From presidents on down, officials of the United States engage in murder, treason, terror, bombing and torture - all on the soil of the country. Government by atrocity is built into the executive branch. Military and intelligence agencies send executioners into the streets to shoot Americans and foreigners or blow them up in their hotels.
The involvement of these agencies makes thousands of American military and civil servants guilty before, during and after the fact.Judges, up to the Supreme Court, cover up murder plots. American police and prosecutors also know, and do nothing. Politicians can get away with faking their own assassinations to get elected and with other scams, like drug control.
Taken all together, that is a vision of American government presented by a variety of American moviemakers.
U.S. papers devote pages of print to the Oscar celebrations, and TV hours of air time. So one lone column of type on this peculiar vision of U.S. government seems worth the denunciations it will bring.
The crimes mentioned above were detailed in four movies I have seen. Millions around the world also saw them, or will.
There are other such films, which I escaped. Those in which I was trapped are "JFK," "Lethal Weapon," "Bob Roberts" and "Point of No Return." That is a beauty, a collector's item of Satanization that should play big in Tehran.
In a government mansion, convicted killers are honed in the techniques of murder by specialists working for an American intelligence agency, presumably the CIA. For killers or trainers who disobey or fail: immediate death.
On orders, Bridget Fonda, playing one of the killers, slaughters a foreigner, a squad of his bodyguards and bysitting diners in a restaurant.
Then her handlers use her to plant an explosive in a California hotel suite, blowing out the side of the building.
I wonder - did the producers themselves give a thought to the idea of showing American officials capable of bombing terrorism against American civilians in an American city? Would they still make that scene after the bombing of the World Trade Center? How does this hit you: The CIA did it.
If moviemakers are willing to portray a decent government system as evil, would they also play the flip side?
With the election of Bill Clinton, the film demonization of American government may no longer be so acceptable in movieland.
But if there is a trend to movies showing American government as a pretty decent process run by pretty decent people, I haven't seen it.