I'm somewhat confused by Isaac Chotiner's claim that "in popular culture the good guys always seem to be doves." He takes, as his examples, Crimson Tide and Sum of All Fears, in which the most sympathetic characters argue desperately to stay the military's hand. Easy counterexamples would appear to be Rambo, or Braveheart, or any action hero basically ever. That said, if you narrow the sample to movies that display a political argument regarding an invasion, Chotiner's thesis would seem a bit more convincing. Political movies tend to find drama in tough characters arguing unpopular stands, and when it comes to war, the underdog argument is not going. Additionally, Hollywood really is quite liberal and doesn't tend to write movies that make the case for war in the abstract, though they certainly produce many that unfold within the context of an already-raging conflict.
