Friday, March 14, 2008

Modern American miltary history, as told by food

Too strange to be missed--"Food Fight". I'm still trying to figure out what food represents Russia (without consulting the cheat sheet). (h/t Brad Plumer).



Obviously, the USA = hamburgers.

My favorite is the use of kimchee to represent Korea.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Wow! I just noticed that, in the section on the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the film references the claims of Iraqi soldiers taking babies out of incubators. How many other obscure details are in there, only I don't recognize them due to a poor grounding in history?

Also, what nationality does the pita/gyro represent during the intifada section?

Anyhow, agreed it's pretty great, and certainly making its way around the net!

What I found interesting was several things: first of all, that it almost seems like seeing a hamburger or sushi roll get blown to bits on film is viscerally more horrifying than seeing an actual human do so these days. We're fairly inured to human violence, but something in me still recoils at the sight of violence to food. I'm serious.

Also, I found I was fairly detached for most of the film -- "Oh, that's D-Day!", etc. -- even laughing here and there due to recognition. That all went away when I realized they were portraying 9/11. Most of the events depicted were just dry, historical facts to me -- even the wars in my lifetime, going on now! But not 9/11. Interesting. I suppose 9/11 will merely be a cultural referent for my grandkids. Sort of like how I don't even think to order the kamikaze rolls in a sushi bar these days.