copycat effect

The US military, particularly the Air Force, invested a lot of time and resources in helping make Captain Marvel, and...

Of all the many, many, many projects the Pentagon has supported, one of the most surprising and seemingly innocent is...

Just like other government agencies the FBI are deeply involved in the entertainment industry, collaborating with film andTV producers to...

One of the Pentagon's consistent bugbears when it comes to movie scripts is swearing. Whether it is from the mouths of military or civilian characters, the DOD doesn't like those ████ing cuss words. But why not? Given their various political and PR concerns why is bad language such a problem? Compared to executing prisoners of war or digging gold teeth out of the mouths of dead soldiers, a quick ████ or ██████████ seems trivial.

In this month's susbcriber-only podcast I talk about my new screenplay project - a political satire of Hollywood. I talk about my history with acting and writing, and discuss some of my creative process, how I developed two simple ideas and combined them to form the basis for my screenplay. I also quickly review some of my film and TV inspirations including The Big Picture, Get Shorty and Episodes. (Read more...)

It isn't often that I see a film that angers and educates me in equal measure. War School: The Battle for Britain's Children is a new documentary exploring the growing peace movement in the UK, and the militarisation of British schools for propaganda and recruitment purposes.

On this month’s subscriber-only podcast I dissect the 1994 movie Swimming with Sharks, about a young man who goes to work at a Hollywood studio, where his boss (Kevin Spacey) abuses and bullies him relentlessly. I reflect on the film’s relevance in the wake of the #MeToo phenomenon, and how the film is a dark […](Read more...)

The US military has a drinking problem, but like most of its problems it's OK because the entertainment liaison offices are there to make sure Hollywood doesn't draw attention to it. From episodes of Wonder Woman through to blockbuster films, scenes of services members drinking have been edited or removed from scripts. (Read more...)

A recently-released syllabus for the US Naval Academy’s course FP130: American Government and Constitutional Development includes a section that advises students to watch and learn from the 1995 romantic comedy The American President.  Bizarrely, the scene does not involve the military or foreign or security policy in any way, but is about the President trying […](Read more...)<

For movie censors, crime is perhaps the most complex issue to make decisions about. They want the public to be alert to the possibility of crimes happening, and respectful of law enforcement institutions. But entertainers and audiences want dramatic, ambiguous villains and stories of institutional corruption and hubris.