Because of US politics this film suffered.

[RustiSwordz]

basically because of politics the makers didnt want to see US soldiers killed wholesale because of events in Iraq.

Not one soldier was killed in the film (to the audience eye) no hill battle

The more i think of it the more i feel this film has suffered terribly because of modern polotics.

Black Smoke: WMD's oooh far too controversial.

This film has suffered because of it all. it was made at the wrong time because the real juicy elements were avoided. And the more i see this film the more shallow and pointless i see it is.

[jeffwaynefan]

I never gave it any thought until you mentioned it.

[Lensman]

I think because of all the American flags waving in front of peoples' houses at the beginning of this movie that non-Americans see politics in this film which the director did not intend.

If you lived in the U.S. you would have seen the oft-broadcast public-service "commercial" which showed a row of houses pre-9/11, with a voice over that said "The terrorists who attacked on September 11 thought they could change our country." Fade to a post-9/11 image where all the houses have American flags flying in front of them. "...They were right."

That's the only message there-- an overt reference to the effect 9/11 has had on this country. I thought when I saw Spielberg's film that it was a mistake to make the references overt; George Pal did not make the "Red Menace" subtext overt in his film. The fact that foreign viewers misinterpret the 9/11 references supports my belief that such overt references were a mistake.