Political Humor

Les James reviews the 2010 Extra Terrestrial, Sci Fi, Political Satire movie,  Monsters

Spoiler Alert! If you don’t want to know what this film is about, time to move along. But if you have seen this slap to the face, could a point be driven home any harder, Hitchcock styled, satirical look at our Southern Border -or maybe you’d like to read my humble take before seeing it- here we go.

Definition of Terms

Extra: More than desired or beyond what is usual, normal, or necessary.

Terrestrials: of or relating to organism living on the earth. In this instance people.

Extra Terrestrials: Too damn many unnecessary people.

Used in a sentence: The number of extra terrestrials, living illegally in America, is a major and onerous burden on the states and their rightful citizens.

The Basic Plot:

Sometime in the near future.

About six years ago, NASA found life somewhere, sent out an unmanned craft to collect the tiny things, and brought them back. The spaceship crashed in Mexico. We never know why it crashed, but it certainly had nothing to do with the cuts Obama made in the space program.

So this time, we import aliens into Mexico instead of the other way around. Short-sighted at best, as we soon learn.

These extra terrestrials really do well. They grow-up, big and strong, increase dramatically in numbers, get cocky, and decide to take-over Northern Mexico and head across the border. Pretty well describes the drug cartels.

To move the story along we have our two protagonist, a photojournalist and the daughter of the guy he works for in the States. The photojournalist gets a message to get her back home, since the massive creatures are migrating her way. Reluctantly he agrees.

It then becomes a race to get to the United States before being overrun by hordes of aliens, born in Mexico. Kind of like Food Stamp day at the welfare office.

Along the way, we witness destruction, wasted cities, nasty jungles, corruption, greed, “guides” (human traffickers) with guns and machetes, poverty, death, despair, decent folks caught in the path of destruction, the police and military in disarray, and even a few monsters, i.e., the real Mexico.

After a surreal trip up a river (reminiscent of Apocalypse Now, “Never get out of the boat!”), their guides getting themselves killed by one of these aliens, and some slogging on foot, our heroes make their way up to the border. There they discover the massive concrete border fence (Yeah!) has been breached, and that part of Texas is devastated (Not so yeah).

As our intrepid duo wait for an Army patrol (guessing part of a small force of National Guard sent by Janet Napolitano, during Obama’s Third Term) to pick them up at an abandoned gas station, two of the creatures create Anchor Babies right in front of them!

The cavalry arrives,  they jump into the HMMWVs, and drive off, while a soldier whistles Ride of the Valkyries.

Monsters is hands down the Best Political Satire Film of 2010. I give it four out of four Reagan Stars.

This Movie Has Lessons For Us

1. Aliens coming across the border are destructive. Don’t give me all the worn out excuses, I don’t care. We threw off the shackles of a European Monarchy and so did Mexico.  They let their government get out of control, turn Socialist, run their lives, and get into bed with greedy, Liberal Fat Cat… Oh shit!

2. The film was made for under $500,ooo (the U.S. Government spends that in like four and a half seconds. Really!) and it’s made over 3 and a half mil.

There were only two paid actors, Whitney Able and Scoot McNairy,  a very small crew and the writer/director/cinematographer/editor, Gareth Edwards. It’s amazing the quality one can achieve with a limited budget and the right mindset. Makes me wonder, what could Edwards do for our national budget?

3. Edwards needs to run for Congress. Except he can’t, he’s British. Almost two and a half centuries after we broke away from England, because they were all kinds of screwed-up, a Brit has to show us why we’re all kinds of screwed-up. Ironic or just tragic? Either way, see the flick.

As Dennis Hopper Said In Apocalypse Now:

“This is the way the fucking world ends. Look at this fucking shit we’re in man. Not with a bang, but with a whimper. And with a whimper, I’m fucking splitting, Jack.”

Howard Dean’s recent comment, “two Republican congressmen, Jim Sensenbrenner and Tom Tancredo have incredible anti-immigrant legislation,” got me thinking. Of course there is the obvious response that the legislation is against illegal immigration, not legal immigration, but the problem here is that the Left sets the language of the debate here. Why do we call people who don’t belong here immigrants if they are here illegally?

When someone is invited to one’s own home they are a guest. By the same token, the term immigrant carries the connotation of someone who migrated from one country to another by legal means. A sense that they are invited to come or allowed to come is inherent to the word, just as it is with a guest.

Conversely, if someone unlawfully enters one’s home, they are not a guest, are they? No. They are intruders. They are trespassers. They have committed the act of breaking and entering. Why would we call trespassers and intruders the international equivalent of guests? We should call illegal “immigrants” what they are – illegal intruders, or illegal trespassers, who have unlawfully broken and entered our country.

How far could a Leftist get arguing that we should not allow illegal intruders into the country? But a Leftist would call the intruder an immigrant, and drop the illegal portion, thus making us sound mean not to allow politely invited guests into our homeland. This is not the case of course, but one of the keys to winning an argument is using the right words.

The Democrats are experts at manipulating the language, but the Republicans are not too keen on this area yet. Time after time the President and fellow Republicans are trying to persuade the American public using the Democrats terms, instead of more favorable terms, thus making their arguments seem contradictory. For example, why should we crack down on guest workers, or tighten restrictions on undocumented workers? We shouldn’t, but even the President, is using those words to describe people who enter our homeland unlawfully. Now lets rephrase the question. Should we crack down on unlawful trespassers, or tighten restrictions on illegal intruders? Of course we should!

Let’s use the right words to frame the issue.