Golden Hound
Member
- Joined
- Apr 26, 2008
- Messages
- 778
This quote in the thread about "Red Dawn" reminded me of another great pro-gun "SHTF" movie: The Postman.
That movie, in my opinion, is even better than Red Dawn, but it was universally panned by critics and it received none of the cult following that Red Dawn did. Part of it is due to the extreme length of the film, more than 3 hours, and part of it is because there were a lot of laughably cheesy scenes in it. But The Postman had much more subtlety and depth to the "SHTF" scenario that it presented.
The enemies in The Postman are not simple Communists or another group that can be unambiguously painted as good or evil. What they are, is an army of regular Americans who basically decided that they were going to take advantage of the post-apocalyptic SHTF scenario to do whatever they wanted - steal food, rape women, etc - under a very specific philosophy advocated by their leader, General Bethlehem, that there are "lords and vassals" in life and that the only men who are honorable are those who take what they want by force.
The good guys are the small rural communities in Oregon who are exploited by Bethlehem and his "Holnist Army" (which worships a philosopher named Nathan Holn who founded their group based on his ideals.) They live a pastoral existence, like Medieval serfs, and are unarmed. They reason that the only way for them to survive is for them to keep giving the Holnist Army whatever they want (the appeasement philosophy) and that they "can't fight back" because they don't have the will or the ability.
Kevin Costner's character changes all that, by creating a "postal service." Initially it's just intended to deliver mail as a way of giving the people hope in the knowledge that there are other communities out there that they can stay in contact with, but it becomes something much more - the postal service actually turns into a revolutionary movement that seeks to unite all of the rural communities together and overthrow General Bethlehem (I think this is an allegory for the American Revolution.)
So through the postal service, the small rural communities unite together, and they form a powerful army of militias and guerrillas. They learn to be a people who will fight for freedom instead of submit to tyranny, and trade in their passive lifestyle for a sense of brotherhood and unity against the evil "Holnists." But most of all the lesson is that the true power in a "SHTF" scenario of nationwide proportions lies in people uniting together and strength in numbers. It is a very good contrast to all of the Max Max type movies which show a "lone wolf" warrior all by himself, against the big bad world - a mentality which in real life would guarantee failure.
I really like this movie, for this reason. I'm curious what the others here think of it? I know it is not as popular as Red Dawn or as action-oriented but I believe it is a very relevant movie to many of the topics we discuss here.
By the way - and to tie it in directly with firearms - the "bad guys" all have M16s, and the "good guys" are mostly armed with Garands and hunting rifles!
That movie, in my opinion, is even better than Red Dawn, but it was universally panned by critics and it received none of the cult following that Red Dawn did. Part of it is due to the extreme length of the film, more than 3 hours, and part of it is because there were a lot of laughably cheesy scenes in it. But The Postman had much more subtlety and depth to the "SHTF" scenario that it presented.
The enemies in The Postman are not simple Communists or another group that can be unambiguously painted as good or evil. What they are, is an army of regular Americans who basically decided that they were going to take advantage of the post-apocalyptic SHTF scenario to do whatever they wanted - steal food, rape women, etc - under a very specific philosophy advocated by their leader, General Bethlehem, that there are "lords and vassals" in life and that the only men who are honorable are those who take what they want by force.
The good guys are the small rural communities in Oregon who are exploited by Bethlehem and his "Holnist Army" (which worships a philosopher named Nathan Holn who founded their group based on his ideals.) They live a pastoral existence, like Medieval serfs, and are unarmed. They reason that the only way for them to survive is for them to keep giving the Holnist Army whatever they want (the appeasement philosophy) and that they "can't fight back" because they don't have the will or the ability.
Kevin Costner's character changes all that, by creating a "postal service." Initially it's just intended to deliver mail as a way of giving the people hope in the knowledge that there are other communities out there that they can stay in contact with, but it becomes something much more - the postal service actually turns into a revolutionary movement that seeks to unite all of the rural communities together and overthrow General Bethlehem (I think this is an allegory for the American Revolution.)
So through the postal service, the small rural communities unite together, and they form a powerful army of militias and guerrillas. They learn to be a people who will fight for freedom instead of submit to tyranny, and trade in their passive lifestyle for a sense of brotherhood and unity against the evil "Holnists." But most of all the lesson is that the true power in a "SHTF" scenario of nationwide proportions lies in people uniting together and strength in numbers. It is a very good contrast to all of the Max Max type movies which show a "lone wolf" warrior all by himself, against the big bad world - a mentality which in real life would guarantee failure.
I really like this movie, for this reason. I'm curious what the others here think of it? I know it is not as popular as Red Dawn or as action-oriented but I believe it is a very relevant movie to many of the topics we discuss here.
By the way - and to tie it in directly with firearms - the "bad guys" all have M16s, and the "good guys" are mostly armed with Garands and hunting rifles!
