Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies

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Summary: Operation Hollywood Presents an Amazing Tale
Review: Operation Hollywood describes how the U.S. military controls what we see in many movies made for the big screen. I would not have thought this was possible in our society.
Yet the author, David Robb, makes it all too true. Most of his information comes from files obtained from the armed services themselves. The book is full of household-name movies, directors, actors and studios, and tells the actual stories of what happened to them under this seedy system.
The Pentagon richly rewards producers and directors who give military censors control over a film's script, characters, scenes and final cut . The reward comes in the form of hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of planes, equipment, locations and military personnel shared with the movie-makers. The objective is always the same - to have a film that boosts the image of the U.S. military.The Pentagon even changed scenes in episodes of the Mickey Mouse Club television show! An important subtheme to Operation Hollywood is the utter lack of constitutionality in this cozy and venerable relationship between Hollywood and the Pentagon.
This is a fascinating book with all kinds of ramifications. Highly recommended.

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Summary: Fascinating Look at Hollywood's Relationship With the Army
Review: Operation Hollywood is an interesting book about the common practice in which studios alter scripts to meet military PR requirements in return for free access to both bases and equipment.

The book shows how pro-military movies leads to spikes in recruitment and as a result, the military wants to control everything that goes into a movie. All too often, Hollywood acquiesces to their demands. The military believes that they are only enforcing accuracy, but they also maintain that any film that does not reflect well on the military is "inaccurate."

This baleful influence has altered the view that Americans now have of the military. They believe that the U.S. military is intrincsically good and is incapable of doing anything wrong.

Operation Hollywood is an interesting and revealing book. As such it is recommended.

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Summary: Absurd Central Thesis
Review: This sometimes entertaining book is ruined by its flawed central thesis: That the Pentagon, by refusing to cooperate in the production of films that involve the use of their troops and their hardware, is somehow abridging free speech when it refuses to lend their stuff out to filmmakers hostile to the military or who plan to film anti-minitary, anti-war films. First of all, it is ridiculous to expect any individual or institution to cooperate with an attack of itself. Not even criminal law compels a defendant to incriminate himself (it's called the Fifth Amendment, Turley). Second of all, the Pentagon isn't stopping these films from being made, so it is abridging nothing. The authors of Operation Hollywood actually supply many examples of films made without the Pentagon's cooperation--such as Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket and Oliver Stone's Platoon. The Pentagon has a right to protect their reputation, and I for one am glad they have the clout to do it. Demanding that the Pentagon supply men and equipment to just anyone is absurd, and comparable to an individual like me demanding air time and broadcast facilities from a national network because I want to cover the news differently than they do. I'll tell Mr. Robb and Mr. Turley the same thing a network would tell me--get your own network. In essence, that is what the Pentagon tells filmmakers who want to make anti-military films--get your own stuff and film whatever you want.