The Iraq war movie: Military hopes to shape genre

[RamboLiberal]

Source: LA Times

There's a war going on, and Army Lt. Col. J. Todd Breasseale has a mission.

But it's far removed from the captured Iraqi palace where he was once stationed. He fights his war now from an office on Wilshire Boulevard lined with movie posters chronicling conflicts real and imagined, from "Patton" to "War of the Worlds."

Breasseale's desk is piled high with scripts, each marked with his name and stamped "confidential." It's his job to help decide which movies should get Army help.

The mission is both harder and more important than it might appear.

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But Army officials are eager to work with filmmakers making serious movies about Iraq -- the kind of pictures that have the power to shape the public's view of the war and its warriors.

Read more: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-na-armyfilms7-2008jul07,0,4772877.story

[Barrett808]

1. "Hollywood created the crazy Nam vet."

No, my friend. The invasion of Viet Nam created the crazy Nam vet.

[aspergris]

3. Berke Breathed

riffed on the Hollywood crazed vet image with his Bloom County comic.

[SpikeTss]

2. This is nothing new

History really has a lot of examples for this type of work:

[LynnTheDem]

4. "the power to shape the public's view of the war". In a word,

propaganda.

[wmbrew0206]

5. A lot of military films require support from the military when making the movie.

Top Gun, Independence Day, and Blackhawk Down are good examples of a movies that required a lot of support from the military to make.

I don't think it is wrong for the military to not support films that don't protray them in a postive light.