Word: reasonless
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...which I did not understand) nor his characterization of the theater-goers who reacted hostilely to the Russian boxer Drago as "alleged human beings" is what particularly upsets me. What I do find disconcerting is his political mindset, particularly his characterization of the nation's current political mood as "reasonless xenophobia." This mindset sees improper jingoism in such movies as Rocky IV and Rambo. It views them as irrational, or at best incredibly simplistic. These movies present a fairy-land world of American virtue versus totalitarian evil; and since the world really is not anything like this, these movies...
...Home and Apocalypse Now are two examples. These movies also have a simplistic and unyielding world view: that America's anti-communist ideology is intellectually immature and therefore our wars against communism are immoral crimes against humanity. Yet I have never heard anyone describe such militarily isolationist views as "reasonless xenophobia." It seems that the same people who so detest Sylvester Stallone's simplistic analysis of the world especially approve of these movies. If the film simplistically denigrates and villifies American values and actions, it is proper and laudable. If it simplistically glorifies American values and institutions, then...
Rocky IV is no ordinary movie--in fact it's barely a movie at all. It is a Gesamtkunstwerk done MTV style, a self-inflicted patriotic catharsis of shameless propaganda exploiting the current American past-time of reasonless xenophobia. Whatever you call it, I cannot deny Stallone's drawing power nor can I blame the people who froze with me in order to see his hulking physique. For better or worse, the former porn star has created a myth that exerts a definite influence over the attitudes and behavior patterns of most viewers...