Kerry documentary film "Tour of Duty" set for pre-election release

[Democat]

Drawing on his 40-year association with the presidential hopeful, documaker George Butler (Schwarzenegger's "Pumping Iron") is producing and directing "Tour of Duty," a film on Democratic candidate John Kerry, which will hit theaters during the peak pre-election period.

Based on Douglas Brinkley's bestselling book of the same name, the film will focus on Kerry's Navy tour of duty in Vietnam, the years of peace advocacy that followed and how each contributed to shape his political life thereafter.

"John Kerry has had the most interesting life of anyone in the presidential arena since Theodore Roosevelt," Butler told Daily Variety. "His history as a politician is that he's been underestimated, and that he has enormous willpower, not unlike Arnold Schwarzenegger."

Kerry is fully cooperating with the making of the film, which includes new interviews in addition to extensive archival material.

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117902838?categoryid=13&cs=1

The article has more quotes and also talks about other political movies coming out soon, including Fahrenheit 9/11, The Hunting of the President, and Silver City.

[Used and Abused]

1. I hope George Butler doesn't pull a Martin Bashir

Martin Bashir did wonders for Michael Jackson's career.

[TroglodyteScholar]

2. Something tells me...

...this is going to backfire. I mean...I think Americans generally like that Kerry served in Vietnam, but this kind of thing will probably turn a lot of people off.

I hope I'm wrong..

[IndianaGreen]

3. particularly when people compare the antiwar Kerry of Vietnam

with the one that is advocating "staying the course" in Iraq today.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. Bring it on.

I'll take my chances with Kerry over Bush. Hell. 10 dead over the weekend in a war started by a "champagne guard unit" CiC. And it is more and more clear that sleepy Bush sat back and allowed 9/11 to happen on his watch.

Kerry looks better by the day to ordinary Americans who actually have to die for the ruling class.

[IndianaGreen]

5. Let's see this time next year

when Kerry is keeping our troops in Iraq.

[Frodo]

6. How does this fit within Campaign Finance Laws?

I seem to remember that the networks were not able to run Ahnold movies during last year's California election because they would be forced to give equal time to the other candidates or run afoul of campaign finance laws.

How can you make a feature film about a candidate and run it during election season and not have it be a multi-million dollare campaign contribution?

Now, if he was being paid by the DNC and they planned to run it at the convention... THAT strikes me as appropriate.

[seasat]

18. The Arnold films were on broadcast TV.

The laws governing the airways require equal time when publicizing a canidate and not a paid avertisement. They thought that the Swartzeneger films would require them to give the other candidates similar air time. The Kerry film would not come under the same ruling unless it is run on network TV and not paid for by the Kerry campaign.

[Frodo]

19. Hmmm. But...

There won't be trailers run on network TV? Reviews? Etc

[demdave]

7. The Reps. are already mounting a counter-strike....warning: newsmax site

B.G. Burkett: Navy Commanders to Cast Doubt on Kerry's War Record

Several Navy officers who supervised Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry when he commanded a swift boat in Vietnam are preparing to publicly question his war record - including the circumstances under which he was awarded three Purple Hearts - a noted Vietnam War historian revealed on Sunday.

Burkett, whose 1999 book, "Stolen Valor," is considered to be the definitive history of of falsified Vietnam War claims, told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg that Kerry's former commanders would allege that the top Democrat's Purple Hearts were awarded for "self-reported injuries that were virtually nonexistent."

"He never got a day of treatment, he never spent a day in a medical facility," Burkett said. "These were all self-reported wounds, which you're going to hear from some swift boat guys in the future as to the nature of those wounds."

Burkett said he had personally spoken to the Navy commanders who were preparing to go public about Kerry's decorations.

-----things move quickly in an election year----

[Frodo]

8. It does raise a potential problem with the movie.

I had read before that the purple hearts were somethnig less than "almost lost a leg to a VC bullet" category wounds. How would the film portray this? We know he didn't agree (to his credit) with the war and probably wanted to go home. Will the film portray his wounds as severe/heroic? The right will shoot him down. Will it show them as mere scratches that someone else insisted qualified for a Purple Heart? Is that true?

Is there some other way to show this that won't actually end up hurting us?

[demdave]

9. I think the entire movie idea is a losing proposition.

In order for it to be entertaining it has to be embellished. You need the kind of "Sgt. York" "Audie Murphy" movie treatment to turn it into something the general public will plop movie admission down for. Otherwise it is a documentary, which loses on 2 fronts. Documentaries are boring and they are open to refutation.

I remember a documentary on the Bush presidential run, boring and inconclusive.

[Frodo]

10. I think you hit the nail on the head.

And if it IS "embellished" you KNOW what the right's response is going to be.

[Ravy]

11. Look what Dumb and Dumber did for Bush/Cheney. (n/t)

[m-jean03]

12. What a jerk.

Wounded in battle is wounded in battle, who cares how or to what extent? Anyone who fights in any war is a hell of a lot braver than I could ever be.

[Frodo]

13. Well, yes and no.

You would still end up fighting if you got drafted. So alot of them weren't "braver" than you. But Kerry volunteered to go over (as I understand it) and that mitigates some of the "wounds" issue.

But if he got to leave 'nam early because of three wounds that didn't sideline him a single day while others had bullet holes and went back to the front?

It could certainly become an issue.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

14. VAIW supports Kerry

Kerry was shot at least once. Fuck the GOP slime. All they can do is discredit people like Kerry and Kerrey and Cleland et al.

http://www.vaiw.org/vet/index.php

[Frodo]

17. What is VAIW and how is that responsive?

OK, I read the link, so I know who they are. But what is the relevance? His wounds are "legit" because a newer anti-war group likes him?

He "was shot at least once"?? That's good enough to get a ticket home?

Look there's "shot" and there's "shot". If he didnt' spend a single day on the IR he's going to have trouble explaining it.

I'm saying it could be politically damaging... NOT that it will make a difference in the race.

[m-jean03]

20. I don't know. As far as I care, there's just "shot".

As in "He fought and bled for his country".

[Frodo]

22. If only the voters take it so simplisticly.

We lost the GA senate race when (and this was far from the only reason) we played up the "fought and bled for his country" when it turned out he picked up a grenade and injured himself. The details really do matter to most people. Plenty of people were "shot and died" plenty of others were "shot and lost a leg" or "shot and laid up for a month".

It really does matter if it turns out he was "shot and had a really bad bruise for a couple days - but then got to fly home". I know it doesn't matter to YOU and it sure isn't going to make me vote for Nader, but it IS an issue he will have to deal with if we are going to make this one about Kerry's heroism.

[m-jean03]

23. I see what you're trying to say.

But as someone who can't even handle violent video games, I don't feel like I have a right to criticize anyone who has been to hell and back. And those GOP assholes really don't either.

The wounds are not just about his heroism, they're about his sacrifice. Someone who bleeds at all in a war has clearly made a real sacrifice -- that of his own blood. To undermine such a thing with pointless accusations is in very poor taste, IMO.

Let no one forget, he did save someone's life. If we are talking heroism, that is enough, in my book.

[Cocoa]

15. will Rove counter with a movie about Bush?

a documentary about his National Guard service? Interviews with all the people that remember him there?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

16. I'm sure a documentary could be done.

it wouldn't be very flattering to Bush though. It'd be nice to interview the guys who got bumped off the Texas NG waiting list and drafted and sent to Vietnam in his place.

[trogdor]

21. More interesting than JFK?

They did a feature film of his World War II exploits. Others who rise to this level of "interestingness" prior to having become President would include FDR, Ike, and Reagan.

[demdave]

24. PT 109 was released in 1963, not before Kennedy was elected.

I believe what Frodo and I are thinking is that there are more down sides to releasing such a movie before the election than up sides. Having seen the debate about Kerry's wounds, and that is on a clearly partisan site (DU), I can only imagine what kind of comments would be generated by a Hollywood representation of the "facts". I don't need to see opponents dragging out people who were more seriously wounded than Kerry to tell their stories of how they were sent back into the fighting. I know that there is no such thing as totally balanced results from any policy, I just don't think we need to get into an argument about it when there are much more relevant topics to discuss.


This movie would be a distraction at best.