Operation Hollywood

"This program examines how the development of the motion picture industry in Hollywood coincided with the US's entry onto the world stage, on both political and military levels. Hollywood and the Pentagon...most people are intrigued to learn than a relationship exists between these two pillars of American power. Yet the US armed forces foresaw of the benefits in supporting the production of war and combat films when the country's cinema was still in its infancy. At the beginning of the 20th century, in the early days of cinema, the US was still a young, relatively isolated country. Two world wars later the country could no longer afford to remain insular. The story of how America faced up to the world was told by war movies.

As journalist and former Hollywood Reporter staffer David Robb writes, that's the deal the Pentagon has had with Hollywood since the birth of the Cold War. The Pentagon has the toys needed to make realistic films about war, terrorism, international intrigue. Collaborating with the brass can save studios bundles in production expenses. "And all a producer has to do to get that assistance is submit five copies of the script to the Pentagon for approval, make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests, film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon and prescreen the finished product for Pentagon officials before it's shown to the public."

Plenty of producers do so gladly, writes Robb. It's "Hollywood's dirtiest little secret." Robb asserts that Jerry Bruckheimer, for one, rolls over just about every time the Pentagon calls for script changes in his big, pro-military films, as when the Navy demanded that Kelly McGillis' character in "Top Gun" be made a civilian contractor to cool down the suggestion that she and Tom Cruise were having against-regulations fun out of uniform. Elsewhere, Robb laments Dan Goldberg's eagerness to please the Pentagon in the course of making "Stripes," turning a slightly subversive comedy into a not nearly so funny recruitment poster for the Army."

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