Its a good thing Mark Cuban is a billionaire. If he was hoping to make a profit on Redacted, he seriously miscalculated.

De Palma's picture about US soldiers who rape a 14-year-old Iraqi girl, then kill her and her family. The message movie was produced by NBA Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, who insisted on deleting grisly images of Iraqi war casualties from the montage at the film's end. Cuban offered to sell the film back to De Palma at cost, but the director was too smart to go for that deal. “Redacted" - which “could be the worst movie I've ever seen," said critic Michael Medved -took in just $25,628 in its opening weekend in 15 theaters, which means roughly 3,000 people saw it in the entire country. “This, despite an A-list director, a huge wave of publicity, high praise in the Times, The New Yorker, left-leaning sites like Salon, etc.

I am not exactly sure what the implications are of Hollywood's failed gamble on anti-war movies--other than red ink for the studios (Valley of Elah, Rendition and Lions for Lambs were all "disappointments, or "dogs" if you prefer...)

We are constantly told by the left and the MSM that the country is overwhelming opposed to the war in Iraq, so why didn't a series of films whose premise the country alleged agrees with, do far better at the box office? I personally didn't see these films because I have an aversion to propaganda, but surely the Kos kids must have spent eight bucks to see it?

I am guessing here, but I think it probably has more to do with the American character. When I spent some time in France back in the late seventies, I was fascinated at how so many people still wanted to talk about the "la guerre" (WWII). My father-in-law served during the war, but the only time he will discuss it is if he is asked about it. Americans don't live in the past, and I believe that for many if not most, Iraq is no longer a current issue. Ironically some of this is undoubtedly due to the lack of media coverage.

Without the passion that infused the debate, what is left to draw people to a movie?

Precious little, and in the case of Redacted, nothing at all.

No one is going to be making war movies in Hollywood anytime soon.