Files on government involvement in popular culture, from the CIA in Hollywood to the Pentagon and reality TV. I obtained these documents via FOIA requests and from various archives.
For anyone hoping that the end of phase 3 of the MCU would bring some respite from the relentless schedule…
As I work through the DOD’s file on Michael Bay’s Pearl Harbor I keep finding curious and often bizarre requests…
Under Siege is by far the second best Steven Seagal movie, but untold until now is the story of how…
The military support on Pearl Harbor was extensive, including mothballed battleships being towed around, access to bases in Hawaii and…
I’ve been spending some more time going through the Pentagon Film Office file on Pearl Harbor and among the numerous…
Pearl Harbor (2001) is the perfect example of how to spend a lot of money making a terrible film. Beset…
1992’s Patriot Games was supported by both the Pentagon and the CIA, filming at Langley and the US Naval Academy…
Good Morning, Vietnam is perhaps the most popular Vietnam war film ever made. Loosely based on the real life experiences…
In March 2016 I put in a FOIA request with the US Coast Guard. Several appeals, a lot of ignored…
In March 1991 the producers of Hot Shots! An Important Movie contacted the US Marine Corps looking to film one…
A 1940s MI5 file shows that British intelligence suspected that the Odeon chain of cinemas was a front organisation providing…
There aren’t very many films about the first Gulf War, which is ironic because if ever there was a war…
Former MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove has criticised spy author John Le Carré for his ‘nihilistic’ and ‘corrosive’ view of…
For weeks the internet has been awash with claims, rumours, scuttlebutt and hearsay about some kind of shooting at the…
The epic war drama The Deer Hunter won five Oscars, despite the central conceit and metaphor of the film being…
One of the most common conspiracy theories you hear in this line of research is that the Pentagon and CIA…
The role of the technical advisor is crucial to understanding the military-Hollywood relationship, but very few people know who these…
Captain Phillips tells the story of the 2009 hijacking of the Maersk Alabama – a US container ship – off…
2012’s Act of Valor is widely recognised as the terrible, dull, depressing, futile piece of cinema that it surely is,…
Lone Survivor is a piece of absolute militaristic schlock, starring the whiny-voiced Marky Mark Wahlberg as Navy SEAL Marcus Luttrell…
GI Jane is a crude, clumsy attempt to show a ‘woman’s perspective’ on being in the military, that ruined Demi…
One issue that comes up repeatedly in the script changes enforced by the Pentagon is war crimes, and other violations…
I was looking forward to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, having been a fan of giant creature features since I…
Sometimes the US military’s rewriting of scripts is very specific – take out this joke about the US losing in…
Amazon Prime’s The Boys is not only the most enjoyable TV show I’ve seen all year, it’s also the most…
Co-founder of the Village People and co-writer of ‘YMCA’, ‘Macho Man’ and ‘In the Navy’ Henri Belolo died last saturday…
The US Army’s emails on The Long Road Home show that not everything ran smoothly while filming progressed at Fort…
I recently obtained 50 pages of documents from the CIA on the support they provided to Michael Bay’s Benghazi movie…
The teaser trailer for season 2 of Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan depicts John Krasinski as the eponymous hero in a…
A story doing the rounds in the last few days claims that the producers of Top Gun: Maverick changed the…
