poly: The Mailman

David Brin says of _The Mailman_:

>I predicted 3 groups would hate it. The right -- cause he slaps down
>militia solipsism... the left -- cause he depicts niceness under an
>American flag, and cynics, who would loathe anything that even vaguely
>resembled a centripetal love of civilization. Well... a fourth group, who
>can overdose on Costner!
>
>...the one thing he got absolutely right -- the fact
>that, if America ever vanished, we would wind up missing it terribly. He
>got that spot on, and it's the important part.

Before the movie came out, a friend described the premise: a bum (right?)
puts on a mailman's suit and letter bag, and people start giving him mail...
What a great idea for a story! What a moving premise!

But the preview featured that screen-filling American flag
("The Restored United States of America"), the anti-American bad guys
in big black leather coats with rifles, heroism in the face of death...
I said to my companion in the theater, "Another movie conflating
civilization and patriotism."

 --Steve

--
<sw@tiac.net>Steve Witham
Don't dream it, su to it.