Sailing on the Silver Screen: Hollywood and the U.S. Navy [Hardcover]

Lawrence Suid (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1996

A fully documented history of the Navy's image crafted by the movie industry.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Hollywood and the U.S. Navy, judging from this thorough but lackluster study, have been scratching each other's backs for a long time. According to Suid (Guts and Glory: Great American War Movies), the Navy has looked upon film as the perfect public relations vehicle; meanwhile, Hollywood has drawn upon "the glamour inherent in Navy uniforms, jet planes, and esoteric ships to create exciting images." It was just prior to U.S. involvement in WWI, explains Suid, that filmmakers began looking to the Navy for realistic props and settings. Reluctant to promote a prowar message at that tenuous time, the Navy insisted on approving any script involving its cooperation. For the past 80 years, Navy censors have denied requests on grounds of technical inaccuracy or inappropriate story content. As a result, Suid shows, many Hollywood films have tended toward pro-Navy propaganda. Even today, the Navy will insist on, and receive, script changes-as it did, for instance, in the making of The Hunt for Red October. Ever since WWII, however, an increasing number of producers have been willing to work around the Navy when necessary. Suid writes clearly and brings to his subject deep research including dozens of interviews with Navy personnel and filmmakers. His approach is more factual than reflective, however, and his text is ultimately more useful as a resource than as critical commentary. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

The U.S. military has a long love-hate relationship with Hollywood, sometimes cooperating on films that bolster its recruiting or image-improvement efforts, other times boycotting scripts it considers objectionable. This study shows how Hollywood has portrayed the U.S. Navy from the 1930s "golden age" to recent blockbusters like Hunt for Red October and Crimson Tide. Also discussed is the navy's surprising involvement in Star Trek and disaster films like the Airport series and Towering Inferno. Extensive coverage is given to Top Gun, On the Beach, PT-109, Caine Mutiny, and Tora! Tora! Tora!, films controversial because of themes or questionable use of taxpayer money. Suid (Film and Propanganda in America, Greenwood, 1991) withholds judgment about the quality of each film, making for an informative but not stimulating book. Backed up with extensive documentation from the Pentagon, this would be useful in large film collections.?Stephen Rees, Levittown Regional Lib., Pa.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 307 pages
• Publisher: US Naval Institute Press; First edition. edition (March 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1557507872
• ISBN-13: 978-1557507877
• Product Dimensions: 10.3 x 7.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,234,626 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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