NP? movies influence US foreign policy?

[pynchonoid]

http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/index.cfm/action/tikkun/issue/tik0301/article/030112a.html

Captain America Takes on Iraq 
by Robert Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence 

"[..] The Captain America complex is a bipolar form of
civil religion that periodically blesses crusades
against evil enemies, often adding the stamp of
biblical authority, in the pursuit of peace. Since
Captain America must always take the law into his own
hands to rid the world of evil, this civil religion
produces acute conflicts between the impulse for holy
crusades and a commitment to the rule of law. 

[...] In addition to the overtly religious blessing of
nationalistic zeal, the Captain America complex has
given shape to superheroic mythologies that now seem
to enthrall even our president. The popular culture
that seems most apt for grasping President George W.
Bush's populist style of leadership in international
relations comes to us in three important movies:
Independence Day (1996), Air Force 1 (1997), and the
Rambo film First Blood (1982). Independence Day and
Air Force 1 are the most successful films ever made
about American presidents, real or imaginary. The
Rambo character elicited the president's approval in a
bizarre incident that occurred in Germany this year.
What can these blockbuster films tell us about public
taste and the presidential state of mind?

[...] To accompany a very dismissive "Masters of the
Universe" article on the Bush administration's crusade
against evil, Germany's news magazine Der Spiegel
created a satirical cover depicting each national
security player in the role of a zealous destroyer
from American popular culture. George W. Bush,
surrounded by his advisers, received a muscular Rambo
body holding an automatic weapon and ammunition belts.

Daniel Coats, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, visited Der
Spiegel's editorial offices—not to protest the
caricature or the article's viewpoint about reckless
unilateralism—but to report that "the president was
flattered," whereupon he ordered thirty-three
poster-size renditions of the cover for the White
House. Each policy maker on the cover reportedly
wanted a copy. [...] "


-Doug




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