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The Pentagon Wars

Kelsey Grammer (Actor), Cary Elwes (Actor) Rated:

Format: DVD

4.7 996 ratings

IMDb7.2/10.0

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Genre	Comedy
Format	Multiple Formats, Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Closed-captioned
Contributor	John C. McGinley, Richard Benjamin, Dwayne Macopson, Clifton Powell, Kelsey Grammer, Christopher Grove, Tom Wright, Richard Schiff, Dewey Weber, Dann Florek, Billie Worley, Viola Davis, J.C. MacKenzie, Cary Elwes, Olympia Dukakis See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 44 minutes

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Product Description

Pentagon Wars, The (DVD)

From the director of ' 'Made In America' ' and ' 'The Money Pit' ' comes a hilarious look at one of the most expensive blunders in military history. Over 17 years and almost as many billion dollars have gone into devising the B.F.V. There's only one problem. . . it doesn't work.

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Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ 1.33:1
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.75 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 4 Ounces
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, Color, Subtitled, NTSC, Closed-captioned
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 44 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ May 31, 2005
Actors ‏ : ‎ Kelsey Grammer, Cary Elwes, Richard Benjamin, Olympia Dukakis, Tom Wright
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ French
Language ‏ : ‎ Unqualified
Studio ‏ : ‎ HBO Studios
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0007TKND8
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #89,645 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #10,984 in Comedy (Movies & TV)

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4.7 996 ratings

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4.7 out of 5

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Stephen Eng

Enjoyable

Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2023

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Loosely based on real facts but, an enjoyable film even though real facts distorted

Helpful

Steven J. Marrano

"I Want to Tell You a Story About Phil"

Reviewed in the United States on March 4, 2007

Verified Purchase

While critics panned this movie, I found it well worth watching and consider it one of my favorites. The movie is based on the book "The Pentagon Wars" by Col. Jim Burton. The point of Burton's book was that the Pentagon seemed to be more about procuring new weapons than it was about defending America. What happens in the book is even more incredible than what is desccribed in the movie as to the types of things various companies attempt to foist on the American fighting man.

As an engineer, I found the movie hilarious because many times, rational decisions have nothing to do with what the people operating machines need or really want. The sequence that shows how the Bradley Fighting Vehicle went from being a simple troop transport to a Scout and a whole host of other items is true to life and it represents how designers must often try to accommodate even the most ridiculous requests. In truth, many ideas or features are concocted by people on the top with little understanding or regard for operational or maintenance forces (whether we are discussing a tank or any other complicated engineered equipment).

The movie shows Col. Burton's personal struggles to get the BFV tested under combat conditions rather than the tests proposed by other "experts". To make the story more dramatic, the types of testing performed by other "experts" borders on the farcical in the movie. In the book, many of the tests performed by the Army were based on computer models of ballastic impact. Burton was able to prove that the computer generated models did not work. I would assume that the movie used the stupid tests to play up the drama.

The most touching part of the story comes at the end when Col. Burton gives a speech to the troops (responsible for BFV testing) reminding them not to take the easy way out based on the bad experiences of "Phil" with a different weapon system (the M-16 rifle) which did not work when he needed it to. The movie ending is particularly touching.

Having said this, please understand that while the movie does a great job lampooning the military, there is similar (and far less talked about) waste in procurement associated with everyday things one might find at the state and government level on all types of public projects. Making a movie about waste in a public housing project is probably not easy to do so the military becomes the target. A good case can be seen when one state payed close to 135K to rennovate a single bathroom at a State Park. When a radio talk show host called various contractors and askesd for their prices, naturally they were much lower. The real reason for the high price? All types of government projects require far more paperwork (politely translated as "oversight"). Contractors know this and build it into their price. If such things can happen with the simple rennovation of a bathroom, why would we expect something like a complicated weapon system to be different (when one considers the millions of pages of rules and regulations to be followed)?

One need only look at the financing behind the movie project to see the usual left-wing suspects up to their old tricks.

I did not like the way the Army officers involved were portrayed. Most soldiers (even those at the "Puzzle Palace") are decent people trying to do a difficult job. The movie portrays these guys as venal buffoons. While Col. Burton's book gives us a peak behind the scenes, I felt that the dramatic portrayal of the 2 Army officers in the movie was over the top.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Vicious Papercuts

Reviewed in the United States on October 20, 2011

Verified Purchase

HBO Films has turned out a lot of films worth owning in its time - AND THE BAND PLAYED ON, CONSPIRACY, WHEN TRUMPETS FADE, BARBARIANS AT THE GATE - and this movie definitely stands in that company. It's a witty, well-written, well-acted movie that takes a big swing at the greed, stupidity, arrogance and corruption that festers at the heart of our military-industrial complex...and if it doesn't knock the ball clean over the fence, it's good for an in-the-park home run.

THE PENTAGON WARS is the fictionalized-but-mostly-true story of Lt. Col. James Burton (Cary Elwes), an up-and-coming young Air Force officer assigned to the Pentagon to serve as an independent evaluator for the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, which at the time story takes place (the earlyish 1980s) had already been in development for something like 17 years. Elwes is quickly introduced to his blustering, pompous boss, General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer), who presents the Bradely as a fait accompli and implies that Burton's job is to look busy and do nothing. Burton doesn't take the hint, and tries mightily to learn everything he can about the Bradley, only to discover that Partridge's minions Col. Bock (John C. McGinley) and Major Sayers (Tom Wright) are stonewalling him at every turn - it turns out, with good reason. The Bradley, which is about to go into mass production, is actually a death trap that has been protected at every stage from the sort of tests which would have exposed its many weaknesses. Why? Because of the cozy relationship between the Pentagon brass and the defense contractors. The generals endorse expensive weapons systems that don't work, and in return, get awarded cushy, lucrative private-sector jobs upon their retirement. It's a terrific system...so long as there's no war. "I always knew the Pentagon was about cash flows and egos," he laments. "But I always thought that when it came down to it, the men came first."

Just how wrong Burton is he discovers when, emboldened by documents handed to him by a "Deep Throat" within the Pentagon (Richard Schiff) he pushes for live-fire testing, and discovers that not only has the Bradley been protected, all the previous testing has been faked, by such devious means as using shells loaded with sand, filling the gas tanks of the vehicle with water instead of gasoline, and rewriting negative reports using language so confusing that nobody can understand it. When, after a brutal bureacratic struggle, during which Burton is forced to engage in a lot of cloak-and-dagger shennanigans and endure the wrath of his superiors, he finally gets the tests he asks for, the results are...explosive.

THE PENTAGON WARS combines serious dramatic elements with wry cynicism, black humor and not a little farce. The sequences where Burton chases a truckload of dead sheep across a military base, where Col. Bock kicks dirt on him like an enraged baseball manager, or where hot plates are placed all over a vehicle to help guide an infared missle to the target, are all right out of M*A*S*H. It is probably a bit unfair to the military (the role that Congress plays in this sort of sordid backroom dealmaking is deliberately ignored), but in the end, its heart is in the right place. After all...it is the men who matter.

4 people found this helpful

Helpful

Terrific movie about government contracting

Reviewed in the United States on May 25, 2023

Verified Purchase

The movie is a bit of a history lesson and tells the story of the Bradley fighting vehicle. Terrific cast and has a lot of humor too. It’s a must see if you work with the Government.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Fixerflyer

True story!

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2023

Verified Purchase

Even though they made this a comedy it’s probably closer to the truth than if it were “based on a true story “.

Helpful

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Dropshort

If you've ever worked in defence, this will ring a few painful bells!!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 29, 2018

Verified Purchase

If you want to know how it is that our troops (insert ANY nationality here!!) get some of the equipment they do, you could get a really good idea of how procurement works (or doesn't, take your pick!) from this film. Take it from a veteran the Army of 22 years (and I was trained to work in procurement!), there is nothing here which will surprise anyone who has put on any flavour of uniform (military, nursing, police, fire fighters etc), and that really is the sad part! Kelsey Grammar has rarely been on better form, and Cary Elwes is fantastic as the disbelieveing Air Force officer sent to oversee the project. Don't get the wrong idea......the Air Force have just as many such projects (Eurofighter?!), and don't get me started on the Royal Navy (aircraft carrier we haven't got anything which can fly off it anyone?!).

J. Beach

Decent Flick, poor res

Reviewed in Canada on July 17, 2013

Verified Purchase

I quite enjoy this film, and the look it provides into the American military structure. Not a documentary, but based on the true story of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle, this movie looks at how a simple 14 million dollar idea for a fast troop transport, ate up 17 years and 14 Billion dollars of tax payer money.

Truth aside, there are several great performances in this film, and it is a joy to watch. Funny, without being over the top.

My only criticism of this release is that resolution on the disc is quite low. It actually looked better when I watched it on television. Other then this one fault, a solid and entertaining way to spend an hour and a half.

Guy L. Storms

If you don't laugh you have to cry

Reviewed in Canada on May 6, 2013

Verified Purchase

Based on a true story of Pentagon insanity, the decades long genesis of the Bradley fighting vehicle is unfolded here in all of its inane and disasterously expensive splendour. On September 10th, 2001, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld announced to the world that the Pentagon could not account for more than 2 BILLION dollars in expenditures; this movie gives the viewer a hint as to why.

Wolf

Funktioniert auf den meisten Geräten in Europa nicht.

Reviewed in Germany on May 4, 2019

Verified Purchase

Der Film "the Pentagon Wars" ist sehr lustig und gut gemacht. Er spiegelt die verworren komplizierten Bürokratischen Prozesse wieder, die sich, was auch leider meine Erfahrung war, anscheinend in zumindest allen westlichen Streitkräften zuträgt.

Ein großes Problem stellt die Tatsache dar, dass der Film sich in Europa auf DVD-fähigen Geräten nicht abspielen lässt. Ein Hinweis in diese Richtung wäre sehr hilfreich gewesen, was mir persönlich den Kaufpreis und die exorbital hohen Versandkosten (USA) gespart hätte.

Habe den Film dann im Originalton im Internet gestreamt. Es sind keine Deutschen Untertitel verfügbar, deshalb nur für gute Englisch Sprecher zu Empfehlen.

Inhalt: 4/5 Sternen
Preis: 1/5 Sternen
Funktionalität: 0/5 Sternen

Ich hoffe ich konnte im deutschsprachigen Raum weiterhelfen

MfG

Wolf

4 people found this helpful

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Bruce

US DoD bureaucracy at its funniest and political

Reviewed in Australia on June 19, 2021

Verified Purchase

A funny exposure to the internal machinations of the US government and Defense procurement mismanagement.

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