Get the popcorn, there's a war on! ] The start of the war caused business at movie theaters to ] drop by 25 percent on Wednesday as people stayed home to ] watch the war, and snack-food sales and restaurant ] deliveries thrived. The opening salvos of the war had ] taken the place of prime-time entertainment, and ] television stations did their best to serve up gaudily ] produced coverage: the war in Iraq as the ultimate in ] reality television, as the apotheosis of every favorite ] Hollywood genre, from the combat thriller to the ] coming-of-age tale to the blow-'em-up, special-effects ] extravaganza. ] ] As he watched the "shock and awe" bombing that lit up the ] Baghdad sky on Friday , the veteran reporter Peter Arnett ] exclaimed, "An amazing sight, just like out of an action ] movie, but this is real." In the last week other ] commentators and viewers were drawing a lot of movie ] analogies too. ] ] The burning oil-well fires elicited comparisons to ] science-fiction movies; the plight of seven Tennessee ] families who had sent pairs of fathers and sons off to ] the war brought comparisons to "Saving Private Ryan." ] Allusions to the HBO mini-series "Band of Brothers" were ] ubiquitous, and the postbombing videotapes of Saddam ] Hussein (which might have starred one of his doubles) ] drew comparisons to the comedy "Dave," in which a ] look-alike fills in for an ailing American president, and ] "The Prisoner of Shock, Awe and Razzmatazz in the Sequel |