Pentagon Working to Influence Future Movies about Iraq

Submitted by Anne Landman on

The Pentagon is attempting to influence filmmakers and future movies depicting the U.S. conflict in Iraq. Vietnam-era war movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "Born on the Fourth of July" helped stereotype Vietnam veterans as crazy or psychologically damaged. To prevent this from happening again, the U.S. Army has assigned a lieutenant colonel to an office in Los Angeles, given him the job of reviewing movie scripts about the Iraq conflict and deciding which ones will get military assistance in their making. If the Army approves a script, it means the filmmaker can gain valuable access to bases, ships, planes, tanks and Humvees, and receive advice from the military in making the movie. In exchange for advice and access to these props, though, the filmmaker must agree to address any "problems" the Pentagon finds with their script. If the filmmaker refuses, the Pentagon can pull its offer. Some filmmakers view the Pentagon's script advice as a subtle form of censorship or an attempt to spin the war. Filmmaker Paul Haggis, who wrote and directed the Iraq war movie "In the Valley of Elah," said he believes the Army is not interested in telling honest stories about soldiers or the war. "They are trying to put the best spin on what they are doing," he said. "Of course they want to publicize what is good. But that doesn't mean that it is true."

Main Source: 
Los Angeles Times, July 7, 2008
Topics: 
Crisis Management
Iraq
Ethics
Propaganda
Public Relations
U.S. Government
War / Peace

Comments

plbooth replied on

I believe the US Military has been negligent in that it has often allowed film makers who were virulently anti-military access to bases, personnel, assets, and records. The numbers of movies which have liberal, anti-military, anti-war, anti-US, anti-government agency of all sorts are much larger than those which are favorable or even handed. Since our Military is controlled by our civilian, elected, politicians, then those are the real culprits and our military merely does as it is told or directed. There is nothing inherently evil about the military, in fact the US military has much more often been used for humanitarian reasons (recently, Myanmar and New Orleans) than to punish but they are rarely depicted as such. The Armed Services need to be very wary of with whom they cooperate.

Mutternich replied on

I believe the US Military has been negligent in that it has often allowed film makers who were virulently anti-military access to bases, personnel, assets, and records.

Could you refresh my memory with some specific recent examples of the Pentagon giving advice and support to anti-war movies? If so, I'd call that evenhanded, not negligent.

For that matter, I've had the impression that with few exceptions Hollywood has pretty much shunned the whole subject of the Iraq war, and the doves have had no more of a mouthpiece in the movies than the hawks.

There is nothing inherently evil about the military, in fact the US military has much more often been used for humanitarian reasons (recently, Myanmar and New Orleans) than to punish but they are rarely depicted as such.

No one is arguing that the civilian leadership isn't to blame. And it would take many more humanitarian "much-more-oftens" to add up to just one Vietnam, Persian Gulf or Iraq war. The military's business is war, and that's what our ruling class uses it for the most.

stephane mot replied on

Forging a beautiful story about a nice looking female soldier being rescued for real time TV : GOOD.

Mention any wound, death or bad behavior involving one of our boys : BAD.

Stereotype the POTUS and his Veep "as crazy or psychologically damaged" : VERY BAD.

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Stephane MOT -
blogules and other Weapons of Mass Disinformation

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