Militainment :The Collaboration between Hollywood and the Pentagon

 The Collaboration between Hollywood and the Pentagon

The relationship between Hollywood and the U.S military was something that always raised many questions. People could clearly detected that the military is interfering in filmmaking, but no one could define how. Many critics say that the army is providing high-tech and military equipments for Hollywood in return for a good representation of the army in movies. It was not till the late days that this relationship became so rude and bold that when watching a movie makes one fells like he is watching recruiting ads.

The collaboration between Hollywood and the pentagon is something that goes back in history. The founding of Hollywood Anti-Nazi league was said to be done after a sign from the U.S military. The filmmakers who belonged to the league contributed to the making of many films demeaning the Germans, such as “Confessions of a Nazi Spy” and  “The Mortal Storm.”. the U.S military have been very supportive of wartime propaganda ,even the president Roosevelt himself “engaged Hollywood writers, producers, animators, and directors to create works intended to direct popular sentiments toward a government-approved opinion of our enemies ”.especially after the finding of the bureau of motion pictures.

During the cold war Hollywood have been very active in denouncing the soviet union policies both on the internal level and the external level. Producing movies to the forging market to win the heart and the mind of people around the world. Between the year 1960 and 1970 more then 20 movie was produced and displayed in public squares in the many middle eastern cities, like Baghdad .Such movie were not financially successful but that did pot matter since making money was not the objective

The collaboration lasted till our present day and  like (independence day , fighters ..)were produced. The objective of such movies is to positively represent the military and make the army or the navy interesting for the youth. The problem is that many young fellows will buy the crape Hollywood sells them. They all think that the military is all about having fun, shooting guns and hunting the bad guys. The problem is that they go to the battlefield it is not like video game where you get resurrected by a click. When the sky rains mortar shells and Ak bullets , they will say this is not what we have signed for.

After all it seems that it is the only way to do things since no one wants to see the dark side of the American military. I mean depicting pictures of American soldiers with their legs or hands shopped off or in coffins. No one wants to watch movies about Abu graib or Guantanamo simply because it is not fun.

In the past years we used to have actors who served in the military, but now who have soldiers who serve in the movies. In the past we had great movie stars who served in the army, like Jimmy Stewart, Henry Fonda, Ted Knight, Kirk Douglas, Lee Marvin, Paul Newman, Sidney Poitier, Rock Hudson, Charles Bronson, Werner Klemperer, Audie Murphy. In the movie act of valor active-duty military personnel have been working the production of the movies. The collaboration between Hollywood the the U.S military seems to have moved from giving some equipments or even military advisors into providing with active-duty soldiers. Such act will certainly make people unable to decide whether they are watching a movie or recruiting ads for the military. The line between the real and imaginary will also grow vague and am afraid that some people will even get the impression that war is all fun..