Dirty War (2004)

My generation may be called many things, but we should be called The Day After generation. At work, another attorney confessed that he watched T2 just for Sarah Connor's nuclear nightmare.

Even though a nuclear holocaust was a horrifying reality during our lifetime, it was at least entertaining. We were forbidden to watch it because we were too young, and it was too graphic, but of course, we still did. The ending was not hopeful, and everyone was doomed. When the movie ended with Steve Guttenberg's skin peeling, and his hair was gone, you knew that this wasn't Police Academy. This movie was serious and sobering. Woo hoo!

It was only a matter of time before I was reading On The Beach and watching The Omega Man. Yeah, baby. It may be a morbid fascination, but it is a real one. To face death and the destruction of all humanity should idealy be greeted with popcorn. Making death something that can fit on the idiot tube or the silver screen may be one of the most effective ways to cope with realistic terror. If you don't give us realistic terror in entertainment, we will make it up: zombies, monsters and alien invasions.

When I watched the Matrix with my law school friends, the movie's premise was accurate. Business was booming, and the economy was terrific. Our futures were bright, and the possibilities were infinite. We needed to face our mortality in the movies because the only danger we faced was old age.

Then September 11th happened, and these movies hit just a little too close to home. When my wisdom tooth was pulled out last year on the weekend of July 4th (so I could take less time off at work), I was in pain and watching Independence Day for the fiftieth time, but the first time since 9/11. Maybe it was the pain medication, but I found myself weepy thinking about all those poor people before I thought, "What the hell is wrong with me. It's a movie!"

This reaction did not stop me from watching HBO's Dirty War, which was recently broadcast on PBS with a public forum aired after the movie so the local "experts" could discuss the serious issues raised in the film. The old me really couldn't wait to get to the part of the film where the unthinkable happens, and the special effects are unleashed. The new me realized that the old me was too young to understand that this could really happen, and real lives would be at stake.

Sigh. It is just a movie, a good one, but a movie nevertheless. I found myself more riveted by the rangling within the incompetent [British] government trying to balance spin control versus effectively preparing homeland security forces. Of course, spin control wins. If a bureaucrat has to choose between respecting the chain of command or actually making an effective decision, the chain of command is always going to win. Follow the correct channels and don't make waves.

The special effects were not notable, but the human drama saved the movie. It was a little terrifying to imagine yourself boxed into an area contaminated by radiation, and the only way to get out is to wait in a non-existent chaotic line to be stripped naked and scrubbed in front of the world with none of your belongings.

As I get older, different things scare me: unresponsive, ineffective bureaucracies, pushy crowds, public nudity and crazy terrorists. The blast is part of all of that, but not really the problem or the cause. Maybe it is a sign of maturity to recognize that nothing is scarier than crazy people who respect a certain ideology, particularly the ideology of authority over the necessities of daily life.