DEFENSE - CINEMA
Hollywood: new propaganda tool for the Pentagon?
Saturday 21 June 2008
The U.S. Department of Defense has found in cinema an ally to help control and promote its image. This relationship also means big business for Hollywood movie producers.
Saturday 21 June 2008
Pentagon - Hollywood: who runs the show?
By Laura GABRIELE/France 24
Black Hawk Down, Pearl Harbor, Windtalkers, Top Gun… What do these big-budget Hollywood films have in common? They were all produced with the U.S. army’s support.
This may sound surprising but nowadays a large number of American producers work in close collaboration with the military. Moreover, “filmmakers and politicians bear the complete responsibility for this bond, and actually find refuge behind the theme of war”, says journalist, author of “Hollywood-Washington: Comment l’Amérique fait son cinema” (editor Armand Colin/2007), and guest in our studio, Erwan Bénezet.
For the Pentagon, as well as for Hollywood, it’s a “win/win” deal. The military draws attention to its work, and facilitates recruitment. “It’s a win/win situation for us to show up in American and global popular culture”, says FBI agent Catherine Viray, whom we met on the shooting of TV series “Numbers”. As for the producers, they manage to make significant savings: the military not only graciously lends them all sorts of equipment (trucks, armored and all-terrain vehicles, aircraft carriers…) but also provides technical advice, shooting and training.
In return for this help, however, filmmakers do have to agree to certain requirements. Hence, the army can demand the suppression of certain parts of the scripts, an example of which has already occurred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Black Hawk Down”. The Department of Defense’s goal is first and foremost to produce movies that portray the glory of the US army.
In return for this help, however, filmmakers do have to agree to certain requirements. Hence, the army can demand the suppression of certain parts of the scripts, an example of which has already occurred in Jerry Bruckheimer’s “Black Hawk Down”. The Department of Defense’s goal is first and foremost to produce movies that portray the glory of the US army.
This collaboration goes even further. We went to investigate at the ICT (Institute of Creative Technologies), based in California. This research center received 100 million dollars from the Pentagon to implant more creativity in military training exercises. “We have high-level Hollywood screenwriters helping us invent scenarios in collaboration with our military experts. They come up with stories that are then used in our training system” says Jonathan Gratch, the director of the research center. Hollywood also benefits from this partnership. One of the technologies devised in the ICT center helped in the construction of 3D models used in action movies such as “Aeon Flux” and “Spiderman 3”.
Can we therefore call Hollywood “the Pentagon’s armed right-hand”? Not always. Oliver Stone’s movie “Platoon” never received the army’s support, and the filmmaker actually had to fight for over a decade to find the necessary funding. Another example is Francis Coppola’s world-famous “Apocalypse Now”: indeed, it appeared completely unthinkable for the army to finance a movie whose plot itself questioned the legitimacy of the Vietnam War!
The collaboration between political powers and filmmakers is not just an American characteristic, however. The French movie “Les Chevaliers du Ciel” which was produced by Laurent Brochand, was directed in a joint effort with the Air Force.
Nevertheless, this was not the case with Philippe Haïm, whom we met at the Cannes film festival. He just directed “Secret Defense”, a movie which will be out in October. He refused to send his script over to the French Ministry of Defense, and despite it landing in the hands of the French equivalent of the CIA, which forced him to explain the motive behind his film, he did not change a single line of his script.
Nevertheless, this was not the case with Philippe Haïm, whom we met at the Cannes film festival. He just directed “Secret Defense”, a movie which will be out in October. He refused to send his script over to the French Ministry of Defense, and despite it landing in the hands of the French equivalent of the CIA, which forced him to explain the motive behind his film, he did not change a single line of his script.
In the globalised economy we live in today, cinematographic images partake in an economic war. Indeed, behind them, it’s a whole culture and consumption trend that are really sold to the public.
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