Movie Review: "Unknown"

Dr. Jason Bourne is in the office. His
prescription: Kicking ass.

Let's get things straight here: In the end, I rather liked Unknown. But it wasn't a foregone conclusion. For the first 20-30 minutes, I was thinking, "Why did I ever agree to come to this when I could have been reading?" As the plot progressed, and things began to unfold, though, I found myself liking it more and more.

(Spoilers may lurk below the jump.)

History FAIL (Tea Party Edition)

TPM:

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) had an interesting take this weekend on America's first European settlers, who she said "had different cultures, different backgrounds, different traditions."
"How unique in all of the world, that one nation that was the resting point from people groups all across the world," she said. "It didn't matter the color of their skin, it didn't matter their language, it didn't matter their economic status."

Uh, Michele? About that last sentence? Yes it fucking did.

I don't know if you ever heard of this, but some of the people who came here, like, say, the First Lady's ancestors, came here as slaves. And even when they were freed, they were subject to great restrictions on their civil rights, and had to work hard to be treated as something approaching equals to white people. And true equality is still nowhere close.

Then there's the people who came here voluntarily. Like the Irish. Or the Italians. Or the Japanese. Or perhaps the Chinese, to whose immigration Congress was so indifferent, that in 1882, they passed a law to stop it. Or, God forbid, the Mexicans.

Perhaps Definitely, Michele, as mutual white people, you and I haven't felt the effect of our societal baggage as much as, say, a black man. That doesn't allow you to whitewash (no pun intended) our history, by pretending that every thing was always happy, and will always be happy, if the American people vote for "true conservatives" like you.

The USA is a pretty damn nice country to live in, don't get me wrong, but we've had problems in the past. Ignoring them won't help to fix their legacy, nor will it win you much sympathy with the people who have to deal with that legacy.

America is not perfect. Stop pretending that, and start working on something that could actually help with anything.

Love and kisses,
Teh Pope