Empire - Hollywood: The Pentagon calls the shots — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:01Since the dawn of American
3. 0:04cinema, Hollywood has had a fascination
4. 0:07with war.
5. 0:13Americans traditionally love to fight.
6. 0:16That's why Americans have never lost and
7. 0:19will never lose a war. Propaganda movies
8. 0:22helped build support for World War I and
9. 0:24two. So much so that the Pentagon
10. 0:27started giving the studios access to
11. 0:29military bases, aircraft, ships, and
12. 0:31submarines, even to offduty officers
13. 0:34acting as extras in their free time. The
14. 0:37Hollywood Pentagon love affair soon
15. 0:39became official. The military even
16. 0:42created a whole new division, the film
17. 0:44liaison unit, with offices at the
18. 0:47Pentagon and in Los Angeles. The
19. 0:49relationship between Hollywood and the
20. 0:52Pentagon has been described as a mutual
21. 0:54exploitation. General, welcome, Mr.
22. 0:57Stark. We're after military portrayal
23. 0:59and thereafter our equipment.
24. 1:01Multi-million dollar toy. Lessons for
25. 1:04actors on how a military moves. You
26. 1:07know, what would make the dialogue sound
27. 1:09more real? Even down to making the
28. 1:11uniforms look accurate.
29. 1:15Most people these days, they're getting
30. 1:16their information on who their army is
31. 1:18from what they see on television.
32. 1:21So that's that's our mission here to
33. 1:23help filmmakers portray the army in an
34. 1:25accurate or plausible manner. And it's
35. 1:27to the help of recruiting. This marriage
36. 1:30of interest has its compromises. In
37. 1:32exchange for support, the Pentagon gets
38. 1:35access to scripts and by contract can
39. 1:38ask for changes. If you're willing to
40. 1:40play ball and allow the changes that
41. 1:41they want you to make, you get this
42. 1:44stuff basically for free. You have to
43. 1:45pay for the fuel if there's a jet flying
44. 1:48around. You actually have a menu, this
45. 1:51type of a helicopter. It costs this many
46. 1:53thousands of dollars per hour and they
47. 1:54need to reimburse the taxpayer for that
48. 1:56expense. But it's much cheaper to borrow
49. 1:59the military's tanks than it would be
50. 2:01to, you know, buy your own tank. After
51. 2:03the film is completed, the admirals and
52. 2:05generals will review it before it's
53. 2:07released to the general public with
54. 2:09their thanks to the Pentagon for its
55. 2:11cooperation in all the various branches.
56. 2:13Phil Stroo is the really the the head of
57. 2:16the whole operation. He uh is often
58. 2:19thanked in movies. So if you were to go
59. 2:20to IMDb and type in his name, Phil
60. 2:24Stroop, you'll see all the movies that
61. 2:26he's worked on. But the Pentagon can
62. 2:29also say thanks but no thanks. Films
63. 2:32like Platoon or Apocalypse Now showing
64. 2:34the dirty face of the Vietnam War were
65. 2:37denied support for some of those Vietnam
66. 2:39era pictures. Every time soldiers and
67. 2:41Marines went out into the field, they
68. 2:43murdered officers, massacred civilians,
69. 2:46they took drugs, and I think that the
70. 2:48feeling was that wasn't quite an
71. 2:50accurate portrayal. So, is the true face
72. 2:53of war what the military's film unit is
73. 2:56after? We are looking for a reasonably
74. 2:58realistic portrayal of military people.
75. 3:03Does that translate to positive
76. 3:05portrayal and and the answer to that is
77. 3:08somewhat. After many pictures of
78. 3:10veterans coming home damaged by the
79. 3:12Vietnam War,
80. 3:16Top Gun presented the perfect
81. 3:17opportunity to rehabilitate the image of
82. 3:20the military on the big screen. It was
83. 3:23the most successful film mission
84. 3:25accomplished. They shaped that picture
85. 3:27top to bottom, made it just the way they
86. 3:29wanted it, and they actually put
87. 3:31recruiting booths inside the theaters so
88. 3:34that after people saw the movie, they
89. 3:36could join up. Recruitment took a huge
90. 3:38spike up when that movie came out. And
91. 3:40that's when they really realized, boy,
92. 3:42this this kind of thing really works.
93. 3:44It's almost like subliminal advertising.
94. 3:47Take a look at that DVD. Filmmakers
95. 3:49hoping to get that kind of support now
96. 3:51know what the military is looking for.
97. 3:53government. We don't have any
98. 3:55preconceived
99. 3:56showstoppers. Sacrifice, dedication,
100. 4:00loyalty to the unit, those are some of
101. 4:02the most important
102. 4:08values. Even defeat can be shown as long
103. 4:11as the US military still looks heroic,
104. 4:14like in Blackhawk Down, featuring the
105. 4:16bloody 1993 US mission in Somalia.
106. 4:20a film that could not have been made
107. 4:22without the Pentagon's Blackhawk
108. 4:24helicopters
109. 4:27to have a seat at the production table.
110. 4:29The relationship has now become even
111. 4:31more open, allowing for some creative
112. 4:34license. I am Optimus Prime. When you're
113. 4:37fighting alien robots, realism is out
114. 4:39the window.
115. 4:41I think the only thing that's really
116. 4:43taboo would be if the military was
117. 4:45portrayed as a force for evil and this
118. 4:47behavior was tolerated. There are
119. 4:50consequences to their bad behavior.
120. 4:54Full metal jacket. So shooting a
121. 4:59civilian, issuing illegal orders,
122. 5:02torture, you cannot show that on screen
123. 5:05unless you also show that that person
124. 5:07was punished. That's all we ask for. Is
125. 5:10that really all the Pentagon asks for? I
126. 5:13looked at tens of thousands of pages of
127. 5:15correspondence between the producers and
128. 5:17the military over script changes and
129. 5:20it's really shocking uh the amount of
130. 5:22control that they try to exert. This is
131. 5:24what lays out that it has to
132. 5:26be you know beneficial to
133. 5:29u recruitment and retention of
134. 5:31personnel.
135. 5:36Take Wind Talkers,
136. 5:39a film about the Navajo Indians, used by
137. 5:41the US military as code talkers in World
138. 5:44War II because the Japanese couldn't
139. 5:46translate their language. The film did
140. 5:48get Pentagon support, but only under
141. 5:51clear conditions. The Pentagon said,
142. 5:53"No, we won't show soldiers being
143. 5:55ordered to shoot other soldiers." And
144. 5:58besides, it never even happened. Well,
145. 6:00it did happen. The way they compromised
146. 6:02was that they hinted at that in the
147. 6:04movie. Under no circumstances can you
148. 6:07allow your code talker to fall into
149. 6:10enemy hands. The actual order to kill
150. 6:12them is never presented on screen. Your
151. 6:15mission is to protect the code at all
152. 6:18costs.
153. 6:21You understand me? So that's how they
154. 6:23got around that.
155. 6:26In other cases, there was no way around
156. 6:29it.
157. 6:3013 Days, a Kevin Cosner production about
158. 6:33the 1962 missile crisis, shows
159. 6:36belligerent generals trying to push
160. 6:38President Kennedy to go to war with
161. 6:40Cuba. My boys will get those red
162. 6:41bastards. The film was denied support,
163. 6:45even if Kennedy's taping system proves
164. 6:47the story to be true. They don't want to
165. 6:49be seen as the ones who would have
166. 6:51caused World War II. Uh, so the the
167. 6:53producers had to go to the Philippines
168. 6:54and they had to rent jet airplanes of
169. 6:57that era that didn't fly anymore, but
170. 6:59they just had to drag them around on the
171. 7:01tarmac behind tractors and then use
172. 7:04computerenerated imaging to make them
173. 7:06look like they were flying. Fortunately,
174. 7:07they stuck to their guns. It would have
175. 7:09been an insult to history.
176. 7:13The herd locker is an interesting case.
177. 7:15Initially the military was going to give
178. 7:16them support and then at the last minute
179. 7:20the military pulled out.
180. 7:23The liaison officer who was going to go
181. 7:25and observe the filming learned that
182. 7:28before he got there some scenes had been
183. 7:30filmed. he alleges that were not in the
184. 7:32approved script and that insinuated a
185. 7:36war crime that a detainee would be shot
186. 7:39by the military. And that's one of those
187. 7:41red lines for the military. Since
188. 7:43military equipment is paid for by the
189. 7:45taxpayers, some argue the government
190. 7:47shouldn't give or deny access to it just
191. 7:50based on a film's message. The mission
192. 7:52of the Department of Defense is to
193. 7:54defend the nation, not to make films.
194. 7:56So, we're under no obligation. That's
195. 7:58not our mission. Well, that might be
196. 8:00fine if it weren't for the First
197. 8:02Amendment.
198. 8:04Well, I haven't noticed anything in the
199. 8:05US Constitution that requires the
200. 8:07Department of Defense to provide support
201. 8:09to any filmmaker who comes along. The
202. 8:12government cannot favor speech that it
203. 8:15likes and not give the same benefits as
204. 8:19speech that it doesn't like. Supreme
205. 8:21Court ruled in 1995 that discrimination
206. 8:24against speech because of its message is
207. 8:26presumed to be unconstitutional. The
208. 8:29government offends the First Amendment
209. 8:30when it imposes financial burdens on
210. 8:32certain speakers based on the content of
211. 8:34their expression. This is exactly what
212. 8:37the Pentagon is doing. So, is this
213. 8:39marriage of convenience legitimate and
214. 8:40good for films after all? Damn it, we
215. 8:43got a unit under fire. When you're
216. 8:45working with the government looking over
217. 8:46your shoulder, are we really seeing the
218. 8:48what the writer would have written
219. 8:50without that sensor? I don't think so.
220. 8:54Hollywood must be one of the most
221. 8:56intrusionproof institutions in the
222. 8:59galaxy. If they don't like our input,
223. 9:01our technical advice, they'll be the
224. 9:04first people to say, "You know what? No
225. 9:10thanks." Many successful independent
226. 9:12films are indeed made without support,
227. 9:14but sometimes at high cost. Filmmakers
228. 9:18are free to decide, lose their
229. 9:19independence or lose a lot of money.
230. 9:22Hollywood likes it. this the way it is
231. 9:24now because it's much cheaper. The big
232. 9:26loser in all this is the audience. What
233. 9:28you're getting is sort of steady drip
234. 9:31drip drip drip of propaganda being put
235. 9:33into American films. And over the years,
236. 9:35I believe that the real danger of this
237. 9:37is that it's made the American people
238. 9:40more warlike.
239. 9:46Oliver.