A Few Good Men (Rob Reiner, 1992)

 I have often shared my opinions about patriotism. I simply hate that word and find it beyond words guilty. Patriotism has nothing to do with loving anything or caring for anything it means simply to have a clear obsession with the country that you were born. Loving your country and caring for the people there is a totally different thing that is expressed through mature, thought-provoking and daring opinions that have to do with how things could be better, more just, more open, more tolerant and more liberal. For me a true patriot was Hunter S. Thompson who so much and fiercely criticized the American Dream and the American way of living. Patriots are the ones who are protesting against injustice, patriots are the ones that openly attack the dirtiness of the system. Patriots are not the ones who have the flag outside their house or believe that their nation is the best nation in the world. There is a word for those people and that word is "nationalists". 

When I first saw that film written by Aaron Sorkin and directed Rob Reiner I was very young and couldn't get the foulness of the project. I remember that my dad who was with me at the theater was irritated by the film at some points and I couldn't understand why. When I saw it again when I was thirty five I could perfectly understand the irritation of my father. The movie although it has some pretty ethical messages and comments cannot stay away from what is called false patriotism. The glorification of the U.S. Marines probably not through the people but through their very existence is something that threw me out of the movie completely. I liked very much the story, the moral issue of the movie, Jack Nicholson's character and performance, but the movie in the big questions, in the serious questions stayed attached to the false moral code of America. I'm not interested in a movie that tries to say to me how important are the U.S. Marines because they take care the borders of America and keep the God-fearing and respectable citizens of that nation safe. I went to the Greek army to serve because in Greece is obligatory and it was the worst experience that I had in my life. So don't try to sell me angelic opinions about the American army. An army is the very essence of the failure of global piece. Not some ideal thing that we must love and protect.