Hollywood War Machine

C/W: KKK mention and imagery.

Hold on. How come nobody told me that for my entire life I have been voluntarily ingesting — nay, actually paying my hard-earned money to sit in a theater and transfix my eyeballs on — military propaganda? Movies that are literally subsidized and written by the U.S. Department of Defense?

Y’all. I was texting with my bestie during family movie time in our respective homes (until our families confiscated our phones, boo).

Her: Whatcha watching?

Me: Iron Man rewatch. Old school.

Her: Hm.

Me: What do you mean, hm.

Her: Interesting. You like superhero movies?

Me: Uh, duh. Yes. Thor: hot. Captain Marvel: hot. Captain America: hot. Wonder Woman: hot.

Her: You know the military subsidizes those movies, right?

Me: Um, what. No. THEY WHAT NOW

Boy howdy, did this news send me down a rabbit hole.

Here’s what I learned.

(TL;DR: My girl L was right, per usual.)

The US military and Department of Defense not only subsidize tons of movies, TV shows, and video games; they’ve been in cahoots with writing, production, and basically all facets of Hollywood from the dawn of Hollywood.

The theatrical poster for Birth of a Nation. Y’all. It is a reprehensible film and it was wildly successful, both commercially and politically, as it helped “inspire” segregationist policies.

The first feature length film to get money from the US military was the grotesquely racist screed Birth of a Nation — originally titled “The Clansman” — in 1915.

For those of you not familiar with this disgraceful piece of shit, it was a silent movie that told a version of the U.S. Civil War from a white supremacist point of view. It was endorsed by the Ku Klux Klan. It was also the first movie to be screened in the White House. President Woodrow Wilson was pals with the director.

It makes sense that the first movie shown in the White House was a white supremacist picture developed with the U.S. military. It was about war, power, patriarchy, and white supremacy.

They don’t call it the White House for nothing.

Racism is the lubricant of empire.

The relationship between the military and Hollywood started with a racist screed and I’m here to harsh your mellow by telling you it hasn’t got much better.

Sneakier, more palatable, yes. Better, no.

Remember Top Gun? I sure do. God, I loved that movie. 1986. I thought it was too cool for school and sexy as hecksy.

1986. I can still hum the soundtrack.

Would it surprise you to learn that producers of Top Gun worked hand in pilot-glove with the U.S. Navy?

Quoth The Washington Post in 2022:

…the DOD offered [Top Gun producers] a sweet deal: For $1.8 million, they would have “the use of Miramar Naval Air Station” as well as “four aircraft carriers and about two dozen F-14 Tomcats, F-5 Tigers and A-4 Skyhawks, some flown by real-life Top Gun pilots.”

It’s unlikely the film could have gotten made without the Pentagon’s considerable support. A single F-14 Tomcat cost about $38 million. The total budget for “Top Gun” was $15 million.

In exchange for DOD backing, the producers agreed to let the department make changes to the script. Maverick’s buddy, Goose, no longer perished in a midair collision because, according to the Navy, “too many pilots were crashing.” Meanwhile, Maverick’s love interest, Charlie, went from being a service member to a civilian because Navy regulations forbid officers and enlisted personnel from having relationships.

Navy enlistment went up 400% immediately after Top Gun came out.

Young people emerged from cinemas energized and engaged by sexy scenes and cool fighter-jet action.

Recruiters were waiting for them outside movie theaters.

They had set up Navy recruitment tables.

Basically, it’s a good bet that almost every movie, TV show, music video, or video game depicting the military has been “vetted” (see what I did there?) and / or subsidized by the Department of Defense.

(You probably can’t afford to make your movie look legit without their help.)

Here’s a good rule: if the military is portrayed doing crimes or shady stuff, they probs weren’t involved. If the movie has aliens in it, they probs weren’t involved.

(As for the didn’t-take-money movies: Syriana is worth a rewatch. The Papers is good, if a bit dry, but I could personally watch Adam Driver eat paper maché and find it compelling. And I’m not even sure how it was possible for the producers to make the truly classic “hit-em-with-a-Mac-virus” Independence Day without the DOD, but I guess wonders never cease.)

Here’s the process to get a boost (equipment, pilots, filming locations, etc) from the D.O.D.:

1. Production sends a request to the D.O.D. If you sound legit, they’ll ask you to send:

2. Five copies of your script. These will be distributed to the military branches. Your project must:

   1. Aid in the retention or recruitment of personnel; and

   2. Give a positive portrayal of the service.

3. They will ask for changes, unless you’ve already made everyone look good.

4. Someone from the D.O.D. will be on site and giving “feedback” the whole time.

5. The movie will be prescreened to D.O.D. and they can put the kibosh on it if they want.

Some of these movies are especially grievous to moi because they equate feminism with being a “strong woman” in the military or other systems of violence and control. (E.g.: G.I. Jane, Captain Marvel, Katy Perry’s “Part of Me” music video.)

No no no!

To me, feminism means liberation from gender norms, patriarchy, white supremacy, and oppressive systems, including all forms of violence.

Feminism is NOT “Girls can kill people in the name of U.S. empire just as effectively as boys can.”

Anyway. Here’s a brief —not complete— list of American movies made with script approval from the Department of Defense:

• Air Force One (1997)

• Apollo 13 (1995)

• Armageddon (1998)

• Batman & Robin (1997)

• Battleship (2012)

• Behind Enemy Lines (2001)

• Black Hawk Down (2001) (DOD made writers omit the child-sex offender from the movie, and not show soldiers dragged through the streets.)

• Captain Phillips (2013)

• Deep Impact (1998)

• The Day After Tomorrow (2006)

• Ernest Saves Christmas (1988)

• Godzilla (1998)

• The Green Berets (1968)

• I Am Legend (2007)

• Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989)

• Iron Man (2008), Iron Man 2 (2010)

• James Bond series: Goldfinger (1964), Thunderball (1965), Licence to Kill (1989), GoldenEye (1995), Tomorrow Never Dies (1997)

• Jurassic Park III (2001)

• The Karate Kid Part II (1986), The Next Karate Kid (1994)

• King Kong (2005)

• Pet Sematary (1989)

• Red Dawn (1984)

• The Right Stuff (1983)

• The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

• Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)

• Stripes (1981)

• Top Gun (1986), Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

• Transformers (2007), Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009), Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011), Transformers: The Last Knight (2017)

• Twister (1996)

• True Lies (1994)

• Wonder Woman 1984 (2020)

• Wings (1927)

You can find a more complete list, with over 400 movies, here.

Yowzers.

So, knowing this, do I still spend my one wild and precious life watching these putrid pieces of propaganda?

Yes. To be honest: yes, I do still watch these movies.

But at least now I know it’s literally military propaganda. And I get properly made about it.

And now maybe you will, too.

XOXO

Sources and Further Readings / Watches / Listens:

Documentary Film: Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. Documentary film directed by Sut Jhally and produced by Media Education Foundation in 2006. Available to watch for free on Youtube.

Documentary Film: Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood. Documentary film directed by Roger Stahl and produced by Media Education Foundation. Not free, and a little dry, but worth renting.

Book: Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People. By Jack G. Shaheen. Interlink Publishing, 2012.

Book: Hearts and Mines: The U.S. Empire’s Culture Industry. By Tanner Mirrlees. UBC Press, 2016.

Book: Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies. By David L. Robb. Prometheus, 2011.

Article: “Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon bullies movie producers into showing the U.S. military in the best possible light.” By Jeff Fleischer in Mother Jones. September 20, 2004.

Article: “I Want YOU, Girl: How Captain Marvel Exploits Feminism for Military Propaganda.” By Bella Sloan Cude in USC’s Scribe Literary Magazine. December 5, 2022.

Article: “‘Top Gun,’ Brought to You by the U.S. Military.” By Theo Zenou in The Washington Post. May 27, 2022.

Article: “Captain Marvel’s Feminism Is All Tangled Up with Military Boosterism.” By Samuel Braslowmar in Los Angeles Magazine. March 8, 2019.

Article: “Syriana and Iraq: War for Oil? George Clooney’s new movie hits uncomfortably close to home.” By Mark Levine in Mother Jones. November 30, 2005.

Website: Spy Culture: “The world’s leading resource on government involvement in the entertainment industry.” Written and produced by Tom Secker.

Podcast: Citations Needed: Episode 115: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism (Part III) - How the Pentagon & CIA Sponsor American Mythmaking. Jul 22, 2020.

Podcast: Citations Needed: Episode 114: Anti-Muslim Racism in Hollywood (Part II) - Oscar-Bait Imperialism. Jul 15, 2020.

Podcast: Citations Needed: Episode 113: Hollywood & Anti-Muslim Racism (Part 1) - Action and Adventure Schlock. July 8, 2020.