Spy Culture Documents

Files and documents on military, intelligence and other government involvement in and support to the entertainment industry. I am also uploading these documents to my Scribd account for ease of access and reading.

'While the Script is Somewhat Clichéd, We Are Not Movie Critics' - DOD Memo on The Heroes of Desert Storm

‘While the Script is Somewhat Clichéd, We Are Not Movie Critics’ – DOD Memo on The Heroes of Desert Storm

There aren't very many films about the first Gulf War, which is ironic because if ever there was a war for PR purposes, that was it.  While Jarhead and Three Kings were rejected by the Pentagon's Hollywood office, one film that did benefit from military support was The Heroes of ...
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Ex-MI6 Boss Blasts Le Carré's Spy Novels, Even Though MI6 Vetted Most of Them

Ex-MI6 Boss Blasts Le Carré’s Spy Novels, Even Though MI6 Vetted Most of Them

Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove has criticised spy author John Le Carré for his 'nihilistic' and 'corrosive' view of British intelligence, even though Le Carré submitted all of his early novels to MI6 for them to review prior to publication.  This appears to be the latest round of intelligence ...
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Even the US Army Warned of Violence at the Joker Premiere But So Far, So Good

Even the US Army Warned of Violence at the Joker Premiere But So Far, So Good

For weeks the internet has been awash with claims, rumours, scuttlebutt and hearsay about some kind of shooting at the premiere of the new Joker movie.  Even the US Army sent out a memo saying they'd received a 'credible threat' of a shooting attack, but the film's premiere went off ...
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Napalm, Ambushes and Russian Roulette: Why the Pentagon Rejected The Deer Hunter

Napalm, Ambushes and Russian Roulette: Why the Pentagon Rejected The Deer Hunter

The epic war drama The Deer Hunter won five Oscars, despite the central conceit and metaphor of the film being inaccurate.  This conceit - that the Viet Cong forced American prisoners of war to play Russian Roulette - is the main reason the film was rejected for DOD support, along ...
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ROI: Does the Pentagon Fund Movies?

ROI: Does the Pentagon Fund Movies?

One of the most common conspiracy theories you hear in this line of research is that the Pentagon and CIA fund Hollywood movies.  This isn't entirely untrue - the CIA covertly funded productions of Animal Farm and 1984 in the early Cold War period - but on the whole, it ...
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Revolving Doors: Technical Advisors and The Entertainment-Propaganda Complex

Revolving Doors: Technical Advisors and The Entertainment-Propaganda Complex

The role of the technical advisor is crucial to understanding the military-Hollywood relationship, but very few people know who these people are or what they do.  Even less well known is that a significant number of private industry technical advisors used to work for the Pentagon's entertainment liaison offices, and ...
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