You've Come a Long Way, Buddy

The most expensive movie in Turkish history is Valley of the Wolves: Iraq, which depicts a military clash between Turks and Americans. The AP reports:

The latest in a new genre of Turkish popular culture that vilifies the United States, a Turkish movie shows American soldiers in Iraq crashing a wedding and pumping a little boy full of lead in front of his mother.

They randomly machine-gun dozens of people to death, shoot the groom in the head and drag those left alive to Abu Ghraib prison—where a Jewish-American doctor cuts out their organs, which he sells to rich people in New York, London and Tel Aviv.

The doctor is played by—I am not making this up—Gary Busey. Billy Zane appears as a bloodthirsty soldier.

Comments:

1. At last we know what the career rung below I'm with Busey looks like. Let's hope the culture warriors will greet Busey's participation in this project not with anger but with the compassion he clearly deserves.

2. If Gov. Schwarzenegger would just create more tax incentives to shoot movies at home, they could have made this in California and created jobs for hard-working American anti-Americans.

3. This might actually be better than the last Turkish movie I saw.

Oh—and why would audiences in Turkey be so angry at America that they're receptive to this sort of yarn? Funny story, that. Seems the movie opens with a sequence based on real events:

On July 4, 2003, in northern Iraq, troops from the U.S. Army's 173rd Airborne Brigade raided and ransacked a Turkish special forces office, threw hoods over the heads of 11 officers and held them for more than two days.

The Americans said they had been looking for Iraqi insurgents and unwittingly rounded up the Turks because they were not in uniform. Still, the incident damaged Turkish-U.S. relations and hurt Turkish national pride.

The film gets reviewed here. Busey courts B'nai B'rith support by declaring he loves the sound of Jewish screams here. Fan site for the real Buddy Holly here.

Comments

[chthus]

Turk special forces had an office in Northern Iraq in July 2003? Funny that.

[Doc]

Jim Emerson also covered this on his Blog off of Roger Ebert’s homepage:

http://tinyurl.com/8z3bf

[Doc]

I forgot to put the movie’s website!:

http://www.valleyofthewolvesiraq.com/web/about.htm

Trailers are slooooow to load.

[mewsifer]

Can we have riots, burn down the Turkish embassy, and threaten to decapitate Turkish nationals over this grevious insult of American (and by extension Jewish) Sensibilities?

[Jinnatun]

I really find it hard to live up to these kinds of unrealistic standards. Now I know as Americans we all feel that deep urge to consume the world but not all of us are provided with the opportunity by society to be that greedy and immoral.

The whole story is simple fear mongering and completely unrealistic. You can’t have troops shoot children indiscriminately like in the movies. Soldiers need to be trained for that sort of thing; Special Forces need to know how to identify the groom in a foreign wedding ceremony. Beside implementation problems such assault events also create problems with the Rectification of Frontiers Program as the indigenous population having been abused will flee the medical workers sent in to sterilize the populace using inoculations as cover.

These examples of organ traffickers would be prosecuted under international law for breaking the Harvest Act by using unapproved organ collection methods and operating outside of harvest zones. The Act specifies that the Dominion countries cannot collect except in areas indicated by the controlling powers within the current harvest zone. As the current zone is South America a harvest in Iraq would be stiffly fined. These methods were developed so that harvesting would not cause long term disruption to local biodiversity and insure harvest areas are given proper recovery times. Tracking and sources are also provided via Blue Papers which are used to prove the background of the organs. No one in the First world countries would buy organs without proper Harvest Blue Papers and those caught forging them would face fines and litigation.

[Josh]

I guess this is the awful truth that the Jews in Hollywood have been hiding from us.

[R C Dean]

Dunno about you, but I’m a little fuzzy on how shooting up a wedding is “based on” the real event of US troops raiding a bunch of Turkish special forces types who were out of uniform.

Unless the Turkish commandos were holding a wedding at their office in northern Iraq.

[The Wine Commonsewer]

I guess that rap on the head the helmetless Busey took a couple of years ago was more serious than we imagined.

Always wear a helmet.

[Murray "Superboy" Babitch]

“Why would audiences in Turkey…”

Is Walker implying that the ’03 temporary detention of plainclothed Turkish military on Iraqi soil somehow justifies a flick where US forces slaughter kids?

Wasn’t that a major worry across all areas of the geopolitical spectrum, i.e., that Turkey would destabilize Iraq via an attempt at Kurdish annexation or whatnot?

It doesn’t seem to matter how fucking wacky people get…if the United States can be implicated in some ridiculous/twisted/convoluted cause and effect relationship, it becomes fair game for “serious” discussion in some circles.

[ChicagoTom]

Dunno about you, but I’m a little fuzzy on how shooting up a wedding is “based on” the real event of US troops raiding a bunch of Turkish special forces types who were out of uniform.

Jesse’s wording is confusing . I would imagine the anecdote is more an answer to his question why would audiences in Turkey be so angry at America in the first place?

And couldn’t the movie itself be accurately described as “based on true events”? Wasn’t there a story about US troops killing a bunch of Iraqi’s during a wedding or something like that a while back?

[SM]

Heck, this is nothing. According to Bollywood, India overcame British atrocities and conquered Europe in, oh maybe 1900 ?

[Jesse Walker]

Dunno about you, but I’m a little fuzzy on how shooting up a wedding is “based on” the real event of US troops raiding a bunch of Turkish special forces types who were out of uniform.

It isn’t. The wedding scene isn’t the opening scene.

Is Walker implying that the ’03 temporary detention of plainclothed Turkish military on Iraqi soil somehow justifies a flick where US forces slaughter kids?

No, I’m implying it justifies anti-Semitic fantasies about Jewish doctors selling organs to rich westerners.

I mean, no, I’m just filling in some background. You can recognize a movie as bullshit and still look for where the bullshit came from.

[keith]

Movie slike this let us feel how the world must have felt when we were making “Delta Force” movies full of evil commies and arabs killing children, raping white women, etc etc.

Y’all should check out Maa Tuj Saalam — an Indian film about the war with Pakistan that is full of heroic Indians walking in slow motion with flags waving behind them while dirty evil terrorist Pakistanis slit the the throats of children and twiddle their moustaches while doing the “evil” laugh.

So the Turks get in on the fun, too. I’m just sad it doesn’t have Cuneyt Arkin jumping on trampolines and doing kungfu…or does it?

[B.P.]

“Still, the incident damaged Turkish-U.S. relations and hurt Turkish national pride.”

I guess every interaction between West and Mideast now boils down to a cultural psychotherapy session.

And Jesse, you’re remiss in forgetting Busey’s career half-rung in between: His appearance on VH1’s Celebrity Fit Camp. (Ahem, not that I’m actively tracking Busey’s career or anything)

[Jesse Walker]

Jesse’s wording is confusing.

I just changed the phrasing a bit; hopefully the meaning is clearer now.

[Pro Libertate]

“That?s hardly important. If you like, you may call me Mr. Joshua.”

[Jaybird]

I was wondering how someone would work a “it’s not like we don’t do that too!” into the conversation.

Bravo!

[johnl]

Jesse Walker this better not be our Fyiday fun link.

Anyway I’m now going to actively boycot Turkish made um …

[Tim Cavanaugh]

Is Walker implying that the ’03 temporary detention of plainclothed Turkish military on Iraqi soil somehow justifies a flick where US forces slaughter kids?

A movie doesn’t need to be “justified.” People have the right to make any movie they want, regardless of whether there is historical or documentary support for it.

On to more important matters: Has anybody ever gotten less career bounce out of an Oscar-winning blockbuster that broke all box office records than Billy Zane got from Titanic? What kind of agent must this guy have that his post-Titanic career has included a tv movie about Cleopatra, this movie, and a guest spot as “Himself” in Zoolander? Where are the Zaniacs?

[amazingdrx]

Busey as the evil pound of flesh surgeon?

Oh oh, I sense this movie may not play well in the west? Maybe danish theaters will run it?

[R C Dean]

Has anybody ever gotten less career bounce out of an Oscar-winning blockbuster that broke all box office records than Billy Zane got from Titanic?

Mark Hamill, Star Wars?

[Pro Libertate]

Hamill is an interesting case. The accident he had after Star Wars may have screwed up his career–he was pretty messed up. But what’s interesting is how successful he’s been “underground”–voice acting, comics, acting in video games, etc. If Lucas weren’t a jerk, he’d also be acting in Episodes 7-9.

As for Zane, could it be because his first big hit was relatively late? He’s 40 (we were born the same year), which is old for a leading guy. IMDB suggests that he’s busy in a Hamillesque way. Beats being Gary Busey in my book 🙂

[gaijin]

hurt Turkish national pride

as evidenced by?

[Captain Holly]

Beats being Gary Busey in my book 🙂

I think it’s safe to say that anything would beat being Gary Busey…

[Karen Cox (still not Jennifer)]

Mark Hamill: Judging by my sons’ DVD collection, he’s kept himself busy with cartoon voice-overs for the last 30 years. He’s a regular voice on, of all things, recent episodes of Scooby – Doo. Given how much money he made off of “Star Wars,” and that all anyone is ever going to remember is Luke Skywalker anyway, why not be able to wear sweats to work? Beats the F. Murray Abraham or, yes, Gary Busey career path. He could have been inspired by that other Buddy Holly fan, Don McLean, who explained that the lyrics to “American Pie” mean he’ll never have to work again.

Vengence against Turkey: I say we wait until next November and then make a big symbolic deal out of all the poultry we consume over Thanksgiving. That’ll show ’em!! Especially since no one in that region seems capable to telling the difference between the country and the bird.

[ChrisO]

Maybe Busey thinks he’s the next Charles Bronson. Remember, Bronson didn’t become a big star until he resurrected his career over in Europe doing a bunch of really bad action movies.

As far as why Turks have a problem with us, it began the moment courted support from the Kurds (or should I say, the “Mountain Turks”) against Hussein.

[Steve M]

The comments over at the provided link are really freaking weird too. It’s always fun trying to follow a debate between people using English as a second or third language. I think the winner was the guy who was preaching about the genetic superiority of the Turk.

[mewsifer]

“There is only one real thing such as the superiority of strains and Turk is the most superior strain of all.As it is showed in the vallet of the wolves,it is only the side of iceberg which is seen. The uniqe real thing is in the blood of Turkish. One day, Turk will be lead of the world, as nostradamus said so americans must be afraid of Turks because we are Cengiz Han’s, Fatih Sultan Mehmet’s, Kanuni Sultan S?leyman’s and Mustafa Kemal Atat?rk’s grandchilren.”

I provide the comments Steve references becuase they are so beautiful they must be here as well.

[mewsifer]

I mean, yeah, I’m one American who’s deathly afraid of something Nostradamus has predicted.

[gaius marius]

A movie doesn’t need to be “justified.”

or at least not any more justified than its ostensible counterpoint on the american/anti-american spectrum, “top gun”.

what will be vastly more interesting is how many people go to see this thing. as the most-expensive turkish flick ever, it could be “titanic” — but then, it could also be “waterworld”.

how many see it and what reaction comes down in turkic society could say something relevant.

[Jennifer (not Karen Cox)]

Isn’t Mark Hamill the voice of the Joker in one of the newest Batman cartoon series?

[Stevo Darkly]

Sometimes being a libertarian means taking an unpopular stand. I loved “I’m With Busey.”

[mediageek]

“or at least not any more justified than its ostensible counterpoint on the american/anti-american spectrum, “top gun”.

You don’t get out much, do you?

[Pro Libertate]

Jennifer, I think Hamill is the voice for the Joker. I saw an interview with him about his voice work, and I’m pretty sure that that was one of them. Wow, right up there with Caesar Romero and Jack Nicholson. Cool.

[Karen Cox]

My son is right at this moment watching the new Batman cartoon, and I can confirm that Mark Hamill is, indeed, the voice of the Joker.

[Turkish avenger]

Tremble in your Nikes, american warmongers, becase it is TURKEY which take over world. Your American secret brotherhoods already wear our hats, soon your women will be our harem slaves, ha ha. Then Turkey will eat *you.*

[Jeff P.]

Hammill also recently reprised his role as The Trickster on Justice League, a role he played live acyion in the Flash TV show. Now on DVD.

[Gary Farber]

I had a long post about this yesterday, incidentally, which a lot of quotes and some other links.
“Isn’t Mark Hamill the voice of the Joker in one of the newest Batman cartoon series?”

No. He’s the voice of the Joker in the old Batman animated series; not in the one that’s been running for the last couple of years.

[Kahn]

Still, the incident damaged Turkish-U.S. relations and hurt Turkish national pride.

And here I thought that Turkish pride had been in the ditch since, oh, about 1918. But instead it turns out that Turks just don’t like Armenians.

Oh, sorry, I mean Americans.

sniff….