 |
The chronicles of a Turkish special agent
Watching “Gladio” and all other cinematic clones, one would primarily wonder, is Turkey so high up on the list of political global power threats that keeping it weak and provoking more internal conflict is the primary way to keep it on a leash? Even if it were as such, what’s the point of inflicting a culture of paranoia, fear and retaliatory violence?
If the makers of “Gladio” provided a stronger script and a coherent story line that made sense instead of a jumble of enigmatic political conspiracies, then perhaps it would have been easier to analyze the film as a work providing a distinctive perspective of current affairs; however, the only thing that seems consistent in the movie is the Bruce Willis attitude of its main character, who feels that offing anyone in his way is legit.
The film starts in a courtroom, where special agent İskender Büyük (Musa Uzunlar) -- a name that basically alludes to Alexander the Great -- is on trial for treason. It’s not an easy thing to put İskender on the stand -- he shouts at the judges, gets rid of all his publicly appointed lawyers and constantly bellows that no one is as patriotic as he is. Oh, he’s a hero that we all want to be, taking none of it and talking back like he’s an Olympic god. He starts to tell his story about how he was deceived by his superiors: He was a good soldier, so back when he was young he was recruited by the Turkish division of Gladio, an international paramilitary organization first founded by the NATO states in order to prevent Soviet communism from spreading throughout Europe. Sure, İskender thinks he’s being a good patriot for his country, as he is sent to covert operations to stop the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the ’90s, only later to realize that his superior Fuat Aras (Mehmet Aras, who looks like Professor Xavier from “X-Men”) is working for people who have other plans for Turkey. It’s a bit too late when he notices this small fact -- he’s already assassinated President Turgut Özal, since he was told that Özal was also trying to divide the country.
Now things get even more muddled up, as we have a hard time deciphering who’s working for who, what this Gladio organization is really after and what the agenda of the Turkish military is. The film refuses to take any political side, but seems to very well take advantage of the current political situation by transforming İskender into the simplistic representation of the current Ergenekon trials. Every piece of information given throughout the film is so cryptic that the viewer has a hard time following the plot.
The only consistent element of the film is İskender, who is so comfortable in his gung-ho tough guy mode that he can personally confront the president and shout at him in public, physically abuse military generals or simply anyone he feels he should talk to.
Of course, let’s not forget the supremely shot action scenes in which İskender jumps around like a gazelle and uses his weapons like a ninja. This man knows no bounds, his sole mission is to protect his country, he’s a hero, and if it wasn’t for him, how would all the other young boisterous men in our country feel safe? An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.
“Valley of the Wolves: Gladio” is a perfect cinematic package -- probably millions of Turkish lira were spent on the production. Throughout its 90-minute run it provides all the visceral sensations to verify the paranoid mind’s political delusions without providing an ounce of logical sense. All we can understand is: There are people out there who want political power, we don’t know who they are and what they’re going to do. But wait a minute; at least we have the right to unleash our brutal instincts on anyone who doesn’t agree with us. Don’t you feel better already?
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| AMANDA PAUL |  |
||
| Ukraine: a lost country | |||
| MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE |  |
||
| The 52nd anniversary of May 27 | |||
| ABDULLAH BOZKURT |  |
||
| Turkey and Mexico: Distant yet so close | |||
| BERİL DEDEOĞLU |  |
||
| Yemen and beyond | |||
| ARZU KAYA URANLI |  |
||
| On Memorial Day a few words to make your day memorable | |||
| ABDÜLHAMİT BİLİCİ |  |
||
| Google kidnaps Gül! | |||
| CUMALİ ÖNAL |  |
||
| Critical months for Egypt | |||
| DOĞU ERGİL |  |
||
| Qualities of power | |||
| İHSAN YILMAZ |  |
||
| The Egyptian elections, Islam and Islamists | |||
| EMRE USLU |  |
||
| Operational errors | |||
| MARKAR ESAYAN |  |
||
| There is need for a new initiative | |||
| JOOST LAGENDIJK |  |
||
| Europe can’t have it all. Or can it? | |||
| HASAN KANBOLAT |  |
||
| Are Russian tourists being discouraged from visiting Turkey? | |||
| MELİH ARAT |  |
||
| Handmade | |||
| KLAUS JURGENS |  |
||
| Back to the ’80s | |||
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
