Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies [Hardcover]

David L. Robb (Author), Jonathan Turley (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 2004

As veteran Hollywood journalist David L Robb shows in this revealing insider's look into Hollywood's 'dirtiest little secret' - the final product that moviegoers see at the theatre is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Every year, Hollywood producers ask the Pentagon for help in making films, seeking everything from locations and technical advice to Blackhawk helicopters and nuclear-powered submarines. The military will happily oblige, it says in an army handbook, so long as the movie "aid[s] in the recruiting and retention of personnel." The producers want to make money; the Defense Department wants to make propaganda. Former Hollywood Reporter staffer Robb explores the conflicts resulting from these negotiations in this illuminating though sometimes tedious study of the military-entertainment complex over the last 50 years. Robb shows how, in the Nicholas Cage film Windtalkers, the Marine Corps strong-armed producers into deleting a scene where a Marine pries gold teeth from a dead Japanese soldier (a historically accurate detail). And in The Perfect Storm, the air force insisted on giving the Air National Guard credit for rescuing a sinking fishing boat, instead of the actual Coast Guard heroes. Even seemingly flawless recruiting vehicles had troubles: in Top Gun, the navy demanded Tom Cruise's love interest be changed from a military instructor to a civilian contractor (fraternization between officers and enlisted personnel being a no-no). At its worst, the author argues, the Pentagon unscrupulously targets children; Robb reveals how the Defense Department helped insert military story lines into the Mickey Mouse Club. To help, Robb suggests a schedule of uniform fees by which producers could rent aircraft carriers, F-16s and the like. It's an intriguing idea, though producers can go it alone: as Robb points out, blockbusters Forrest Gump, An Officer and a Gentleman and Platoon were all made without military assistance.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

"...a bracing read into the backstory of big studio propaganda." -- Entertainment Today (Los Angeles), May 21-27, 2004

"...a shocking look at governmental interference in the filmmaking business over the past 50 years or so..." -- Tennessee Tribune, July 15, 2004

"...a tour of the integral workings of Hollywood's deal with the Pentagon. Our rating: A" -- Rocky Mountain News, April 23, 2004

"...addresses half a century of propaganda techniques used in Hollywood movies." -- Seattle Times/ Post-Intelligencer, May 30, 2004

"...one of the best I've read in a long time...[Robb's] a great writer and the researcher is far-reaching." -- MovieWeb.com, August 16, 2004

"...tremendous job of documenting how far film producers and television shows bend their vision to the military line..." -- OC Weekly, July 23-29, 2004

"An indignant, unsettling analysis of the military's influence on the film industry." -- Hollywood Reporter, May 13, 2004

"Anyone interested in the truth, in propaganda, movies, or the military should definitely read this book. It's an eye-opener." -- About.com (Agnosticism/Atheism)

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books (April 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591021820
• ISBN-13: 978-1591021827
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #605,799 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Great subject, poor execution, September 16, 2004

By 

Yarby "yarby" (Medina, OH United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies (Hardcover)

While reading of this book would be a good education in propoganda for everyone, it could have been written in a far more educational manner.

I, like many, I would guess, did not realize that those credits at the end of the movie, thanking the armed forces, are more than a simple thank you. They indicate the Pentagon has approved the movie for propoganda purposes.

Most people realize that propoganda was a prevailing force in the movies of the World War II era. But the same propoganda continues today, in a much more subtle form.

A more interesting book would have covered the history of government propoganda in Hollywood releases, not just centered on mostly movies of the last 20 years. There was not a mention of the Disney movies seen on the DVD release "On the Front Lines", or of other movies of the era (such as Abbott and Costello's "Buck Privates"). This was propoganda at its peak.

Also, it would have been interesting to understand the logic behind how the Pentagon would think movies such as "The Swarm" and "Airport 77" would make individuals want to join the armed forces.

I also continue to wonder, as it wasn't mentioned in the book, why the Pentagon supported movies such as "Run Silent Run Deep" or "The Caine Mutiny", both of which deal with mutiny in great detail.

While I admire the author for tackling such a subject, and in bringing it to the public's attention, I just wish he had tackled it with a bit more fervor.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Look at Hollywood's Relationship With the Army, June 9, 2004

By 

Charles J. Rector (Woodstock, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies (Hardcover)

Operation Hollywood is an interesting book about the common practice in which studios alter scripts to meet military PR requirements in return for free access to both bases and equipment.

The book shows how pro-military movies leads to spikes in recruitment and as a result, the military wants to control everything that goes into a movie. All too often, Hollywood acquiesces to their demands. The military believes that they are only enforcing accuracy, but they also maintain that any film that does not reflect well on the military is "inaccurate."

This baleful influence has altered the view that Americans now have of the military. They believe that the U.S. military is intrincsically good and is incapable of doing anything wrong.

Operation Hollywood is an interesting and revealing book. As such it is recommended.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Movies=Propaganda, like Duh!, March 22, 2010

By 

Cwn_Annwn (Copenhagen, Denmark) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies (Hardcover)

This book documents how the Pentagon and branches of the United States military bully filmmakers into revising scripts, editing scenes from movies and even rewriting factual history by denying them access to military bases, use of soldiers as extras and use of tanks, jets, helicopters, etc if they do not make the alterations to the films. There are multitudes of examples and firsthand accounts of this being done in this book. In fact there are so many that it gets monotonous after a while.

One thing that shouldn't be surprising is that the overwhelming majority of the films that catered to the Pentagon/Military were complete and total garbage and great films like Apocalypse Now, Platoon and An Officer and a Gentlemen received no help whatsoever. But really what films are there that aren't full of propaganda and attempts at brainwashing. They do it overtly and in subtle ways. Probably even subliminally for that matter. Whats documented in this book is the overt public relations type attempts at propaganda. The real social engineers and mind benders in Hollywood operate in a much more shadowy way.