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US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

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Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#21

Post by autokad »

specializeded wrote: post #5

So in exchange for production support, DOD and IC reserve the right to back out if certain topics are broached, or if they’re represented in a way they don’t approve of. The movies and tv shows come to them, and they’re subsequently influenced as part of the deal. Am I reading this correctly? They’ve really tried to make it scary but I’m left feeling “well, yeah I guess that makes sense, sucks tho I guess”...

yeah exactly. also you didn't need a freedom of information act to know this. I remember generals / DOD officials talking about it in a TV interviews (1996 independence day, 2007 transformers). directors are overly focused on realism for better or for worse, so a lot also goes to providing stock footage for inspiration, advice, and fact checking like 'is this aircraft meant for the role its portrayed in the movie'. etc.

and as they said openly in the interviews: they often do it for free, but if they dont like the content they will pull out.

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#22

Post by golergka »

So, if you want DOD support and resources and voluntarily go to them for help, they will have a say in the script?

To me it seems that anti-establishment Americans are so eager to find evidence of "censorship", "police state" and "tyranny" that they forget what do these words actually mean.

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#23

Post by paganel »

rjsw wrote: post #17
paganel wrote: post #3

As a movie buff this doesn't surprise me at all. I'm still waiting for THE movie about the US intervention in Iraq, the same kind of movies that Apocalypse Now, "The Deer Hunter" and even Rambo I were for the Vietnam war. I think my wait will be in vain.

The Hurt Locker ?

That's the closest example to what I really want from such a film (and De Palma's "Redacted"), it is a great film, but I think it was not enough.

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#26

Post by arethuza »

pmorici wrote: post #15
arethuza wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Iraq rather overshadowed by the subsequent events in Afghanistan which does have some superb movies (Kajaki, Restrepo, Korengal, Bitter Lake....).

Subsequent? Afghanistan was first.

Yes, poor choice of wording. However, wasn't the bulk of the fighting in Afghanistan after the Iraq war in 2006 to 2011 or so?

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#27

Post by kstenerud »

specializeded wrote: post #5

So in exchange for production support, DOD and IC reserve the right to back out if certain topics are broached, or if they’re represented in a way they don’t approve of. The movies and tv shows come to them, and they’re subsequently influenced as part of the deal. Am I reading this correctly? They’ve really tried to make it scary but I’m left feeling “well, yeah I guess that makes sense, sucks tho I guess”...

"The CIA even sabotaged a planned series of documentaries about their predecessor, the OSS, by having assets at CBS develop a rival production to muscle the smaller studio out of the market. Once this was achieved, the Agency pulled the plug on the CBS series too, ensuring that the activities of the OSS remained safe from public scrutiny."

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#28

Post by Tactic »

specializeded wrote: post #5

So in exchange for production support, DOD and IC reserve the right to back out if certain topics are broached, or if they’re represented in a way they don’t approve of. The movies and tv shows come to them, and they’re subsequently influenced as part of the deal. Am I reading this correctly? They’ve really tried to make it scary but I’m left feeling “well, yeah I guess that makes sense, sucks tho I guess”...

I agree the article overplays it. Any organization, be it governmental, corporate or private, would probably do the same. If you want their help and they aren't in the business of movie making, are going to probably refuse it if it casts them in a light they don't like.

Hollywood is fully capable, I'm certain, of providing mock-ups and stand ins for much of what the military provides. I'm sure when it comes to the bottom-line though, this is a much better deal from them.

I just don't see a vast propaganda conspiracy.

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#29

Post by ueroc »

paganel wrote: post #3

As a movie buff this doesn't surprise me at all. I'm still waiting for THE movie about the US intervention in Iraq, the same kind of movies that Apocalypse Now, "The Deer Hunter" and even Rambo I were for the Vietnam war. I think my wait will be in vain.

Probably not going to happen. In the "not documentary" category it's probably generation kill or occupation that's even remotely close.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0995832/ http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00l9sw3

Re: US military intelligence agencies have influenced over 1,800 movies and TV shows

#30

Post by akvadrako »

paganel wrote: post #14
arethuza wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Iraq rather overshadowed by the subsequent events in Afghanistan which does have some superb movies (Kajaki, Restrepo, Korengal, Bitter Lake....).

All due respect to those movies (3 of them which appear to be documentaries) but they have not had the same cultural impact as a movie like Apocalypse Now had back in its time. It's a shame, I'd rather a director like Nolan had made a movie about Iraq or Afghanistan instead of Dunkirk, the same as Coppola had made Apocalypse Now just a couple of years after he had directed the first two Godfather movies. That way you…

War Machine doesn't rise to the level of Apocalypse Now, but that's a really high bar. It was good and controversial though:

[1] http://www.metacritic.com/movie/war-machine

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