Say Anything Blog

Just got this press release from MGM’s PR people:

Century City, CA June XX, 2007 ­ Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. (MGM) will help America¹s troops overseas celebrate Independence Day this year by screening the studio¹s Vietnam War biopic Rescue Dawn in Iraq.  On July 4, 2007, over 2,000 troops stationed at Camp Anaconda, a large U.S. base near Balad, will screen the film highlighting the amazing life of Dieter Dengler, the only American to ever break out of a POW camp in the impenetrable Laotian jungle during the Vietnam War.  The film, which will also be released in Los Angeles and New York on July 4th, will be introduced with a taped message to the troops from the film¹s lead actors Christian Bale, Steve Zahn and Jeremy Davies.  Rescue Dawn will expand its release domestically in ten markets on July 13, 2007 and release wide on July 27, 2007.

MGM arranged the Rescue Dawn screening in Iraq through the motion picture team of The Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), a division of the military which provides products and services to military families worldwide and generates earnings to supplement military morale, welfare and recreation programs.

We are proud of our troops in Iraq and we wanted to do something special to honor their commitment,² said Rick Sands, MGM¹s Chief Operating Officer.  Screening a film about Dieter¹s heroic life on Independence Day could note more appropriate to show our thanks to the brave men and women overseas.

I’m...impressed.  Hollywood trying to boost the morale of our troops by showing them a movie about an American soldier and hero?  Classy move, and certainly unexpected from rabidly left-wing Hollywood.

Maybe there’s some people over there with brains in their heads after all.