Looking back on a year that many critics hail as one of Hollywood’s best ever, it’s difficult to ignore the fact that many of this season’s Oscar-nominated films bear political undercurrents. There Will Be Blood adapts Sinclair Lewis in its study of money- and power-grabbing in the oil industry; Michael Clayton concerns corporate abuses and high-level legal maneuvering; No Country for Old Men examines the chaos of policing the drug trade at the Texas-Mexico border; even Juno has managed to spark a few fresh salvos in the abortion debate. (Can’t we simply agree that Juno is both pro-choice and pro-life?)

But when future generations look back on this year’s nominees, they could be forgiven for wondering why Hollywood didn’t spend more time addressing what John McCain calls the “transcendent challenge of the 21st century” — i.e., the war on terror and its corollary/non-sequitur, the Iraq War. In fact, only one nominated performance — Tommy Lee Jones’ in In the Valley of Elah — comes from a film that directly concerns events in the Middle East over the last decade. (I’m discounting Charlie Wilson’s War here, and Philip Seymour Hoffman’s typically excellent performance in it, because the modern-day implications of that film’s plot are all implied, never discussed.)

Of course, we know better than our descendants will that Hollywood did address the war on terror in 2007 — but managed to do so in a uniquely forgettable way. Indeed, I’ve already forgotten the name of Brian DePalma’s entry in the Iraq-bashing sweepstakes — oh, right, it’s Redacted. In 25 years, will anyone remember the names The Kingdom, Valley of Elah, Grace Is Gone, Rendition, and Lions for Lambs? (more…)