Stardate 20040510.1302

(On Screen): Shall we talk about "the lessons of history"? Hmm?

The world premiere of the Hollywood big-budget epit "Troy" in Berlin Sunday saw German-born director Wolfgang Petersen draw parallels between the Trojan war and the US-led war in Iraq.

... Petersen, director of the World War II German submarine classic "Das Boot" (The Boot) and the action-thriller "Air Force One", said he has been taken aback by the way the conservative rightwing has taken over the White House with a militaristic agenda.

The invasion of Iraq occurred just as shooting for the film got underway in Malta.

"I couldn't believe it," 60-year-old Petersen told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa. "I thought, it's as if nothing has changed in 3,000 years. People are still using deceit to engage in wars of vengeance."

While stressing that he "did not make this film with the intention of making an anti-American statement", Petersen said the parallels between the Trojan war and the Iraq war became more apparent daily during the filming.

"Just as King Agamemnon waged what was essentially a war of conquest on the ruse of trying to rescue the beautiful Helen from the hands of the Trojans, President George W. Bush concealed his true motives for the invasion of Iraq."

He added, "I wouldn't make a movie like 'Air Force One' now," which showed Air Force One under attack from terrorists.

I wouldn't think so. In that movie, the terrorists were the bad guys, and the President of the United States was the hero. Of course, Clinton was president when that movie was made, so it was still OK to cast the POTUS in good light (even though Clinton was about as different from the character Ford played as it is possible to be).

In any movie today directed by a European, the terrorists would have to be the good guys, or at least good bad-guys, "deeply misguided but nonetheless motivated by strong ideals", by comparison to the POTUS, who would be portrayed as venal, stupid and obstinate. And you would never cast Ford as POTUS; you'd go with someone like Gary Busey or James Woods. Or maybe Gary Oldman.

I think Das Boot is one of the finest movies about war ever made. But that doesn't mean I have to take everything Petersen says seriously, and I don't think he's even close to right about this. I see no important parallels between our operation in Iraq and the Trojan war. (I see some unimportant parallels.)

Besides which, if Petersen is genuine in his comments (and not simply opportunistic) then his parallel is really quite troubling for his political position. After all, the Greeks won over the Trojans.

And they won through use of deception, which Petersen is condemning. You know, Odysseus and a small band of Greek soldiers concealed inside the Horse, waiting until the Trojans had drunk themselves into a stupor at their victory celebration, and then sneaking out to open the gates of the city for the rest of the Greeks?

Or how about the way that the Greeks proceeded to put everyone they could find to the sword, and laid waste to Troy? About the only significant group of Trojan survivors was the one led by Aeneas, who then embarked on an epic adventure before ultimately founding Rome (if we grant Virgil as much credence as we grant Homer). Aeneas wasn't captured by Greeks who found him hiding in a cesspit. (Nor was Paris,

I don't recall the Greeks embarking on a massive program of rebuilding Troy for the benefit of the Trojans. Homer never mentioned anything like that.

And there's no mention of any Trojan terrorist attack on Sparta causing hundreds of deaths. I guess Homer forgot to mention that.

As to Petersen's movie, how in hell can you tell the story of the Trojan War without any mention of Eris? Does he really want to bring the wrath of the Discordians down on himself that way? (Assuming that the Discordians exist, which of course they do not?) Fnord

Update 20040512: Several readers have pointed out that there's another reason why Petersen would not have made the movie Air Force One in the current political climate, having to do with a critical speech made by Harrison Ford in his role as POTUS. Spoons turns out to have written about that.

Update 20040518: Hud saw the movie and didn't like it.