. There were no poor people. If you were poor, you simply didn't believe in The American Dream ™ hard enough. The Ruskies were one-note moustache-twirling baddies. Often times, sexual deviants (ie, gay). Apart from the ones attempting to defect. Europe If they were mentioned at all) were either back in the stone age "Cor blimey Guv'nor" or cheese-eating surrender-monkeys in awe of the size of America's….. um arsenal

America was gonna bring Pepsi, Budweiser and Van Halen to the world 'cos, Goddamnit, they got bigger bombs than the commies.

It wasn't quite as evangelical bible-bashing as today. It was still "Jesus was 'Murican" but was less overt than today (Jesus guns babies).

The films were cheap fodder, designed to fill rental shelves at a time when VHS was just becoming popular and people had, maybe 4 or 5 channels.

Made cheaply and quickly. Amazing how Afghanistan looked very like California. Everyone running around with AK-47s no matter their nationality. Nuance was not really a concern. lol.

Then Mad Max came out and it was amazing how California looked like a post-apocalyptic wasteland :)

Hangdogroad

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122137874#Comment_122137874

Mad Max was shot in Australia.

~Rebel~

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143146#Comment_122143146

And set there as well.

RobbingBandit

Team America

TheIrishGrover

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143146#Comment_122143146

No, I meant all the cheap rip-offs. Every film that started with "in the year 1999 the oil ran out..."

Nigel Fairservice

Rocky IV is more or less a Cold War allegory. Ivan Drago killing Creed in the ring while wearing his American flag trunks and Rocky being triumphant on the end. Not sure I'd say it ruined the movie though.

Tork

The American President (1995) which was Aaron Sorkin's precursor to The West Wing. It's hard to watch that now and buy into the idealism.

silliussoddius

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143526#Comment_122143526

The American President or The West Wing?

Montage of Feck

Absolute Power with Eastwood and Hackman about a sleazy sex pest president, turned out to be probably the most realistic depiction of a president in a 90's movie.

Tork

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122143568#Comment_122143568

American President…cos this is the films forum 😁

buried

The new Dune film is ruined by the progressive propaganda portrayal of the Chani character. The whole premise of the thing is ruined by her total about turn, as opposed to how she is portrayed in the books, and this about turn totally drags you out the fourth wall, because it makes absolutely zero sense.