alizarin1 wrote:
That collective wisdom has been under heavy ideological siege from historical revisionists for some time now, Owlz, with the result that Hollywood now largely considers nationalism to be a dirty word.  Consequentally, IMO there was no way that Rock would have been translated to the big screen during the last twenty years or so without him being somehow mutilated in the process. And despite fans' current enthusiasm, I'll be very surprised if the upcoming cinematic portrayal of Captain America escapes that fate also.

In his own way Sgt. Rock is an archetype just like Captain America or even Superman-- he's one of those characters who provoke certain visceral reactions... reactions that one can judge people by. For a person to object to those war stories for some other reason like not caring for the artwork or criticizing the writing quality of the comic book scripts is one thing.  But if they despise the character, claim he's shallow, a boy scout, a fascist, a nationalistic propaganda tool, then I know immediately what they're about.  I also know that those people can't be trusted.


Well what Hollywood needs to understand is the character of Rock. And you can't just get some dummy director in there who says, "oh...I never read Sgt. Rock comics, I'm just doing this as I see fit, blah blah blah~~" like comic book film directors always say. Such a director has to sit down and read those comics and figure out what Kanigher and Kubert were trying to say. And that director has to understand what motivates Rock; they have to look past the obvious: everyone wants to think Rock was just a perverse war-monger who relished his time spent with a gun, blowing away Krauts. The filmmakers have to portray him for who he really was: a highly motivated individual, trying to defend his country by any means necessary. He could behave savagely, but you know--it's hard to keep your cool when grenades are being thrown at your feet. People can misread Rock's covers and think that he's a man enjoying himself rushing into battle; but read the comics--he was not having fun, he was doing a job and was very often plagued by his own ghosts, doubts and fears. And human? Emotional? You bet--how many panels have we seen of a tearful Rock holding some poor dying private from Michigan in his arms...

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Rock's kind of hard-nosed determination won us the war in real life. People forget it was very touch and go in Europe for a long time. The real Sgt. Rocks of this country did whatever it took to get the job done, and that's why we're reading this forum in English today and not German.  People worldwide, and even Americans, seem to think it's chic to conveniently forget that if it weren't for our nation's participation in that war, all would have been lost. This is very, very true and revisionist historians can't change that fact any more than they can deny the Holocaust (a ridiculous revision that seems intended for those who have trouble sleeping at night). The truth is the truth. We do not live in a fairy tale world; it can be very, very brutal and sometimes more brutality is the only way to defend ourselves. That's the nature of (winning) war. I think a smartly-crafted movie reminding people that American forces had a very good reason to behave savagely; that doesn't feel the politically correct need to apologize for our war involvements, would be powerful (not to mention realistic) filmmaking. Rock can do all that--the real Rock that is, not the one in the spacesuit or whatever.