"A Timeless Call" is a documentary from 2008, so this one will have its 10th anniversary next year. It runs for slightly over 7 minutes only and I read that it was made for the Democratic National Convention 2008, so basically the event that crowned Barrack Obama as the official presidential nominee by the Democrat Party quite a while before he went on to go up against John McCain and become the first African American President a while later. Now after watching this little film, you may wonder why this was made for this event. And the answer is: Patriotism. It's true that military usually tends to vote more Republican, but maybe this was a Democrat attempt to change that a little bit. And looking at Obama's victory it may have helped. Now regardless of the way Obama destroyed the country in the last 8 years and people still stayed blind to it, this film here is a perfect example of how liberal Hollywood is these days. Spielberg and Hanks are still very much respected in the USA and everywhere else in the world, but making more films like this one here will change that for the negative I'm sure. Especially Hanks' entry was pretty cringeworthy and that comes from somebody who quite likes him as an actor. As for Spielberg's direction: There was really nothing in here that stood out and most other mediocre filmmakers could have come up with this work too in terms of talent. The ones I feel sorry for the most here are the soldiers and veterans depicted. Their stories deserve a lot more than approximately one minute screen time per person, sometimes even 30 seconds only. I certainly give this one a thumbs-down and 4 star out of 10 is still really on the generous side.
3 Reviews
Many questions arise from this disrespectful documentary
Horst_In_Translation17 March 2017
Warning: Spoilers
Not worthy of Spielberg
bms512 January 2010
Warning: Spoilers
The question is not whether propaganda is good or bad in the abstract. The question is the ends to which a particular film is manipulating a particular audience. In the case of "A Timeless Call" the exceptional professional powers of Spielberg, Williams, and Hanks have been amassed and paid for in an attempt to distinguish the Democrats from the Republicans in their higher sense of moral purpose, and not incidentally to try to win over a quantity of the military-minded base that has traditionally gone Republican. In it's duplicitous sentimentality and money shots of people struggling to hold back tears it reminds me of nothing so much as Billy Tauzin's skillful deflection of all pertinent arguments in the health care debate to a teary-eyed defense of Republicans' greater love of their mothers. It reduces the horror and outrage of war to a simplistic message that, anticipating the argument Obama would make in accepting the Nobel Peace Prize, exempts some wars (Democrat-sanctioned wars rather than their Republican counterpart, in this case) from the moral outrage with which anyone would otherwise justifiably react in the face of human brutality, suffering, and misery. As for the implied argument that any other form of deeper discussion must give way to to unqualified support for OUR soldiers for no other reason than they ARE ours: doesn't anyone stop to think that this has always been the lynch pin for mobilizing societies around the project of war, and that assent to this logic ultimately rationalizes ANY war? I personally don't see much difference in "A Timeless Call" and Leni Riefenstahl's glorification of Hitler's oh-so-noble, self-sacrificing national warriors in "Triumph of the Will." This is not a work worthy of the director of "Munich," a film which is not afraid to look at the troubling moral complexities involved in killing other human beings in unquestioning service to one's country.
Respectable Propaganda on Spielberg's Part
IceboxMovies4 November 2008
Warning: Spoilers
Grade: 3 out of 4 stars
It wouldn't be news if I told you that the term "propaganda" is more commonly used by people these days in a derogatory sense. When did people start doing this? Was it after the rise of Fascism? The Red Scare? The Watergate scandal? The Whitewater affair? The films of Michael Moore? We now live in an age where it's criminal to manipulate anybody. After all, that is the purpose of propaganda: to manipulate.
Shortly after he finished "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Steven Spielberg was hired to make the short film "A Timeless Call" for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In a way, the Democratic Party was making an odd choice in hiring Spielberg, since he had originally been a supporter of the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton and not that of Senator Barack Obama, whom the video was essentially made for. But overall we are left assuming that Spielberg has jumped ship and is now rallying behind Obama's cause. "As we watch this Steven Spielberg film," announces Rep. Chet Edwards, "let us remember that in the 21st Century, we are the land of the free- because we are still the home of the brave."
This film is, yes, propaganda. But people need to stop complaining about how evil propaganda is in itself and start thinking about the good things it has done in the past. Take for example John Ford's "The Battle of Midway" or Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series. Both of these were made with the best intentions, which were to inspire American soldiers to carry America through a monumental war. There are other times when propaganda can be admired simply for its style while disregarding the substance at the same time. Leni Riefenstahl's films were great examples of these, as was Stanley Kubrick's "The Seafarers", a sailor propaganda film that can be praised for its camera shots, if not for what the film is actually about.
Hence, "A Timeless Call" mostly succeeds on both fronts- as effective propaganda and as an experiment on the part of the filmmaker itself. The subject of the film is the War in Iraq and the toll it has taken on some of the soldiers who have served in it. One particular soldier, Baldwin Yen, remarks on how he was abruptly sent to Iraq on the eve of Valentine's Day, while others, such as Jeremy Bennett and Melissa Mills, chillingly recall the horrors that they encountered by the time they reached Iraq- a country that they initially believed would be easy to weather and liberate.
The only problem with Spielberg's film is that it tends to go off-topic. There are several relapses in which veterans from past wars are interviewed, from World War II veteran Charles A. Graves to Clinton-era veterans like J.D. Henderson, who says he thought himself obliged to serve his country, to John Ramos, a Mexican who proudly recalls his satisfaction at being treated equally among his fellow white comrades. It seems as though Spielberg merely includes them in this film to portray the Democratic Party as a party that supports the troops as much as the Republican Party does. What the film should have done instead was show why the Democrats support the troops, but also what the Democrats would want the troops to do differently.
Despite the flaws of its content, however, "A Timeless Call" is stunningly well-made. Spielberg has wielded an impressive technical team in the making of this film. John Williams is back, and with an original musical score that is powerful enough to shake the heavens. It is similar to his score from "Saving Private Ryan", but sounds darker at times, as well as more modern and relevant to contemporary issues. Whether or not Spielberg's film can persuade voters to send Obama to the White House is besides the point. Democrats are often so obsessed with calling for an end to the War in Iraq that they forget how important it is to support the troops nevertheless.
"They lay down their lives for the land, and the dream that is America", says Tom Hanks in the closing scene, "a dream that is lifted on their shoulders, and one that lives always. That no matter how different we appear from one another, we are there for one another. One nation, one people living in freedom, freedom that is won and protected by these ordinary, extraordinary Americans."
It wouldn't be news if I told you that the term "propaganda" is more commonly used by people these days in a derogatory sense. When did people start doing this? Was it after the rise of Fascism? The Red Scare? The Watergate scandal? The Whitewater affair? The films of Michael Moore? We now live in an age where it's criminal to manipulate anybody. After all, that is the purpose of propaganda: to manipulate.
Shortly after he finished "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull", Steven Spielberg was hired to make the short film "A Timeless Call" for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. In a way, the Democratic Party was making an odd choice in hiring Spielberg, since he had originally been a supporter of the presidential campaign of Senator Hillary Clinton and not that of Senator Barack Obama, whom the video was essentially made for. But overall we are left assuming that Spielberg has jumped ship and is now rallying behind Obama's cause. "As we watch this Steven Spielberg film," announces Rep. Chet Edwards, "let us remember that in the 21st Century, we are the land of the free- because we are still the home of the brave."
This film is, yes, propaganda. But people need to stop complaining about how evil propaganda is in itself and start thinking about the good things it has done in the past. Take for example John Ford's "The Battle of Midway" or Frank Capra's "Why We Fight" series. Both of these were made with the best intentions, which were to inspire American soldiers to carry America through a monumental war. There are other times when propaganda can be admired simply for its style while disregarding the substance at the same time. Leni Riefenstahl's films were great examples of these, as was Stanley Kubrick's "The Seafarers", a sailor propaganda film that can be praised for its camera shots, if not for what the film is actually about.
Hence, "A Timeless Call" mostly succeeds on both fronts- as effective propaganda and as an experiment on the part of the filmmaker itself. The subject of the film is the War in Iraq and the toll it has taken on some of the soldiers who have served in it. One particular soldier, Baldwin Yen, remarks on how he was abruptly sent to Iraq on the eve of Valentine's Day, while others, such as Jeremy Bennett and Melissa Mills, chillingly recall the horrors that they encountered by the time they reached Iraq- a country that they initially believed would be easy to weather and liberate.
The only problem with Spielberg's film is that it tends to go off-topic. There are several relapses in which veterans from past wars are interviewed, from World War II veteran Charles A. Graves to Clinton-era veterans like J.D. Henderson, who says he thought himself obliged to serve his country, to John Ramos, a Mexican who proudly recalls his satisfaction at being treated equally among his fellow white comrades. It seems as though Spielberg merely includes them in this film to portray the Democratic Party as a party that supports the troops as much as the Republican Party does. What the film should have done instead was show why the Democrats support the troops, but also what the Democrats would want the troops to do differently.
Despite the flaws of its content, however, "A Timeless Call" is stunningly well-made. Spielberg has wielded an impressive technical team in the making of this film. John Williams is back, and with an original musical score that is powerful enough to shake the heavens. It is similar to his score from "Saving Private Ryan", but sounds darker at times, as well as more modern and relevant to contemporary issues. Whether or not Spielberg's film can persuade voters to send Obama to the White House is besides the point. Democrats are often so obsessed with calling for an end to the War in Iraq that they forget how important it is to support the troops nevertheless.
"They lay down their lives for the land, and the dream that is America", says Tom Hanks in the closing scene, "a dream that is lifted on their shoulders, and one that lives always. That no matter how different we appear from one another, we are there for one another. One nation, one people living in freedom, freedom that is won and protected by these ordinary, extraordinary Americans."
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