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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

#81

Post by fixermark »

bjourne wrote: post #48
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”...

These orgs are supposedly there to serve the interests of the American people. It's none of their fucking business how movie writers decides to portray them. History reeeeally seriously tells us that it is a big deal when the state is able to influence the media in a pro-military fashion.

Movie writers are free to portray them any way they want to.

But writers who portray them in a positive light get favors and get their tickets bought by mainstream audiences.

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

#82

Post by Spooky23 »

atemerev wrote: post #2

When I've been telling everyone that James Bond and other similar movies serve the same role as military parades in Soviet-block countries, and heavily scripted by the military, they told me that this is another conspiracy theory and I must be plainly wrong. I wasn't.

James Bond is child's play.

24 was straight up propaganda. Just about every cop show on TV includes a SWAT style raid by Federal or NYPD law enforcement.

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

#83

Post by cobookman »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #76
gumby wrote: post #61

The money and involvement have had quite an effect. Just look at the percentage of combat films Hollywood makes and compare to 30 years ago. To go by Hollywood the country is on a war footing. And don't forget other entertainment industries like sports. The Pentagon paid millions of dollars a year just for cross promotion with NFL football (not for recruitment advertising): "honor our troops" and the like. On the oth…

The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.

Why is that hilarious. The alternative would be a nation that's not behind it's troops. The us would likely not be a super power. US citizens greatly benefit off the super power status.

Seems like the military is acting in the citizens best interest.

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

#84

Post by cat199 »

fixermark wrote: post #59

"The CIA even helped to make an episode of Top Chef that was hosted at Langley, featuring then-CIA director Leon Panetta who was shown as having to skip dessert to attend to vital business. Was this scene real, or was it a dramatic statement for the cameras?" Wow. Good work on the FOIA retrieval, but I'm utterly out on the hyperbolic speculative tone. The editor undercuts the good journalism being done here when they…

> I think the authors are also making the unsupported assumption that every government / Hollywood cooperation incident is a propaganda op, instead of far simpler explanations like "Joe in Langley publicity gets to brag to his family that he made the Top Chef episode happen."

This presumes a (IMHO dubious) philosophical position that at high enough levels (e.g. director of agency), public actions don't automatically create an implied message automatically and can actually be presented in a separate, neutral, context..

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

#85

Post by supernumerary »

Udik wrote: post #37
rjsw wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Hurt Locker ?

I've found it to be a typical example of American propaganda. Some good reasons given here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-militarization-of-hollywood...

Considering Kathryn Bigelow, the director of 'the Hurt Locker', also did 'Zero Dark Thirty' in many respects, the non plus ultra C.I.A control and influence over hollywood, the 'Hurt Locker's' critical position is dubious. In fact it's worth noting that the C.I.A is so good at this that they are not beyond putting ostensibly damaging material or arguments in their films in order to refute them at a more fundamental level, or coming around to devour them more completely in some other film. As paranoid and wacky as it sounds, the general project of propaganda is a totality spread across the cultural field...

Finally it's worth noting that with the advent of widespread piracy, we have been forced to pay for our films / entertainment in other ways. A pirated movie still delivers its ideological payload, whether or not it's corporate interest determining the cars that feature in the 'Fast and Furious' franchise or the military industrial complex permitting a flock of Ospreys to feature prominently in a scene ...

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

#86

Post by cobbzilla »

fixermark wrote: post #59

"The CIA even helped to make an episode of Top Chef that was hosted at Langley, featuring then-CIA director Leon Panetta who was shown as having to skip dessert to attend to vital business. Was this scene real, or was it a dramatic statement for the cameras?" Wow. Good work on the FOIA retrieval, but I'm utterly out on the hyperbolic speculative tone. The editor undercuts the good journalism being done here when they…

Hey, they've come a long way since Jackson Pollock [1].

While I do enjoy quite a bit of modern art, I was nonetheless disappointed to discover that some of the "tastemakers" of '60s/'70s abstract expressionism were US federal three-letter-acronym agencies [2]. The saga, apparently, continues to this day. Caveat emptor, indeed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock#Critical_debat... [2] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-...

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

#87

Post by lotsofpulp »

cobookman wrote: post #83
lotsofpulp wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.

Why is that hilarious. The alternative would be a nation that's not behind it's troops. The us would likely not be a super power. US citizens greatly benefit off the super power status. Seems like the military is acting in the citizens best interest.

Feigning patriotism at a commercial sporting event is not being behind one's troops.

My idea of being behind troops is to not send them into a combat zone for the private interests of politicians, and participating in our democracy by educating oneself and voting. Or perhaps holding the elected officials to account for Veterans Affairs issues. Flying a flag and singing a song and giving someone a military discount have nothing to do with patriotism.

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

#88

Post by cat199 »

subsubsub wrote: post #57
treebeard901 wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

James Bond is essentially a franchise built around the psychological need to cope with the collapse of the British empire and all of the associated loss of status that goes with it. In other words, you are correct, Bond movies do not try to hide their nationalism. This is no great revelation.

I think you might be over estimating how much the British care about having/not having an empire. If you can get around the paywall, this might be worth a read: https://www.ft.com/content/a9c45baa-1dc6-11e7-b7d3-163f5a7f2...

> I think you might be over estimating how much the British care about having/not having an empire.

Even if the linked piece is correct (tending to agree somewhat), it is written in a modern context with respect to Brexit. The James Bond novels were created in the early 50's when the empire was still a real thing that was actually breaking up, and before 'multiculturalism' was really a thing in any serious way (see mid 60s-70s-80s for that). Not sure if I agree with the actual point above, but the contexts are certainly different, an adult in early 50's Britain certainly would need to psychologically adjust to a shifting national identity, whether they cared for empire or not..

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

#89

Post by cafard »

gumby wrote: post #79
altcognito wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

53 million over 3 years, or 17 million dollars a year over multiple sports. A far cry from "hundreds of millions of dollars" And I'm pretty sure that advertising in sports is common sense. Advertising during daytime TV isn't likely to have the same bang for your buck. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/defense-military-tribute...

> And I'm pretty sure that advertising in sports is common sense. There are two sorts of advertising. One is recruitment ("join the army, blow shit up, have fun") targeted at potential employees. The other is a broad-based effort to change public perception in the interests of the advertising organization. "Honor our troops" is an example of this, in the effort of sustaining the military-industrial complex (term coin…

How originally do you mean? In Henry James's novel The Ambassadors (1903), a character speaks of going into advertising "Advertising scientifically worked presented itself thus as the great new force."

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

#90

Post by wil421 »

lotsofpulp wrote: post #76
gumby wrote: post #61

The money and involvement have had quite an effect. Just look at the percentage of combat films Hollywood makes and compare to 30 years ago. To go by Hollywood the country is on a war footing. And don't forget other entertainment industries like sports. The Pentagon paid millions of dollars a year just for cross promotion with NFL football (not for recruitment advertising): "honor our troops" and the like. On the oth…

The ludicrous propaganda of military jet fly overs, national anthem spectacles, huge flags, and people in the military standing on the side of the field at private for profit sports game in a stadium paid for by taxpayers for the team owner's benefit is hilarious.

Right it's outrageous the military gets to attend for profit games and for America to show its pride. It's not like they don't do the same exact things in other Countries...

We should just have military parades and drive our missiles and tanks around D.C. Just look how Russia and North Korea do it.

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