How the military influences Hollywood

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Hollywood has benefited from the Army’s assistance for decades, and the military continues to give select filmmakers access to equipment and script advice, provided that they address certain issues in their scripts.

The Los Angeles Times details the work of Army Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale, who reviews scripts about the Iraq War in order to determine which films will receive U.S. military assistance.

But some filmmakers raise concerns about censorship.

In 2006, the documentary “Baghdad ER” came under pressure from the Pentagon when the army secretary demanded that the makers agree to last-minute changes, despite having cooperated with filmmakers during production.

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“Somebody wearing a tie and not a uniform seems to have a political agenda and is trying to influence this film,” the film’s director, Jon Alpert, told The Guardian.

Paul Haggis, who directed the 2007 war movie “In the Valley of Elah,” says he initially approached the Army but concluded it was not committed to telling honest stories about the war.

Breasseale counters that it is the filmmakers who are biased. “There doesn’t seem to be a lot of room for nuance,” he said.

Recent months have seen a slew of releases about the war, including “Stop-Loss,” starring Ryan Philippe as a returned soldier who is ordered back to Iraq.

However, few Iraq war movies so far have found a sizeable audience. The American Prospect blames the collective box office failure of Iraq War movies on deficiencies in “cinematic art and storytelling” rather than lack of audience interest in the subject.
Headline: Military hopes to shape Iraq War movie genre

Breasseale says that Vietnam War films created a distorted picture of the era, and the Army is trying to prevent a similar effect with movies about the current conflict. The Pentagon offers its assistance with both serious issue movies and more entertainment-oriented features such as the recent film “Iron Man” and 2007’s “I am Legend” and the forthcoming films “The Lucky Ones” and “Transformers II.”

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The upcoming film "Act of Valor" is replete with that kind of action, but there are a few things it doesn't have: There are no corrupt officers, no damaged heroes, no queasy doubts about the value of the mission or the virtue of the cause.

That's because "Act of Valor" was born not in Hollywood, but in the Pentagon. It was commissioned by the Navy's Special Warfare Command and its success will be measured not in box-office receipts, but in the number of new recruits it attracts to the Navy SEALs.

"Early on, we were pretty honored and humbled to be asked to take a look at potentially telling their story," said "Valor" producer and former stuntman Scott Waugh, "to take a look at what telling their story would even look like."

This may be the U.S. armed forces' first feature-length recruiting film, but it's far from the first time unsuspecting audiences have been treated to Pentagon propaganda at the movies. As early as 1927, when military assistance on the film "Wings" helped it win Best Picture at the first Oscars ceremony, the Department of Defense has long maintained its own production office that offers filmmakers the latest in arms and high-tech vehicles at cut-rate prices -- as long as their scripts are deemed worthy.

That's not the most restrictive the government has been, however. When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States officially entered World War II, the film industry fully enlisted in the war effort. Studios fell in line behind the government's Office of War Information, which included the Bureau of Motion Pictures and the Office of Censorship. Together, these agencies kept a close watch on Hollywood's output. Actors went to war on film (and some, in real life), narrated documentaries about the threat posed by the Axis powers, and lampooned America's enemies -- especially the Japanese -- using racial stereotypes.

While studios may have been happy to help out, they also didn’t have much of a choice; the Motion Pictures Bureau read over movie scripts and the Office of Censorship controlled all in