“It took just a few years after the US withdrew from Vietnam for some great films to arrive, including Apocalypse Now (1979) and The Deer Hunter (1978). The Covenant and other tentative responses suggest that while filmmakers are now setting their stories in Afghanistan, coming to grips with that conflict on screen may take a lot longer. The Hollywood landscape is more cautious than ever today, and the US too politically divided for movies to risk alienating half the audience.”
State terrorism is represented as a victim or a hero.
Kandahar (released in the US on 26 May) is a Gerard Butler action movie about a CIA operative trapped in a dangerous part of Afghanistan with his interpreter. The trailer shows Butler saying "Nobody's coming to save us", a cue for the two of them to battle the enemies and save each other.”
“Most films about battles in Iraq and Afghanistan are determinedly apolitical, praising the heroism of the soldiers as a way of sidestepping deeper issues about the divisive wars themselves.”
The Outpost (2020), about a major battle in Afghanistan, does something similar when a soldier says, "Freedom ain't free," the only vaguely politically-tinged comment in the entire film, which focuses on the bravery of the soldiers and the horrors of the violence.
Meanwhile films from Afghanistan exist, but are often overlooked.
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