Hollywood History

I just finished watching The Hunting Party. What a disappointment! Reminded me of Behind Enemy Lines. Same old propaganda. The US and Western Europe have written this story of modern history in a typical, nice and tidy 'good' versus 'evil' manner with almost total disregard for reality. I would hate to be a Serb in America, since, you know, Serbs are such evil-doers; those ethnic cleansers. What most people aren't generally aware of is the manipulation and exploitation of 'narrative' that has taken place in the history of the Balkan war. Yes, Serbs committed war crimes. But to present the war only in that light is a half-truth. Having heard from Canadian and American service-men on the ground at the time of the war, I think Hollywood's characterization is not only misleading, it's insulting to the victims on all sides. The truth is more important than political agendas. While it is tragic that Serbian war criminals are not brought to justice, it's equally tragic that war criminals on the other side of this conflict became the political leaders after the war. In my assessment, that is more injust than merely getting away with it scott free. But don't expect any movies about that anytime soon. We have ourselves a nice and tidy 'good guys' and 'bad guys' narrative that makes us the hero. We're always the hero, aren't we? Narrative is a powerful tool of nationalism, isn't it.