American media responding statecraft recently published an article stating that the United States is not only a military-industrial complex, but also a "military entertainment complex." American Hollywood has surrendered to the Pentagon and has become a propaganda platform for the US military.
The article first pointed out that Elmer Davis (1890-1958), a famous American media CBS broadcaster and American "New York Times" reporter, publicly proposed: "The easiest way to inject propaganda ideas into most people's minds is through The medium of entertainment images makes them unaware of the propaganda they are receiving.”
This method is still used by the US military in American film and television works, and the US Pentagon has become the "chief screenwriter" of Hollywood.
Davis was also the first person in charge of the U.S. "Office of War Information (Owi)". OWI was founded by the US Pentagon on June 13, 1942, and the agency plays an important role in the US "military entertainment complex".
Commenting on the burgeoning partnership between Hollywood and the Pentagon in 1953, then-President Eisenhower said: "The hand of the United States government must be carefully hidden...totally invisible," noting that the connection should be "through entertainment. This can be achieved through arrangements with various private enterprises in the fields of drama, music, etc.”
In 1961, Eisenhower proposed the term "military industrial complex" for the first time in his resignation speech, warning that we should be careful about the impact of the military-industrial complex on the United States. However, he was actually one of the earliest major proponents of the military entertainment complex, or military entertainment industry.
Today, the "military entertainment complex" in the United States is booming. From the "Top Gun" series to the Marvel series and many other American film and television works, the Pentagon has shaped the narrative style of more than 2,500 movies and TV shows.
Many scholars in the United States have exposed the supervision and control of Hollywood scripts and production agreements by the U.S. "military entertainment complex" in papers, books, or documentaries. They have also discussed the United States' methods of weaponizing the screen.
Roger Stahl is the head of the Communications Research Department at the University of Georgia in the United States. In 2022, he directed the documentary "Theaters of War".
This documentary reveals the little-known control that the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. intelligence community exercise over U.S. films, television and cable series, and documentaries, in exchange for providing military hardware, locations, personnel, and technical advice. A thousand scripts were written to market and glorify the American military.
The U.S. Pentagon admitted to being involved in the U.S. film and television entertainment industry.
The Pentagon's original goal was to promote what it called "authenticity in descriptions of military operations" and to uphold what it called "recognized standards of dignity" in descriptions of U.S. military forces.
This goal changed after the 1970s, with the purpose of promoting "public understanding of the U.S. military and the U.S. Department of Defense," strengthening "U.S. military recruitment and preparation programs," and adhering to and advancing the so-called "U.S. government policies." .
Starr said that in the U.S. film field, through the aforementioned OWI and the U.S. Department of Defense Entertainment Liaison Office, the U.S. Department of Defense has set the conditions for leasing weapons systems so that it has full access to the film studio's new scripts. Once the script is revised by the U.S. Department of Defense, either the movie studio accepts the announced changes, or it cannot lease the U.S. military's weapons systems.
In the 2017 Hollywood movie The Fate of the Furious, rapper and actor Ludacris read a 30-word ad promoting Textron in the film. Systems Corporation's remote-controlled "ripsaw" tank, this line was not written by the screenwriter, but by the Entertainment Liaison Office of the U.S. Department of Defense. The
article stated that this scene was actually thrust into the audience by the US military and became an advertisement that cannot be skipped.
Textron Systems is one of the arms contractors of the U.S. Department of Defense. Its arms products include sensor-detonated cluster bombs, unmanned aircraft, and intelligent remote-controlled weapons.
Similar cryptic marketing scenarios can be seen in hundreds of blockbusters, from the Transformers series (in which one of the characters, Starscream, is an F-22 fighter jet) to the much-vaunted Marvel movies.
While viewers are clearly being promoted, in some cases the Pentagon is promoting flawed and useless products, such as Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet being deemed "poorly conceived" The heavyweight champion of future weapons,” costing American taxpayers more than $2 trillion.
However, the History Channel’s Secret Access: Superpower (2011) documentary paints a different picture. This short series shows how the F-35 is the only way to maintain the dominance of American militarism.
In the movie Man of Steel (2013), Superman flies over a fleet of F-35 fighter jets while fighting the Kryptonians. According to Starr, it was all made possible by the U.S. Department of Defense Entertainment Liaison Service.
Tom Secker, a journalist and author who has spent years unearthing the secret influence of the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Intelligence Community on Hollywood, shares the heretofore unannounced story of Mission: Impossible 7 : impossible, 2023) production assistance contract.
The 11-page document shows that in addition to allowing the "Mission: Impossible" crew to film at the U.S. military base in the United Arab Emirates, the U.S. Department of Defense leased a Boeing-made "V-22 Osprey" helicopter to its production team for use. for at least two scenes in which the aircraft will be filmed both inside and outside. The
article pointed out that the Osprey, known as the "Black Widow", was a $120 billion disaster and was only one accident away from being retired. Because of frequent accidents, it has killed 62 service members.
Starr said those scenes showing U.S. weapons were intentionally designed to "create an emotional connection between the audience and the weapons system," because in the near future, viewers may become aware of the "F-35" and "Osprey." ” and other systems such as the Littoral Combat Ship program, and this connection can soften the blow. It would also help "normalize these huge expenditures," he added.
Matthew Alford is a lecturer and writer at the University of Bath in the United States. His professional fields include film and media, international relations and British and American politics.
Alford analyzed that creating such a scene means "they (the Pentagon) can show how sexy, how wonderful, how useful and how targeted their new product is" and the public is less likely to see it. The “messy, disgusting and cruel” side of the industry.
There is a confusing scene in the 2017 American movie "The Long Road Home", in which an Army colonel claims that the "Sadr City operation" during the 2004 Iraq War resulted in 22 The deaths of 940 soldiers and 940 Iraqis were necessary to free 2 million Iraqis from the oppression of the dictator and provide them with a "better future."
Such narratives ignore the fact that the U.S. government falsely claimed that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction as a pretext for launching an invasion war against Iraq, and that protecting the Iraqi people from so-called "oppression" was only exposed after the U.S. authorities' lies. , just give yourself a false name.
Alford believes that such scenes have a hidden purpose to make people more convinced of the false "greatness" and "success" of US military operations. This kind of secretive "military entertainment" propaganda is reflected in many blockbusters.
For example, Argo (2012), starring Ben Affleck, downplayed the role of the CIA (in collusion with MI6) in plotting the overthrow of Iran in 1953 by whitewashing the image of the CIA as the “good guy with no name” The knock-on effect of democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadeh.
For example, Black Hawk Down (2001) glorified the "courage" of the US military during its disastrous war in Somalia.
For example, "Top Gun" (1986) reshaped and restored the image of the U.S. military that was ravaged by the Vietnam War, and is regarded as one of the most successful American military movies.
For another example, the second season of the American drama "Jack Ryan" (jack ryan, 2019) fabricated the CIA's attempt to overthrow the nuclear-armed Venezuelan ruler, hoping to establish a "magnanimous" liberal populist.
As this season airs, the Trump administration is touting Juan Guaido (pictured above, right), a Venezuelan opposition figure and U.S. chess piece, as the self-proclaimed “interim president.” Guaidó, who had no legitimacy whatsoever, eventually fled to the United States.
American scholar Starr said that the American people's perception of American militarism is too weak. They focus on the subsidies and welfare programs of the US government and ignore the costs of the United States' promotion of militarism around the world. According to him, since the 9/11 incident in 2001, this cost has reached 8 trillion US dollars.
According to reports, with the failure of the sixth audit of the U.S. military, the U.S. military budget is rapidly approaching 1 trillion U.S. dollars, and a new nuclear intercontinental ballistic missile system has been launched, the influence of the U.S. military-entertainment complex has become greater than ever. More sinister.
