Movie scripts for war films have to get approved by the Pentagon as a precondition for the US military’s assistance with those flicks. Such assistance can be valuable, so Hollywood executives have a strong incentive to tailor war films to please the US armed forces. Below are twenty five things about that, some famous movies that the Pentagon agreed to help, and others that the US military wanted nothing to do with.
The Military Entertainment Complex
Making a movie – especially an action film – is seldom cheap. That’s why Hollywood executives constantly keep an eye out for ways to cut costs. When it comes to any movie that involves the military, one of the best cost-cutting ways is to get help from the Pentagon. For more than a century, the US armed services have has been more than happy to help Hollywood by lending it military gear and letting it film on military installations. However, in order for the Pentagon to scratch the backs of Hollywood producers, it wants them to scratch its back in return.
The United States Department of Defense (DoD) demands a say in every American made movie that wants to use US military resources that are not available on the open market. There is an office dedicated to that: the DoD’s Entertainment Media Unit. The resultant mutually beneficial relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon is known as the “military-entertainment complex“. Below are some of the hoops Hollywood films have to jump through in order to get production assistance from the US military.
