Chapter 6 - Hollywood Pledges Allegiance to the Dollar
The Pentagon recognizes that film and television deeply influence youth, and all of American society, so military minders regularly edit the scripts of thousands of productions, including "American Idol," "The X-Factor," "Masterchef," "Cupcake Wars," numerous Oprah Winfrey shows, "Ice Road Truckers," "Battlefield Priests," "America’s Got Talent," "Hawaii Five-O," lots of BBC, History Channel and National Geographic documentaries, "War Dogs," "Big Kitchens"— the list goes on and on. Alongside these shows are blockbuster movies like Godzilla, Transformers, and Superman: Man of Steel.
The Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs in Los Angeles (OCPA-LA) rates the productions. Although we’re familiar with films carrying ratings like G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17 from the Motion Picture Association of America, the Army also gives them ratings. They include:
The Army does not assign negative ratings; instead, it summarily rejects films that it doesn’t like. Rejection by OCPA deprives filmmakers of access to military bases, ships, training, maneuvers, etc. Rejection forces filmmakers wanting to tell a story involving the military to potentially spend additional millions in production costs, effectively eliminating low-budget filmmakers not content with toeing the line.
Most of the films on the OCPA-LA reviews eventually receive a thumbs-up, many after an intensive back-and-forth editorial review process. Films are subsequently categorized, as above, by the way they best support the Army’s mission. Producers requesting DoD assistance submit their scripts to the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD-PA), which authorizes the Military Services to provide suggestions for changes. Refusal on the part of producers regarding any DoD edits results in a rejection of assistance.
This helps to explain why the military is America's most trusted institution.
New DOD instructions call for productions to present “a reasonably realistic depiction of the Military Services and the DoD, including service members, civilian personnel, events, missions, assets, and policies.” Reasonably realistic to whom, using what criteria? Do the censors reject projects if they deem them to be unreasonably realistic? Would scripts based on books by Chalmers Johnson, Howard Zinn, or Noam Chomsky be considered unreasonably realistic? The question penetrates to the heart of the 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.”
The Army’s Office of the Chief of Public Affairs in Los Angeles (OCPA-LA) rates the productions. Although we’re familiar with films carrying ratings like G, PG, PG-13, R, or NC-17 from the Motion Picture Association of America, the Army also gives them ratings. They include:
- Supports Building Resiliency,
- Supports Restoring Balance,
- Supports Maintaining Our Combat Edge,
- Supports Adapting Our Institutions,
- Supports Modernizing Our Force.
The Army does not assign negative ratings; instead, it summarily rejects films that it doesn’t like. Rejection by OCPA deprives filmmakers of access to military bases, ships, training, maneuvers, etc. Rejection forces filmmakers wanting to tell a story involving the military to potentially spend additional millions in production costs, effectively eliminating low-budget filmmakers not content with toeing the line.
Most of the films on the OCPA-LA reviews eventually receive a thumbs-up, many after an intensive back-and-forth editorial review process. Films are subsequently categorized, as above, by the way they best support the Army’s mission. Producers requesting DoD assistance submit their scripts to the Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs (OATSD-PA), which authorizes the Military Services to provide suggestions for changes. Refusal on the part of producers regarding any DoD edits results in a rejection of assistance.
This helps to explain why the military is America's most trusted institution.
New DOD instructions call for productions to present “a reasonably realistic depiction of the Military Services and the DoD, including service members, civilian personnel, events, missions, assets, and policies.” Reasonably realistic to whom, using what criteria? Do the censors reject projects if they deem them to be unreasonably realistic? Would scripts based on books by Chalmers Johnson, Howard Zinn, or Noam Chomsky be considered unreasonably realistic? The question penetrates to the heart of the 1st Amendment: “Congress shall make no law… abridging the freedom of speech.”