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Movies The US Military Assisted On and Movies They Refused To Be Apart Of

Khalid Elhassan July 31, 2023 33 min

Uncle Sam's and the US military's links to the entertainment industry go back generations. YouTube

To Qualify for US Military Assistance, a Movie Has to Meet the Pentagon’s Criterion

US Air Force personnel fill the roles of extras on the set of the movie 'Transformers' while a camera crew on a four-wheeler captures the action during filming at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico — US Air Force airmen act as of extras on the set of 2007’s ‘Transformers’ during filming at Holloman Air Force Base, New Mexico. US Air Force

An action blockbuster’s production can get pretty expensive. Borrowing military gear from the US armed forces is one way to put cool stuff on the silver screen, at little to no cost. Do you want great shots of Apache attack helicopters nipping around a battlefield, a US carrier task force majestically slicing through the waves, or the newest US Air Force warplanes doing nifty things? The Pentagon is happy to help – provided you make it happy in return. To qualify for support from the DoD, a movie script has to get vetted in advance by its Entertainment Media Unit.

All will be well, and the Pentagon will offer assistance that can be worth millions of dollars, provided a movie meets some basic criterion. First, the movie has to present the US military in a positive way. Second, the movie has to depict the US military accurately and authentically – with the Pentagon getting to define what counts as “accurate” and “authentic”. Finally, the movie has to have a positive impact on US military recruitment and retention. Below are some movies that met those criterion and got help from the Pentagon, and others that did not and were told by the DoD to go kick rocks.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.