Hollywoodgate (2024)

— If his intentions are bad he will die soon.

At the time, the fall of Kabul was reported in the Anglo-American press chiefly through the myopic prism of Joe Biden's "failed" foreign policy, only escaping the parochial lens of U.S. politics with paragraphs fearing for the fate of women under the Taliban. This latter narrative always had a sense of moral posturing about it, just as the fate of women in hostile regimes is often used as a form of moral blackmail to convince liberals on the fence about Western interventions. The fact that these predictions were also completely right, and especially so in the case of Afghanistan, just grants the whole affair just another layer of tragedy. Not quite a "Boy Who Cried Wolf" moment to be sure, but just another level of the whole sad story of the Middle East since 2003.

Speaking of media narratives, it's interesting to note that, prior to the Western coalition's withdrawal from Afghanistan, the primary fear was that. I suspect this idea was based on the many former Soviet states that sold off military assets to whomever was willing to pay. Yet this over-economistic outlook neglected the ideological factor: whilst the exhausted former members of the U.S.S.R. were now nihilistic, extremely corrupt and broadly capitalistic, an Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan would be energised and highly political. It's now clear that the Taliban meant exactly what they were saying in 2021:

[Taliban deputy commander, Hekmatullah] Muzammil raises a concern expressed by some Afghans and outside analysts. Some people, he said, are worried that the cash-strapped Taliban could eventually sell weapons and military vehicles left behind or seized. Many fear that the primary buyers will be criminal gangs or regional governments such as Iran. “We give them assurance that everything will be preserved and protected,” he said. “They should not be worried about these assets.”

Regarding Hollywoodgate specifically, many have grimly mocked their woeful inability to perform basic mathematics. This ineptness is at one with other insights of the film, such as the air force officers inability to distinguish between 'tail' numbers and aircraft model numbers. However, it seems to have eluded others that, when making budget requests in such a corrupt environment, one needs to, y'know, pad the numbers a bit. I have similar thoughts about the huge stockpiles of U.S. military medicine that they criminally let expire. I'm sure that the head doctor is indeed "lazy" as claimed, yet I would suggest that one reason for this studied 'laziness' is that it would frankly be embarrassing to use American medical supplies. Besides, what if people notice it is vastly superior to the local supplies? And worse, what might happen when it runs out…? I'd grudgingly concede that, from their perspective, they actually did the right thing.

Gosh, it is remarkable just how ugly the bases are. So much so that one of the many wry grimaces extracted from this viewer throughout the screening occurred when the base commander insisted that they plant trees — and I couldn't help but violently agree. The ugliness of all that concrete is another example, as per Owen Hatherley's observation, that "the divide between aesthetics and politics isn’t as large as some claim". Now an even uglier regime resides in these ugly buildings.

Hollywoodgate is a study in cinematic journalism, a way to fill in the gaps in what the horrendous state of journalism lets slip in the 2020s.

— Brian Tallerico (RogerEbert.com)

Perhaps the most frightening aspect of Nash’at’s thoroughly scary film is the way his camera sees through the sycophancy and favor-currying that surrounds the air force general — and sees right out the other side, there is so little of substance there.

[…]

Hollywoodgate, the name of the base’s main access point initially seems like a strange title, but there is a sense in which it’s highly appropriate: everyone is performing here.

— Jessica Kiang (Variety)