Unlikely critic’s statement of the month…

Updated on June 21, 2005 By Ken Begg 7 Comments

From a capsule review of the DVD of actor Tim Robbins’ off-Broadway play Embedded, which, surprise, is an anti-Bush (who is called ‘neopatriotic’, whatever that means), anti-Iraq war piece.

“Its scabrous hilarity is worthy of Orwell as it exposes the lie that “war is a noble porno.”

First, I have no idea what that means. I’m sorry, whose lie is it that ‘war is a noble porno’? However, the comparison of Tim Robbins to Orwell had me about falling out of my chair. GEORGE FRICKIN’ ORWELL!!! Remember in Annie Hall, how Woody Allen shut up a pontificating ass by reaching behind a sign and producing Marshall McLuhan? I’d love to be able to bring Orwell back to review Robbins’ little agitprop play.

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  • Zev

    There’s a scene in one of the old Moonlighting episodes where a young Tim Robbins gets hit by a bedpan. This really makes me glad that footage exists.

    War is a noble porno? Well, ummm… geez, I got nothing. Maybe Robbins is against women in the armed forces? I don’t know.

  • Ericb

    Hell I’m a bit of a lefty myself and even I find all this anti-Bush hyperbole ridiculous. These oeople need read about Woodrow Wilson to see how bad things can really get.

  • twitterpate

    Strange, I thought the “old lie” was “Dulce et Decorum est Pro patria mori” – it is sweet and decorous to die for one’s country.

    Maybe “war is a noble porno” is a modern translation?

  • KurtVon

    Apparently “War is a noble porno” is the last line in the play. I’m pretty sure this is a textbook case of “strawman” then, which is a rhetorical tactic in which you make up the statement for your oppnent which you then properly discredit.

    It’s a pretty popular technique in filmmaking, but it’s astounding a reviewer would fall for it.

  • John Markley

    “War is a noble porno” sounds like something out of a poorly translated Japanese advertisement.

  • twitterpate

    john markley, yes, the line does have a sort of “written by someone who does not understand English well” effecxt to it, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, it appears that to both Robbins and the reviewer, it’s “profound”.

    But it would make a great tagline to a Hong Kong martial arts movie, wouldn’t it?

  • They must’ve had to dig to find a good review; I heard that most critics, regardless of politics, thought the play was a piece of pretensious crap.