Return to Transcripts main page

Live From...

Interview With Thelma Adams

Aired July 14, 2003 - 15:41   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From deadly attacks on troops in Iraq to a big-screen trashing of U.S. troops. You be the judge. The Miramax film "Buffalo Soldiers," coming out later this month, is raising controversy for its not so flattering portrayal of U.S. servicemen. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP -- "BUFFALO SOLDIERS")

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ACTOR: Grenade launchers? Magnum Stinger missiles? Jesus Christ, this is worth millions. $3 million maybe, maybe $5 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is all brand new.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, we've got to take this back. This stuff gets us nothing but heavy jail time.

PHOENIX: We're not taking this back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is big-time. We could retire on this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is way out of our league.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

PHOENIX: There's no time now. Guys, if we...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no time like now? Are you crazy? We're not weapons dealers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, these are certainly not the Buffalo Soldiers that we saw in the Oscar-winning movie "Glory." Thelma Davis is a film critic for "US" weekly and has seen the entire movie. Actually, Thelma Adams.

THELMA ADAMS, FILM CRITIC, "US" WEEKLY: Thelma Adams.

PHILLIPS: Sorry about that. A little typo in my head. All right, Thelma, you saw the entire movie. What did you think?

ADAMS: Well, basically it's not a great movie. We're talking about a movie -- it's not "Platoon," it's not "Apocalypse Now,"it's not "The Right Stuff." It's an OK move. It shouldn't be -- but the problem is it's a piece of hell movie when we're in the middle of a war. It was brought prior to 9/11, been shutting -- sitting on the selves. it's really out step with, I think, how people feel about the military right now as we cut to more soldiers dying in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the film features an excessive amount of profanity by senior officers, suggestive sex, theft of government property, rampant drug use by soldiers. You think this is a bit insensitive? I mean, every day we're reporting on soldiers being killed overseas and then a movie like this comes out.

ADAMS: Well, you know, it's context. It's a work of art, arguably. It's fiction.

So you can't say, oh, is it sensitive or is it insensitive. I think the issue is that it really portrays -- it does have soldiers taking drugs. It has officers committing, you know, attempting to commit acts of homicide out of war. It has MPs, military police behaving very badly.

And I think in that sense, it's irresponsible in a way. Do I think it should be censored? No. And I think you and I sitting here talking about it will actually help the movie because it's not such a great movie that it can't use controversy. But it is out of step, and I think unlike something like "M.A.S.H." where it's a good comedy about war, this is a piece of hell movie without a central core.

PHILLIPS: Is it satirical? Will you laugh?

ADAMS: You will laugh, it's true. You'll laugh. But its main character is a guy who had to make a choice: should I go to prison or become a soldier? And now he's whining about being a soldier as he smuggles goods, takes drugs, and basically, you know, he's a heroin dealer. That's what he does.

And the head of the local MP, it's set in Germany, the head of the MP is the biggest pusher in town. And you're also talking about a case where the officers themselves, one played by Ed Harris, is totally portrayed as an incompetent, as an idiot. It basically is very knee-jerk in its portrayal of the military. Not that every movie has to be, you know, truthful, theater in the round. But I think this one makes a lot of mistakes, especially coming out now.

PHILLIPS: You think it will tick off the military? You think once this, you know, comes out, hits screens, you're going to find a lot of big-wigs with the military coming forward saying, come on?

ADAMS: Well, I think they will be saying come on, this is ridiculous. But I think, you know, after Vietnam, they're used to it. The military is used to the media portraying them in a bad light, no matter what. So this just really goes back to pre-9/11 attitudes, and that's why it seems so out of step.

PHILLIPS: There's, I guess, a couple letters have been written already, one coming through via a retired Army colonel talking about that the film has racial overtones. Did you get that sense?

ADAMS: Well, racial overtones in that there's a whole gang of black MPs who are misbehaving. But they're not alone in misbehaving. Blacks misbehave, whites misbehave.

So I don't think that that is really -- one of the problems with this kind of controversy is really right now only a handful of people have actually seen the movie. I've seen it and I think one of its biggest crimes is it's just not a great movie.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's got quite a cast, I tell you. Thelma Adams, thank you so much. I think you're right, a lot of people are going to be watching now. We'll talk about this again once it hit says the screens.

ADAMS: Great.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Thelma.

ADAMS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired July 14, 2003 - 15:41   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: From deadly attacks on troops in Iraq to a big-screen trashing of U.S. troops. You be the judge. The Miramax film "Buffalo Soldiers," coming out later this month, is raising controversy for its not so flattering portrayal of U.S. servicemen. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP -- "BUFFALO SOLDIERS")

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ACTOR: Grenade launchers? Magnum Stinger missiles? Jesus Christ, this is worth millions. $3 million maybe, maybe $5 million.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is all brand new.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, we've got to take this back. This stuff gets us nothing but heavy jail time.

PHOENIX: We're not taking this back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is big-time. We could retire on this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is way out of our league.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

PHOENIX: There's no time now. Guys, if we...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no time like now? Are you crazy? We're not weapons dealers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIPS: Well, these are certainly not the Buffalo Soldiers that we saw in the Oscar-winning movie "Glory." Thelma Davis is a film critic for "US" weekly and has seen the entire movie. Actually, Thelma Adams.

THELMA ADAMS, FILM CRITIC, "US" WEEKLY: Thelma Adams.

PHILLIPS: Sorry about that. A little typo in my head. All right, Thelma, you saw the entire movie. What did you think?

ADAMS: Well, basically it's not a great movie. We're talking about a movie -- it's not "Platoon," it's not "Apocalypse Now,"it's not "The Right Stuff." It's an OK move. It shouldn't be -- but the problem is it's a piece of hell movie when we're in the middle of a war. It was brought prior to 9/11, been shutting -- sitting on the selves. it's really out step with, I think, how people feel about the military right now as we cut to more soldiers dying in Iraq.

PHILLIPS: (UNINTELLIGIBLE) the film features an excessive amount of profanity by senior officers, suggestive sex, theft of government property, rampant drug use by soldiers. You think this is a bit insensitive? I mean, every day we're reporting on soldiers being killed overseas and then a movie like this comes out.

ADAMS: Well, you know, it's context. It's a work of art, arguably. It's fiction.

So you can't say, oh, is it sensitive or is it insensitive. I think the issue is that it really portrays -- it does have soldiers taking drugs. It has officers committing, you know, attempting to commit acts of homicide out of war. It has MPs, military police behaving very badly.

And I think in that sense, it's irresponsible in a way. Do I think it should be censored? No. And I think you and I sitting here talking about it will actually help the movie because it's not such a great movie that it can't use controversy. But it is out of step, and I think unlike something like "M.A.S.H." where it's a good comedy about war, this is a piece of hell movie without a central core.

PHILLIPS: Is it satirical? Will you laugh?

ADAMS: You will laugh, it's true. You'll laugh. But its main character is a guy who had to make a choice: should I go to prison or become a soldier? And now he's whining about being a soldier as he smuggles goods, takes drugs, and basically, you know, he's a heroin dealer. That's what he does.

And the head of the local MP, it's set in Germany, the head of the MP is the biggest pusher in town. And you're also talking about a case where the officers themselves, one played by Ed Harris, is totally portrayed as an incompetent, as an idiot. It basically is very knee-jerk in its portrayal of the military. Not that every movie has to be, you know, truthful, theater in the round. But I think this one makes a lot of mistakes, especially coming out now.

PHILLIPS: You think it will tick off the military? You think once this, you know, comes out, hits screens, you're going to find a lot of big-wigs with the military coming forward saying, come on?

ADAMS: Well, I think they will be saying come on, this is ridiculous. But I think, you know, after Vietnam, they're used to it. The military is used to the media portraying them in a bad light, no matter what. So this just really goes back to pre-9/11 attitudes, and that's why it seems so out of step.

PHILLIPS: There's, I guess, a couple letters have been written already, one coming through via a retired Army colonel talking about that the film has racial overtones. Did you get that sense?

ADAMS: Well, racial overtones in that there's a whole gang of black MPs who are misbehaving. But they're not alone in misbehaving. Blacks misbehave, whites misbehave.

So I don't think that that is really -- one of the problems with this kind of controversy is really right now only a handful of people have actually seen the movie. I've seen it and I think one of its biggest crimes is it's just not a great movie.

PHILLIPS: Well, it's got quite a cast, I tell you. Thelma Adams, thank you so much. I think you're right, a lot of people are going to be watching now. We'll talk about this again once it hit says the screens.

ADAMS: Great.

PHILLIPS: Thanks, Thelma.

ADAMS: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com