Product Details

• Actors: Kelsey Grammer, Cary Elwes, Richard Benjamin, Olympia Dukakis, Tom Wright
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• DVD Release Date: May 31, 2005
• Run Time: 104 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (67 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0007TKND8
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,876 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "The Pentagon Wars" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

PENTAGON WARS - DVD Movie

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious but soberly outrageous--often simultaneously, February 9, 2001

By 

Roy Gordon (Berkeley, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pentagon Wars [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie was a real surprise. I rented it on vacation when neither my son, my wife, nor myself could agree. I just saw that Olympia Dukakis and Richard Benjamin were in it and he directed. And, it was a comedy.

But this film is the blackest of comedies. And the very scenes that were the most hilarious were also those that engendered outrage in me, gradually at first, and then with a rushing forward.

It is the true story of the latter stages of development of the Bradley armoured vehicle which was featured in the Gulf War, and the Air Force officer, James Burton, whose task, by Congressional edict, was to sign off on the final testing of the vehicle. Without his approval the Bradley could not go into production.

The film is based on his book.

What he discovered was that the Bradley's design had evolved from a fast troop transport to a mish-mash of everything, making it unsuitable for each of its now numerous and contradictory roles.

Worse, however, was that the vehicle was an obvious death trap. If the paper-thin armour didn't get you, then the poisonous fumes would. And if they didn't do it, then the exploding of the vehicle's gas tank would finish off the job.

The army would not test the vehicle, except for those that they rigged--knowing full well what the results would be. Israel bought some, but seeing right off the bat that the vehicle as designed was a death trap, insisted on modifications.

So, there were two production lines: one for the Israeli version and one for the death trap US version: produced by its own country with the knowing enthusiasm and approval of military brass.

Contractor production of sub-standard military equipment is a very old story. Nothing new here. But what infuriated the officer was that here was the US Military knowingly trying to push through a vehicle that was an obvious tomb for American soldiers.

Well, this sounds (and is) pretty grim. But the film is played primarily as comedy. Obviously very black comedy, but still comedy.

The general and leader of the project is Kelsey Grammar. The questioning Congressional chairperson is Olympia Dukakis, and Richard Benjamin is Caspar Weinberger, Reagan's secretary of defense. He's always finding out the bad news from the morning's Washington Post since all his military people are just blandly reassuring him that it's all proceeding grandly: not a single glitch in the project.

The light tone and jaunty pace keep the film moving along. The villains not quite verge on buffoonery. Grammer is obviously completely disdainful of the Congress people and their questioning, yet reining it in so he can (almost) appear to take them seriously, so they'll go away.

I would have prefered it if Grammer had been more restrained and a bit more subtle about it. The generals we see at hearings on TV are much more straight-faced. But perhaps it wouldn't have been possible to keep the tone of the film nor to exhibit their disdain nor to make plausible the supposedly true incidents, each new one more ludicrous and implausible than the one before.

As the film ended I was very upset. I'm not at all hawkish in my politics. But I do believe that when we commit Americans to fight that they should have equipment that serves them the best. I was laughing as the film proceeded as one outrageous and hilarous incident succeeded another. I did want to know whether the "Office of Ruminant Procurement" really did come into existence or was it Hollywood taking liberties with the text.

As with Colonel Burton, though, the knowledge that US brass would push enthusiastically for a death trap vehicle is a bit much for me.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Frightening Look at the Procurement Process, June 13, 2005

By 

John A Lee III "jal3" (San Antonio, TX) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Pentagon Wars (DVD)

This film would be hilarious were it not so frightening.

This film is not portrayed as a documentary Still, it purports to reflect in a semi-accurate manner the convulsions that attended the development of the Bradley fighting vehicle. Based on news reports, it contains more than a bit of truth, even if there is some dramatic license being employed.

The conflict in this film is between a conscientious officer who wants to do real testing and a pentagon general who wants to make contractors and politicians happy. It is a sad state of affairs.

The development of the Bradley had a long history before it ever reached deployment. It was plagued by cost overruns, changing specifications and failed tests. It even went through a phase where it was supposed to be aquatic. In the end, a troop carrier for 11 troops became a scout vehicle that was too prominent to do scout work, had a turret like a tank so it would attract extra fire, had aluminum armor so it would not be too heavy (or stop shells) and would only carry 6 people. The reasons for all of these travesties can be found in pork barrel politics.

This is a comedy and it is funny in its irony. That does not stop it from also being a tragedy.

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brilliantly on target, April 11, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Pentagon Wars [VHS] (VHS Tape)

It is well-known that when it comes to procurement, the Department of Defense does not usually put a priority on such incidentals as whether the item actually works. DOD history is cluttered with such gold-plated duds as the Sergeant York gun and the infamous $7600 coffeemaker. "The Pentagon Wars," a made-for-cable film originally aired on HBO, is a devastatingly satirical -- and true -- look at one such boondoggle, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle.

Col. James Burton (Cary Elwes) is a by-the-books Air Force officer who is given the job of making sure the Bradley is effective and ready for use. He quickly learns that the vehicle is a Frankenstein's monster, designed by committee and unable to do any of the tasks it was meant for, but which is being built anyway. In his attempts to adequately test the vehicle, Burton is up against Gen. Partridge (Kelsey Grammer), who is determined to get the Bradley into production no matter what. After all, it has been 17 years in design, with $14 billion already spent on it. Who cares whether it works or not? Burton does, actually, and is equally determined to make sure the Bradley actually works before he signs off on it, an attitude which does not earn him plaudits from Partridge. Running interference are Col. Bock and Maj. Sayers (John C. McGinley and Tom Wright), who sabotage every one of Burton's tests with darkly hilarious results.

(The buy-it-now-and-test-it-later culture is, unfortunately, alive and well in the Pentagon even today. No better illustration exists than the $50 billion -- pre-cost overruns -- National Missile Defense, now in production despite failing most tests and passing a few only under grossly rigged test conditions.)

"The Pentagon Wars" is a darkly gleeful look at the government weapons procurement culture. Pick it up if you get a chance.