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        Sunday, June 04, 2006

       The Road To Guantanamo

Here is my full review of "The Road to Guantanamo"

I went to an advance screening of the new movie, “The Road to Guantanamo,” in Beverly Hills Friday night. I am still trying to gather all my thoughts about this brilliant movie which portrays in such stark reality the brutality of what my own country is doing to prisoners, the so-called terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
The film is the story of 4 young men from Tipton, England, who are Muslims of Middle Eastern decent. One of the men, whose name is Asif Iqbal has a marriage arranged by his mother during a trip she made to Pakistan, from which she returned on September 10, 2001. The 4 friends meet in Karachi, to travel to the Pakistani city where the wedding will be held. Being that the men are young, and don’t have much money they visit mosques where they are able to sleep at night on the floor, rather then pay for hotel rooms. At one mosque, an Imam is looking for volunteers to go into Afghanistan to give aid to the people, and the 4 looking for a little adventure, volunteer to go. They cross the Afghani border just as the U.S. bombing campaign begins. They begin to try to find a way out of Afghanistan, but instead wind up in a town called Konduz after getting on a bus that they thought was going back to Pakistan. In Konduz they run into a Taliban stronghold, and are unable to leave the city because of the war that is now going on all around them. At one point one of the 4 gets lost, never to be heard from again. The remaining 3 are told that foreigners will be given safe passage out, they jump on the back of a crowded truck which is supposed to take them out of the area, but the truck gets bombed by U.S. forces, and they get captured by the Afghanistan Northern Alliance which is working with the Americans.

See the Rest of The Review Here

37 Comments:

At 11:27 PM, Pamela Leavey said...

Great stuff HL. I really regret not going to the screening - I was supposed to.

 
At 9:44 PM, Anonymous said...

Your use of racist terms makes you a racist.

Somehow, I bet the irony of your own words goes over your head.

 
At 9:48 PM, H.L. said...

No, you think I am a racist for using the work "cracker" am I right??? Let me explain it to you so you understand. Cracker is a white southern racist. it is only a segment of the white race, therefore it is not disparaging a race, so it is not racist. Anyway if I am a "white racist" then I am racist against myself. I'm sure the meaning of all of this goes right over YOUR head.

 
At 9:55 PM, Anonymous said...

CRACKER:
Offensive.
1. Used as a disparaging term for a poor white person of the rural, especially southeast United States.
2. Used as a disparaging term for a white person. (dictionary.com)

doesn't matter that you are white. it's a bigotted term, and you feel you have the "right" to use it to deride a minority of the population, based on geography and skin color.

the foundation of liberalism is the double standard.

you're living proof.

 
At 9:56 PM, ed said...

Actually, what your review shows is that much of what passes as 'Liberal' is the result of uncritical thinking and vapid sloganeering learned from exposure to university professors whose life experiences, outside of grading term papers, amounts to demonstrating against the Vietnam war 35 years ago.

 
At 9:58 PM, Anonymous said...

any combant out of uniforn can be summerly exicuted .we should start now

 
At 10:03 PM, Capitalist Infidel said...

Can we question your patriotism yet?

 
At 10:04 PM, H.L. said...

Anytime I have ever heard the term Cracker used, it is always in reference to a racist. A white Southern Racist, that is the context I was using the word in. Why would I use a disparaging word agaisnt the entire white race, If I am white myself. How come no one gets upset when a black person uses the N word. I guess they are being racist agaisnt themselves too.

 
At 10:08 PM, Anonymous said...

Almost too ignorant a review to even bother commenting. And, yes, "cracker" is an insulting term whose definition doesn't refer to race. Look it up.

 
At 10:08 PM, H.L. said...

Oh yeah Capitalist I am not a Patriot becuase I don't believe in Bush' wars. Did you read the end of the story where it said that not one person that was at Guantanamo has ever been convicted of a crime. So you are OK with our country torturing people who have done nothign wrong. Yeah and you're the Patriot.

 
At 10:21 PM, Anonymous said...

Since when is a movie review supposed to be a recap of the plot?

My goodness. Did you not have to write book reports in grade school? Did you graduate grade school?

Oh, and BTW:

You have no patriotism.
You do not support the troops.
You cheer when ill befalls the US.
You are disgusting.

 
At 10:23 PM, maureen t. said...

How is it that all this was caught on film? How convenient that those being accused of terrorism have their own film crew to document their mistreatment.

And YES, the term "cracker" is offensive. I guess we in the South are fully justified if we riot and raise hell at the insult.

 
At 10:27 PM, Anonymous said...

Idiotic movie. How about pointing out that they were picked up on a battle field, not randomly from a village. Secondly, how about some truth in the questioning you talk about? All a person has to do is cry abuse and people like you believe without questioning it. Maybe, just maybe, they were enemy combatants and they lied. But since their story matches your beliefs, you won't question it.

Shane

 
At 10:28 PM, Anonymous said...

Poorly written. Poorly researched. Followup comments are a mockery of proper English.

Its okay, though. You have the 'correct' beliefs so you go right ahead and fancy yourself quite the intellectual.

None of your semiliterate friends will disagree with you.

 
At 10:36 PM, Capitalist Infidel said...

Can you believe this far left wing kook fanatic think we're "torturing" those poor al Qaeda souls? Of course he has no facts. If he did I'm sure he'd post them.

Hey, but I bet you "support the troops" eh?

 
At 10:37 PM, H.L. said...

Poorly Written is not a complete sentence.

Poorly researched is not a complete sentence.

Its is incorrect, you left out the apostrophe.

Before you start grading my English check your own first Professor.

 
At 10:39 PM, H.L. said...

Shane, you saw the movie that why you know they were picked up on a battlefield. No, you are commenting on something you know nothing about. But your so smart it doesn't matter right.

 
At 10:45 PM, H.L. said...

Hey Capitalist I didn't think I would have to tell you that I am against the War. Especially Bush's bloodbath in Iraq, you know the one he lied us into. The one that he commited Treason to get us into. Why should I support the troops in something like that. Actually I do support the troops, with my taxes.

 
At 10:53 PM, Anonymous said...

Forget about "cracker", it's the bigotry against the US military that rankles. Anyone who'd make such simplistic, reactionary, woefully uninformed blanket statements based on unproven allegations (which he takes at face value, since in his small mind, US soldiers are guilty until proven innocent) should be kept well and far, far away from holding the reins of national power. It is people like him who constantly hamstring the Democrats from forming anything like a coherent foreign policy, knowing that it'll have to endure the gauntlet of this sort of unreconstructed anti-military leftist yahooism which is pretty much the intellectual equal of the religious right.

I wish John Kerry knew the disgusting things you thought about the service he's proud to be a veteran of, when you were kissing his ass last week. For that matter, I wish he had the stomach to condemn you for the old and bitter fool you are, and send you packing from the once-proud party of FDR and JFK.

I don't question your patriotism, I question your poisonous influence on the Democratic Party.

 
At 10:55 PM, Anonymous said...

Anytime I have ever heard the term Cracker used, it is always in reference to a racist.

"Cracker" does not imply "racist." You fail to show sensitivity. Your definition is incorrect, and offensive.

I have already given you Dictionary.com's definition.

Here is Merriam Webster's definition of "cracker":

A: usually disparaging : a poor usually Southern white
B: capitalized : a native or resident of Florida or Georgia -- used as a nickname

NEITHER source gives "racist" as an element of the definition of "cracker". Yet, you defend your misuse of the term.

A white Southern Racist, that is the context I was using the word in.

Perhaps you should have said "white Southern Racist" instead of "cracker". You misused a term and offended people.

Why would I use a disparaging word agaisnt the entire white race, If I am white myself.

I think you're in a much better position to examine your own motivations for using the term.

The fact that you are white doesn't negate the fact that your use of the word offended people.

How come no one gets upset when a black person uses the N word.

No one? I think Earl Ofari Hutchinson would disagree with you.
http://www.pacificnews.org/jinn/stories/3.20/970926-nword.html

I guess they are being racist agaisnt themselves too.

Maybe you should read Mr. Hutchinson's article.

 
At 10:55 PM, Bill Whittle said...

First of all, on your 10:39 you write "your" when you mean "you're," a common elementary school mistake. Also, you omit the requisite comma after "matter." But this is the kind of childish nonsense that passes for thought for high-powered turbo-intellectuals like H.L..

I highly recommend that anyone who comes to this site visit the "cartoon" pages. There you will find the most childish, witless and talent-free commentary it has ever been my misfortune to behold. It will tell you all you need to know about the emotional complexity, intellectual depth and raving hatred that powers this imbecile.

The troops you disparage, cretin, are prepared to die for your right to spit on them from a safe and anonymous distance. They are in every way your moral, intellectual and physical superiors, and don't you forget it. Oh, and "Hollywood Liberal" really narrows it down, doesn't it? I'm a Hollywood Conservative myself, wildly outnumbered by you cut and paste "intellects," and I at least have the courage to post my opinions under my real name.

Of course, that requires some courage and some character. I recommend you look these terms up in dictionary, because Howard Zinn does not know the meaning of either word, and so you will not know WHAT to think.

 
At 10:59 PM, Anonymous said...

The movie is FICTIONAL. Not real. Made up. A work of imagination, make believe, special effects, and actors. The "beatings" and "abuse" you winced at were as real as Freddy Krueger hacking up a co-ed.

You DO know that, right?

 
At 11:06 PM, H.L. said...

So the troops in Iraq, are fighting for my right to spit in their faces??? Yeah because Saddam was ready to bring his troops over here and take us over. He was going to occupy the country with his republican guard and take my website away. Thanks Guys for saving my freedom of speech from Saddam.

 
At 11:09 PM, H.L. said...

The movie is a true story. There really were 3 guys from Britian who were thrown in Guantanamo for 2 Years, and then were finally released without charges. This was reported in the mainsteam media.

You do know that? Don't you???

 
At 11:19 PM, Anonymous said...

Bill Whittle,
You Sir, are my kinda guy. Not used to putting anything out there, opinionwise, but i hadta say something to you. God Bless.
Maureen A. Watts

 
At 11:41 PM, Anonymous said...

h.l:
How many German Soldiers captured on the battlefield, were charged with a crime after being held in allied P.O.W camps, genius?

This might be quite a shock for you, but just because they are our enemy, it doesn't make their actions as a lawful combatant illegal.

They will be repatriated after we are no longer at War. Sorry for the inconvenience!

 
At 11:52 PM, karl rove said...

I find your lack of (patriotism) disturbing.

 
At 11:57 PM, Anonymous said...

Indeed, ONLY Southerners are capable of racism.

Funny how you are treating fiction as fact, just like the Conservatives in power that you seem to hate so much.

 
At 12:03 AM, H.L. said...

The New Standard 4 Brits Released From Guantanamo.

Guantanamo Briton 'in handcuff torture'

 
At 12:07 AM, H.L. said...

Fox News
British Police Release Former Gitmo Inmates

 
At 12:08 AM, H.L. said...

Now do you believe me?

 
At 12:27 AM, Anonymous said...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_cracker

you lefties throw around the words cracker and the like and us center-right to hard-right types will use the labels liberals, 70's leftist, blame america 1st left and hollywood liberals and let's test which set of pejoratives has more political cut.

the corporate whore republicans have managed to squander the support of swing voters, some values voters and are shaky with small business republicans but the anti-american hardon the 1968 leftists have had for 40 years keeps them competitive.

your ideology may fly on the old pacifica radio network or during a chomsky circle jerk decrying "america the font of all evil" but as a political strategy for achieving the change you desire it is simply and to use a non-pejorative description, pathetic.

 
At 12:50 AM, H.L. said...

To the above poster. Here is what the Wikipedia link you posted says.....

The term "cracker" was and is used most frequently in the South, especially in Georgia and Florida. Since the 1870s a nickname for Georgia is "The Cracker State", which is displayed proudly with no hint of insult.

Historically the word suggested poor, white rural Americans with little formal education. Historians point out the term originally referred to the strong Scotch-Irish of the backcountry (as opposed to the English of the seacoast). Thus a sociologist reported in 1926, "As the plantations expanded these freed men [formerly bond servants) were pushed further and further back upon the more and more sterile soil. They became 'pinelanders,' 'corn-crackers,' or 'crackers.'" [Kephard Highlanders] Frederick Law Olmsted, an observant Yankee who visited the South in the 1850s, noted that some Crackers "owned a good many negroes, and were by no means so poor as their appearance indicated." [McWhiney xvi]

Usage of the term "cracker" generally differs from "hick" and "hillbilly" because crackers reject or resist assimilation into the dominant culture, while hicks and hillbillies theoretically are isolated from the dominant culture. In this way, the cracker is similar to the redneck. In the African American community, "cracker" is a disparaging term synonymous with "white trash." (The OED cites the 1830s origin of white trash as a word used by slaves on rich plantations to ridicule poor whites.)

Since 1900 "cracker" has become a proud or jocular self-description. With the huge influx of new residents from the North, "cracker" is now used informally by some white residents of Florida and Georgia ("Florida cracker" or "Georgia cracker") to indicate that their family has lived there for many generations.......

(End of passage)

1. Ok lets review: Georgia is the "Cracker" State....displayed proudly with no hint of insult.


2. poor, white rural Americans with little formal education....

3. Used Informally...

And That is exactly how I meant it. Now why don't you people find something more important to worry about then one word that I used in a damn movie review.

 
At 1:04 AM, Al Queadaholic said...

I don't know...The movie sounds kinda fun.

 
At 1:16 AM, Anonymous said...

And That is exactly how I meant it. Now why don't you people find something more important to worry about then one word that I used in a damn movie review.

Previously you stated that you meant the term to include the meaning of racist:

Anytime I have ever heard the term Cracker used, it is always in reference to a racist. A white Southern Racist, that is the context I was using the word in.

Now you change your definition and what you meant.

(End of passage)
1. Ok lets review: Georgia is the "Cracker" State....displayed proudly with no hint of insult.
2. poor, white rural Americans with little formal education....
3. Used Informally...


None of those implies racist, which is what you implied in your original use of the word, and which is what you stated outright in one of your comments.

You've been caught being a bigot.

And now you're a bigot who blindly defends his bigotry, and arrogantly refuses to acknowlege the point of view of a minority group who is identifiable by race and geography.

Nice.

 
At 1:30 AM, H.L. said...

But how am I being a bigot, if the term is used informally. So you are saying I am being a racist by using a term that is used informally. So how is that racist.
Also let me again point out. I am a white person, so if Cracker is a racist term against white people, Which according to Wikipedia, it is not then I am being racist against myself. Let me ask again. If a black person uses the N word is that racist? This is a completly ridiculous argument. OK your right, I'm racist against white people OK? You feel better now? Damn Wait until my family finds out. They might disown me.

 
At 1:32 AM, H.L. said...

Sorry guys I'm not going to stay up all night arguing with you, I'm shutting this down until morning.

 

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