A Strange Movie to Pick a Jingoism Fight Over

Warning: the following post contains significant spoilers about the movie The Expendables. Those still interested in seeing this film should consider themselves forewarned.



To the tune of $35 during its opening weekend, movie audiences seem to be enjoying The Expendables.

Film critics like the LA Times' Steven Zeitchik, not so much. In a blogpost that continues to draw more and more attention to itself, Steven Zeitchik casts suspicious aspersions on what he terms the alleged patriotism of the film.

What ensues is enough to make one doubt if Zeitchik even boethered to see the film before writing about it.

Exhibit A for Zeitchik seems to be a remark made by General Garza (David Zayas), the military dictator of a tiny (and fictional) Central American island.

In the film, Garza declares that "we will kill this American disease". Zeitchik either didn't pay attention to the seconds before this announcement, or simply never saw the film.

This statement immediately followed a tense confrontation with James Munroe (Eric Roberts), a former CIA agent gone rogue who is financing Garza's regime in return for a share of the cocaine he plans to export from the island.

During the confrontation, Garza returns Munroe's money, and accuses him of hiring Barney Ross (Sylvester Stallone) and the Expendables to kill him.

Zeitchik denounces the film for allegedly casting the villain with a lack of post-war moral ambiguity. But how's this for moral ambiguity? Crushed by rejection by his daughter Sandra (Gisele Itie), Garza begins to feel ashamed of how he has been running his country. Garza apologizes to his men for his selfishness, and promises that he will rid his country of the influences that had led him so astray: namely, Munroe.

Moments before his balcony address, Garza tells Sandra "you are who I should have been."

The General's reign ends with Munroe himself shooting him in the back. If the bullet didn't kill him, the long fall to the ground that follows certainly does.

Whether or not Garza's conscience attack would have taken will thus not be seen. He could spiral back into tyranny. Or he could transform himself into a benevolent ruler.

In the case of Munroe, at surface there seems to be no moral ambiguity -- until one considers that he originally built this operation for the CIA, and merely cut them out when he realized he wasn't going to get a share.

Moreover, Church -- the Agency broker -- hasn't hired Ross and company to kill Garza (and Munroe) as an act of benevolence. Rather, they want to get back in control of the island and the drug operation.

Ross and company -- who, upon appearances, may also feature a British and Chinese national, and so couldn't strictly be described as American -- may well have delivered the island into the hands of its people and a new era of freedom.

Or, they may have simply set the island up for the installation of a new dictator by the CIA.

Zeitchik's screed against the film has even driven Sylvester Stallone onto FOX News' O'Reilly Factor, in which he is forced to defend his film for its alleged patriotism. His initial statement, "I didn't do nuttin'", is really all the defense that is required.

As it pertans to Steven Zeitchik, he's clearly offered criticism about a film he hasn't yet seen. If there is any greater statement on the sad state of film criticism -- where denouncing a film without having seen it is deemed acceptable -- one would struggle to imagine what it is.

The Expendables Will Kick Your Ass

Taken at face value, The Expendables, as a concept, seems a little contrived.

Starring Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Terry Crews, Randy Couture, "Stone Cold" Steve Austin, Mickey Rourke and Eric Roberts, the plot of The Expendables is largely mortgaged to its concept: it's an all-star action movie.

Also starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Bruce Willis in cameo roles, The Expendables left out just enough classic action stars to (possibly) warrant a sequel.

Barney Ross (Stallone) is the leader of The Expendables, a globe-trotting mercenary outfit that tackles anything from Somali pirates to political assassinations. Partnered with Lee Christmas (Statham), Ying Yang (Li), Toll Road (Couture), Hale Caesar (Crews) and the unstable Gunnar Jensen (Lundgren), the film opens with The Expendables recovering the crew of a hijacked freighter from pirates.

In the film, The Expendables are portrayed simply as good guys working in a dangerous field. They receive their work from Tool (Rourke) a well-connected ex-mercenary suffering from a troubled conscience.

The Expendables pits Ross and company against James Munroe (Roberts), a rogue CIA operative running a Central American island as his own personal fiefdom with the help of funds likely pilfered from the Agency.

After reconoitering the island with Christmas, Ross at first decides to turn the job down, until a soft spot for Sandra Garza (Giselle Itie) draws him back to try to save her from a certain death.

The Expendables provides a narrative of mercenaries as good guys.

Yet those familiar with the activities undertaken by mercenaries -- knowledge that has become increasingly public as firms like Blackwater ply their trade in the public eye -- know that mercenaries are unequivocally not good guys.

A recent film that was much closer to having it right was (ironically), The A-Team.

In The A-Team, Colonel Hannibal Smith (Liam Neeson) leads a small unit consisting of Lieutenant "Faceman" Peck (Bradley Cooper), Captain HM Murdock (Sharlto Copley) and BA Baracus (Couture's UFC cohort Quentin "Rampage" Jackson).

When approached by CIA Agent Lynch (Patrick Wilson) to recover a printing press and plates that can be used to counterfeit American currency, Smith is eager to take on the job.

However, mercenary outfit leader Pike (Brian Bloom) seems to think that the task of recovering the press and plates rightfully belongs to him. After Smith and his A-Team successfully recover the press and plates, Pike steals the plates and escapes.

Smith is approached in prison by Lynch and encouraged to break out of prison, track down Pike, and recover the plates. The relentlessly-resourceful Smith has already been planning to do precisely this.

In Pike, The A-Team presents mercenaries not as the proclivities of an action film would prefer them, but as they typically are: as ruthless, unethical and borderline criminal.

There is one simple reason why real-life mercenaries operate in the manner they do: they are not subject to military discipline. Nor can they realistically be subjected to military discipline.

As such, the very use of mercenaries -- having become an increasingly-known public issue following numerous scandals in Iraq -- is an extremely irresponsible foreign policy decision.

Yet, even as The A-Team is closer than The Expendables to the reality of mercenaries, at the end of the film -- without giving too much away in the form of spoilers -- Smith and his unit become mercenaries: "good-guy" mercenaries helping people, often against "bad-guy" mercenaries.

Even when Hollywood action films come close to a truthful portrayal of mercenaries, the traditional folk hero portrayal of mercenaries still seems to bubble to the surface.