How Much Of Their Minds Have Gary Busey and Billy Zane Lost? Now You Can Judge For Yourself.

Hello everyone.

I know this post is kind of old, so I don't know who will be reading this. But I'd like to give my views on this film and clear a few things up for those who haven't seen it.

I bought the DVD. The DVD comes with English, Turkish, and German subtitles. Also, it comes with a full Turkish dub in 5.0 and 2.0. There is also the option of the original Turkish, Arabic, English, and Kurdish dialouge. The special features are all subtitled in English or Turkish (both removable). There are also 3 different trailers too. The DVD is region 2 (most likely PAL also).

Now for the movie. This movie is indeed interesting. The main plot is that while trying to establish a new order in Iraq, the old ways and cultures of Iraq are being trampled on by Sam William Marshall (played by Billy Zane), a special forces commander. He sets Turks, Arabs, and Kurds against each other, all of whom demand a place in Iraq. Meanwhile, various people that are arrested (seemingly all innocent) under Sam's plan are being declared as terrorists and are being used and abused.

Gary Busey's character, as discussed before, is a doctor who extracts the prisoner's organs and sends them to Israel. A few of those organs also go to England and the U.S.A. But mainly they go to Israel under a black market deal. It remains unknown if his character is actually Jewish, but he does have a conversation with Billy Zane's character, saying, "Well my people are the only ones who made a covenant with God. How can you beat that?" He gets mad because some of the sadistic American soldiers kill the prisoners before they reach Abu Grahib prison, and he needs them for the organs. Busey does not play a major character in this film, but an interesting one.

Now onto what starts this movie: the "Hood Event." July 4th, 2003. This is when U.S. troops invaded a secret base in Turkey run by 11 soldiers. They thought that this was a routine visit from their American allies, but it wasn't. Supposedly, the Americans wanted to be the only ones "calling the shots" in Iraq, and so 11 Turkish soldiers were forced to leave the building after it was invaded by U.S. soldiers, all with hoods over their heads for everyone to see. And Turkey took this very personally.

Polat Alemdar, the Turkish hero of this movie, receives a letter from a dear friend of his who was on duty that day, asking him for help to restore the soldiers' honor. His friend commits suicide, and so Alemdar decides to take the mission. Alemdar and his men decide to take revenge on Sam William Marshall (who in the movie is in charge of the hood event), and die for the mission, if needed. All they want to do is have him and his men put on a hood and walk out with the Paprazzi taking pictures of them. But when they discover what Marshall is doing, they know they must kill Marshall and help the people of Iraq.

Of course there are many more details than that. But that's the essential plot. As far as how Americans are portrayed, they are mainly mean, sadistic, and sometimes stupid. Many American soldiers in this movie are wearing the proper uniform, but there are also a lot them who are dressed in tanktops and camoflauge plants, toting big machine guns and no helmets, sporting their spiky hair or mullets. One of them is constantly chewing gum. Think of action figure G.I. Joes. The G.I. Joes also serve as Sam Marshall's personal bodyguards. The very last action scene of the movie has Alemdar's men taking on these particular soldiers.

Apart from the hood event, the film is fiction but based on fact. The prisoner abuse (such as spraying the prisoners and piling them on top of each other naked) is depicted in this movie. Also shown are many civilians getting harmed by American soldiers (some on purpose).

All I have to say about this film is that it's just a different perspective. Hollywood has a few films that portray Middle Easterners as evil, so this is really no different. How can we criticize this film for its horrible protrayal of certain groups of people, when we flock to see Hollywood films that protray our own blacks as stupid, lazy, fat, and/or violent? Hollywood films improperly protray other cultures. So Turkey just did it back. You don't have to see this film if you don't want to, but watch the English trailer and see if you interested.