G.I. Joe - a Real United Nations Hero?

For those of you who don't know they are making a movie about G.I. Joe which repositions the organization as a United Nations style international squad. It will be playing off of the 1980s toys/comics/cartoon show, with them against Cobra Commander. But they are dropping the connection to the United States military, so it will sell better in the international market.

I am curious what people think about this change, whether or not they've ever watched the GI Joe cartoons/read the comic books; I realize this could be a lounge topic, but I think it also goes to our collective attitude about the American Military.

Bryant
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cosmopolitanism is a better message then nationalism. I just hope they have a nice diverse membership and don't spend the whole time fighting brown people.

As well as Destro - those are more James Bond Villians than actual terrorists, so I guess it will be more like that.

Bryant

When I was at the appropriate age (in the 70's), Joe had been de-militarized into a globetrotting adventurer (sort of a wierd combination of James Bond, Indiana Jones, and Steve Irwin).

I have no opinion of the 80's incarnation, other than they're all lousy shots because they fire away but never hit anyone.

wait: I do have another opinion: It was another cog in the "They hate us for our freedom"-type anti-thinking machine. The Cobra leaders had no agenda (other than "take over the world"), no ideology, no charisma, showed absolutely no "loyalty down", and always lost -- how do they draw recruits? How do they command anything?


Then I consider Bush, and the answer becomes obvious.

Their soldiers were amazingly lucky. No matter how hard the GI JOE team tried to kill them they always excaped alive.

Didn't we just have the puppet movie "Team AMerica" pretty well illustrate the stupidity of this theme?

One of my favorite movies has always been The Green Berets starring John Wayne. Watched it a bunch of times while growing up. Well I haven't seen it in over ten years and it was on the other night.

I was amazed at how much my perception had change of it. Looking at it now, the movie was completely laced with war propaganda. The movie was SELLING the war, and they layed it on so thick, it was like trying to drink a gallon of liquid sugar.

How come the military continues to meet their recruiting goals?

Because we have bred our kids for it.

She moved in with Wonder Woman when I got that doll.

But anyway, I remember how all but the most nationalistic kids used to hate that cartoon in the '80s, because nobody ever died in it, and a soldier story with no violence is like a romance with no kissing, or a Cheech n' Chong movie with no drugs: useless.

This movie will hella blow chunks. They would have been better off making one about the Justice League (formerly) of America.

And still from America apparently. Did I just let my geek flag show?

It won't be as good as the cartoon, though.

I'd say that's more like a geek flag lapel pin. ;)

I played with the pubic-headed twelve inch G.I. Joe dolls somewhat when I was a kid. By the time Star Wars made "action figures" a household term, the Joes were out of scale and passe, so we pretty much abandoned them. Then, the company that owns Joe tried to jump on the action figure bandwagon, like so many other toy franchises of the Eighties, and they retooled the Joe line into the cartoon crap with Cobra and all that. You see, at the time they did this, the censorship nannies were in full form complaining that violence on TV was the reason for all of the nation's ills (rather than the record homelessness, poverty and self-righteous avarice of the reagan/bush era, but why blame the source when you can scapegoat?), and the G.I. Joe cartoon was one of the results of their movement. Along with The A-Team (machine gun fire in every episode, and only one death in the whole series) and the censoring of everything funny from old Loony Toons cartoons, this crap was designed to shelter our children from violence. However, the actual result was presenting material that had all the weaponry (more, actually) of a full-fledged war, but without any realistic consequences (the helicopter is disintegrated by the death ray, but all of the people inside escape with parachutes, etc.). So, I don't trust anything with the G.I. Joe label to be more than a corporate scam with a misled political agenda (or, at least, a willingness to promote one), and this new change is right in line with my expectations. Now, the ultra-violent-without-real-consequences Joes can go around blowing shit up for "good" internationally, rooting out the "evil" Cobra agents, which are everywhere. Hmm.

ed.

was that it was designed to get kids used to the idea of fighting for an international organization so they'll be ready to sign-up as Blackwater mercenaries.

I read about this yesterday in the newspaper.