"Angel Has Fallen" from 2019 is a fascinating American action film. Both it and its 2013 precursor "Olympus Has Fallen" must have looked extremely unrealistic when they were released. The plots of both movies revolve around terrorist attacks and various high level conspiracies.
In the first movie, North Korean commandos take the US president hostage to force an American military withdrawal from the Korean peninsula. Soon half of the White House goes up in flames! The evil Reds even manage to take over some kind of all-powerful AI system which apparently controls the US nuclear arsenal. "Angel Has Fallen" is even less realistic. This time, a private military contractor tries to kill the POTUS with a drone swarm on behalf of the vice president who wants to start a war with Russia. At another point, an entire hospital is blown sky high. Oh, and there´s the old guy in the wood cabin who single-handedly kills 100+ mercenaries coming right at him?!
Or *are* they unrealistic? In 2025, both films look like freakin´ documentaries. Obviously because of all the Trump stuff. Or even the anti-Trump ditto. Which brings me to a few peculiar things I noticed about "Angel Has Fallen"...
The film´s president, Allan Trumbull, is obviously a liberal Democrat. I mean, he´s Black (starred by Morgan Freeman, no less). He also comes across as a wise elder statesman. Interestingly, he wants peace with Russia and is seen as a candidate for change. By contrast, the vice president is a war hawk who almost comes across as a stereotypical Republican or Neo-Conservative, including his connections with a powerful private security firm which makes profit by starting new wars.
But please note that in 2019, this would have aligned the fictitious Trumbull with the very real Donald Trump! *He* was seen (rightly or wrongly) as the "peace candidate", indeed, Trump was even accused of "Russian collusion" by...the Democrats. Yes, the Neo-Cons (including Trump´s vice president Mike Pence) were hawks, but so where the main-stream liberal Democrats. That Trumbull is a stand-in for Trump would also explain a weird anomaly in the narrative. The militia (usually seen as far right and pro-Trump) seems to support Trumbull! The mountain militia at the gas station tries to arrest agent Mike Banning (wrongly assuming he tried to kill the president). And Banning´s very own father turns out to be a militia guy and conspiracy theorist. He´s even compared to the Unabomber! Yet, Clay Banning is one of the good guys, eventually siding with his son and de facto with Trumbull.
Note also that the fiery scene at Clay´s shack is really a kind of New World Order conspiracy narrative. The kook in the woods turns out to be right: foreign mercenery soldiers on US soil really do try to take over the federal government and take out the lone truth-teller, who flees with a type-writer and his manifesto...but not before he treats them to a full Rambo-esque extravaganza.
To sum up: "Angel Has Fallen" looks like an extremely strange attempt to synthesize pro-peace left-liberalism with macho daring and even some kind of barely hidden far right themes. I admit I was both intrigued and entertained. I´m still trying to comprehend the New Age fluff during the end credits. Eh?
With those reflections, I leave you. For now.
No comments:
Post a Comment