war films

The 1996 action thriller Executive Decision was an early example of what should be called ‘irregular war films’, pitting a...

The DOD claim that they only rewrite Hollywood scripts in order to ensure accuracy and to inform the public about...

I recently found out that Strub retired from his job as the DOD’s Hollywood liaison last July, though this wasn’t...

The National Geographic drama series The Long Road Home tells a version of the story of the battle for Sadr...

The Pentagon’s censorship of movie scripts is fairly well established – I have documented numerous instances on this site.  But...

A few months ago, then DOD Hollywood liaison Phil Strub gave an interview in which he described the work of the entertainment liaison offices.

In our latest article, Matt and I reflect on two of the most common claims made about National Security Cinema, namely 1) That the government is really important in making movies more militaristic and 2) That Hollywood doesn’t produce dissenting films. While the first of these is somewhat true it is a simplification, the second is an outright falsehood.

Chris and Danny from Fortress on a Hill invited me onto their podcast to discuss militarism in Hollywood, the DOD's role in altering scripts, how recruitment propaganda works in the UK, the military vs intelligence approaches to counterinsurgency and other related topics. (Read more...)

In July the Pentagon's Hollywood liaison Philip Strub retired after 29 years in the job. Mysteriously, this was not reported by any media outlet, small or large, mainstream or independent.

Nazis make the perfect Hollywood villains – instantly recognisable, obviously deplorable and easy to recreate. So why were there no anti-Nazi films until 1939, on the eve of World War 2? This week I explore the history of Nazis in Hollywood in the 1930s, how the German government influenced American film-making, and the Jewish intelligence organisation who did what the FBI wouldn’t – infiltrated and helped prosecute the Nazis.