Now they can fund pro-war Hollywood propaganda to make sure your kids
have a war to fight in.
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The Iraq war movie: Military hopes to shape genre
By Julian E. Barnes
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 7, 2008
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 Wil****re 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 im****tant than it might appear.
After the Vietnam War, movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "Born on the
Fourth of July" helped cement an image of psychologically damaged
Vietnam veterans.
"In the '80s and early '90s, the Vietnam War vet was the 'other,' "
Breasseale said. "Hollywood had created the crazy Nam vet."
For the Army, it was a bitter lesson.
With the country now enmeshed in another long, unpopular war, Breasseale
is hoping to influence a new generation of filmmakers in order to avoid
repeating the experience.
So far, Breasseale feels, most of the movies made about Iraq have really
been about Vietnam.
"It is the self-licking ice cream cone of Hollywood: They make a war
movie based on another war movie," Breasseale said. "It's im****tant to
tell the full story, not a story based on a weird Vietnam-era idea of
what the military is like."
The Army has been helping filmmakers ever since it furnished aircraft
and pilots for 1927's "Wings" -- winner of the first best picture
Academy Award.
With military assistance, moviemakers get access to bases, ****ps,
planes, tanks and Humvees. Military leaders also offer script advice.
And unless a filmmaker agrees to address any problems, the Pentagon
generally opts out.
Most movies involving the military have been summer action films, like
this year's "Iron Man," which was made with Air Force help.
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.
"In the past, have there been instances of disagreements with scripts?
Yes," said Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III, chief of Army public
affairs. "The message I would send is: Give us a try."
The problem for military officials is that some in Hollywood see their
script advice as a subtle form of censor****p or an attempt to spin the
war.
Paul Haggis, writer and director of the Iraq war movie "In the Valley of
Elah," said he concluded that the Army was not interested in telling
honest stories about the war or soldiers.
"They are trying to put the best spin on what they are doing," Haggis
said. "Of course they want to publicize what is good. But it doesn't
mean that it is true."
Few directors focused on Iraq or Afghanistan have approached the
military for help. Haggis did.
Haggis said that after he submitted his script, the producers received
21 pages of objections to parts of the film. Haggis, who did not review
the notes, said his producers told him they amounted to a refusal to
participate.
"We needed their help," Haggis said. "If they had reasonable input I
would have taken it. But I am not there to do publicity for the Army. I
am there to do a movie that I see as true."
Military officers say flatly that they do not censor films.
"There is no way that we are going to go in and to steamroll anyone's
vision," said Phil Strub, the top Pentagon liaison to the film industry.
"They will just tell us to drop dead and go away."
Officials will ask for changes, or decline to participate, if they
believe military policies or practices are grossly misrepresented --
especially if a movie pur****ts to be based on real-life events, as
Haggis' film did.
Breasseale says movies about Iraq and Afghanistan have been
one-dimensional.
"There doesn't seem to be a lot of room for nuance," he said. "What
sells a script to a studio is an easy concept, like 'This guy is crazy
because he has been at war.' 'Easy, I love it,' the executive says."
Breasseale is particularly critical of Brian De Palma's "Redacted," a
film released last year and based on a real-life incident in which U.S.
soldiers raped an Iraqi girl, then murdered her and her family.
Breasseale, who was serving in Iraq at the time of the incident, says De
Palma's movie intimates that all soldiers serving in Iraq are criminals.
"It was so wildly offensive to me that he would group all soldiers
together," Breasseale said.
De Palma did not respond to several requests for an interview.
Many Hollywood filmmakers reject the criticism of Iraq war movies.
Haggis said he worked hard to shade his ****trayals of soldiers, even
those who commit heinous crimes.
"I did want to have a balanced and nuanced film," Haggis said. "If
anything, I tried to be empathetic. I try not to make these kids into
villains."
Iraq war movies as a group have not done well at the box office. Film
critics have speculated that moviegoers see enough of war on the news or
don't care to watch films about an ongoing conflict. The Army suggests
another possibility: The public is rejecting films that feel didactic or
inauthentic.
"The public does not deal too well with being preached at," Breasseale
said.
The military has assisted with one Iraq war film that officials hope
will be unlike "Redacted" or "In the Valley of Elah."
"The Lucky Ones," due out in the fall, follows three combat-scarred
soldiers as they travel from New York to Las Vegas. The Army says the
film -- which stars Tim Robbins, an outspoken war critic -- offers a
more refined ****trayal of soldiers.
During production, Robbins had a long conversation with Breasseale about
what life might be like for his character, Staff Sgt. Cheever -- what
would motivate an enlisted man through two combat tours in Iraq.
"It captures the nuance. It is not a broad brush stroke or just about
PTSD" -- post-traumatic stress disorder -- Breasseale said. "They manage
to tell a story that is familiar but different."
Producer Rick Schwartz agrees his film is unlike other war movies. It
takes place almost entirely in America, and although it deals with the
aftereffects of war, the word "Iraq" is never mentioned.
Schwartz hopes audiences draw their own conclusions about whether "The
Lucky Ones" is pro-war or antiwar, he said.
Though some Iraq war movies have been influenced by post-Vietnam films,
he said, makers of "The Lucky Ones" avoided Vietnam references.
"You want to be able look back in 20 years from now and say, 'That's
what was going on then,' " Schwartz said. "We don't want to make a
metaphor for any other war."
The tension between Hollywood and the Army may never fully dissipate.
But Breasseale is confident that he and officers who follow him will
persuade more filmmakers to view them as a resource, not a censor.
"I am the last of the eternal optimists. I believe there is always a way
to make things happen," Breasseale said. "My job is to help filmmakers
tell an accurate story and help the American public understand their
Army. End scene."
Copyright 2008 Los Angeles Times
--
WAR IS A RACKET
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most
vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one
in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
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http://warisaracket.com/
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