Movie Review: Military Intelligence and You! - Page 2

In the beginning of the film, you hear the narrator (Clive Van Owen) say, in that typical 40s-era narrator's voice: "It is intelligence that distinguishes dangerous enemies from merely annoying foreigners." An amusing yarn of cultural detachment and deliberate estrangement from anyone that Americans might consider "foreign" is woven through the film along with a hyperbolic love of the Red, White, and Blue which was typical of the films of the era. There is a "big fat World War" going on. "The coalition of America (and company) is softly raining down bombs of liberty so our enemy can breathe the sulfur-scented air of freedom." There is no shortage of satirical wit in this film. The narrator says, at one point,

There are no guarantees in Intelligence. In a perfect world we'd know everything about the enemy before we went into battle. More than that, we'd know how they think; what they feel. Maybe if we knew those things there'd be no need for us to fight at all. For if we could only strip away their language, culture, and religion, foreigners wouldn't be so foreign anymore. They'd be more like Canada - big friendly harmless Canada.

According to the tongue-in-cheek narrator, the flow of intelligence becomes more uncertain as it races up the chain of command, from the "hot news" issued by mission commanders to mid-level managers who misfile them to regional coordinators who fail to appreciate their significance. After its debilitating trip up the ranks, the intelligence finally reaches Central Command, "the nerve center of our war on evil and the entire axis of generalities."

After one mission, which has been woefully unsuccessful because of bad intelligence, a sarcastic Major Mitch Dunning (Mackenzie Astin) tells Major Nick Reed (Patrick Muldoon), "Try not to think of this as a humiliating failure." Dunning reminds Major Reed that we cannot attack based on hunches or second-hand gossip.

The war-loving and all-around tough guy General Tasker (John Rixey Moore) is a Rumsfeld-type character who is all too often swayed by Major Reed's overconfidence in what turns out to be shaky or tragically insufficient intelligence. General Tasker gives "rush to war" its true meaning, and reminds us of recent sprints to war by the Bush Administration that would rival Jesse Owens in a 50-yard dash. After an embarrassing intelligence failure, he asks the rhetorical question, "What sort of nation would we be if we sent in troops just because something might be there? What we need is rock-solid roof." Major Reed desperately apologizes, "I'm sorry I couldn't manufacture any for you!"

Article Author: Jude Nagurney Camwell

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