I think that film-makers underestimate the power of the people sometimes. They think if they jump on a bandwagon and make a movie about a 'popular' topic they will make an easy buck off all us zombie consumers. What they don't understand is that:

A. most movies made about the Iraq war thus far (aside from documentaries) have been terrible (acting, entertainment factor, plot, etc.)

B. people don't want to pay $13 to watch the same thing that CNN/Fox has been covering all day every day (like you said Canto).

C. I honestly don't believe most movie-goers really want to have to 'deal with' an obvious political motive when trying to be entertained by a movie.

That last bit is hard for me to prove since Michael Moore movies tend to do well (but then again they're *cough*based on fact*cough*). Everyone knows they are going to see a movie about the *cough* truth. I don't know about you, but if I'm paying to see an entertaining film I don't want to have the director's/producer's/writer's political opinions shoved down my throat while I'm watching it.

I guess movies like Black Hawk Down do well because they aren't politically based, but just telling a story and leaving all the beurocracy out of it. If someone could just make an entertaining movie about Iraq I might watch it...if I want politics I'll watch CSPAN (which is entertaining sometimes)