Here’s an excerpt from an article entitled “U.S. troops turn over Najaf to Iraqis” currently online at Yahoo News. It’s nice to see first-hand that the new Iraqi army is a lot more humane that the old one…(and yep, that is a photo of a solidier eating a live rabbit).

“At one point, a small group of soldiers stepped forward with a live rabbit and tore it to pieces. The leader bit out the heart with a yell, then passed around the blood-soaked remains to his comrades, each of whom took a bite. The group also bit the heads off frogs, as some of those in the crowd held their noses from the stench.

Chewing on live animals is a traditional display of ferocity for elite troops in Iraq and was also observed by special units during Saddam Hussein’s rule.

Police then steered shiny new cruisers and motorcycles with ribbons and flowers stuck to their windshields around a track ringing the soccer field, which was still littered with fur and discarded frog legs.”

“When Joe spoke, you listened. I remember him talking about the Cosa Nostra thing with the Sandinistas long before they (the Clash) did the album. Reagan trading cocaine for cash through Miami – I thought, ‘Joe, this has to be all made up. The president of the United States trading drugs?’ But it turned out to be true. Joe had gone to South America on some sort of fact-finding mission with his guitar, into the jungle. He was talking about it ten years before anyone knew it had happened.” – Pete Townshend discussing the late Joe Strummer, Rolling Stone Magazine, November 2, 2006.

The initial idea for Death & Glory came during a drive back home to New Boston, NH during the fall of 2004. With a Clash CD playing in the background I developed an outline that our next feature should be an experimental and aggressive “call-to-arms” film ( i.e. – the furthest thing from our very neat & linear Dangerous Crosswinds). In no way is this meant to be a criticism of DC but instead an obvious fact that there’s no point in replicating what we did with DC. In order for us to grow as filmmakers we must constantly take chances and go left when conventional wisdom tells us to go right. In other words, as I drove home that day, my thinking focused on how could we channel into a film that same kind of aggressive idealism and attitude in which the Clash brought to their music? I also thought back to our 1991 claymation short Break Your Back to Earn Your Pay but Don’t Forget to Travel… and, though much of that film remains unwatchable today, it’s always had an undeniable “all or nothing” attitude (and, like Death & Glory, that film’s title was also inspired from a Clash song, in this case the song Bankrobber).

It was this “all or nothing” spirit that I wanted to return to with D&G and further develop by way of a feature-length film.

Since that car drive D&G has evolved to where the script now is much less an attack on politics as it is a commentary on culture’s enthusiasm towards cruelty. Filmmaking isn’t just about “making movies”. There needs to be a strong and unrelenting purpose or inspiration behind a project. Last month I wrote about the need for originality in filmmaking but it shouldn’t end there. Filmmaking must also possess a stubborn and idealistic attitude based on the belief that the work you and your crew will produce will mean something. Whether we’re able to achieve this goal with the upcoming Death & Glory remains to be seen – but as we continue to prep this film, that challenge remains one of our primary goals or there’s little point in continuing.

P.S. check out a live streaming concert from 1979 of the Clash on Wolfgang’s Vault to hear what the fuss was all about -