Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies / Edition 1

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies / Edition 1

by David L. Robb
ISBN-10:
1591021820
ISBN-13:
9781591021827
Pub. Date:
04/30/2004
Publisher:
Prometheus Books
ISBN-10:
1591021820
ISBN-13:
9781591021827
Pub. Date:
04/30/2004
Publisher:
Prometheus Books
Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies / Edition 1

Operation Hollywood: How the Pentagon Shapes and Censors the Movies / Edition 1

by David L. Robb

Hardcover

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Overview

The only thing Hollywood likes more than a good movie is a good deal. For more than fifty years producers and directors of war and action movies have been getting a great deal from America's armed forces by receiving access to billions of dollars worth of military equipment and personnel for little or no cost. Although this arrangement considerably lowers a film's budget, the cost in terms of intellectual freedom can be quite steep. In exchange for access to sophisticated military hardware and expertise, filmmakers must agree to censorship from the Pentagon.As veteran Hollywood journalist David L. Robb shows in this revealing insider's look into Hollywood's "dirtiest little secret," the final product that moviegoers see at the theater is often not just what the director intends but also what the powers-that-be in the military want to project about America's armed forces. Sometimes the censor demands removal of just a few words; other times whole scenes must be scrapped or completely revised. What happens if a director refuses the requested changes? Robb quotes a Pentagon spokesman: "Well I'm taking my toys and I'm going home. I'm taking my tanks and my troops and my location, and I'm going home." That can be quite a persuasive threat to a filmmaker trying to keep his movie within budget.Robb takes us behind the scenes during the making of many well-known movies. From The Right Stuff to Top Gun and even Lassie, the list of movies in which the Pentagon got its way is very long. Only when a director is determined to spend more money than necessary to make his own movie without interference, as in the case of Oliver Stone in the creation of Platoon or Francis Ford Coppola in Apocalypse Now, is a film released that presents the director's unalloyed vision.For anyone who loves movies and cares about freedom of expression, Operation Hollywood is an engrossing, shocking, and very entertaining book.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781591021827
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Publication date: 04/30/2004
Edition description: New Edition
Pages: 350
Sales rank: 801,876
Product dimensions: 6.41(w) x 8.88(h) x 1.08(d)

About the Author

David Robb (Beverly Hills, CA), an award-winning freelance journalist who has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize three times, has published articles in the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, The Nation, LA Weekly, Salon.com, and Brill’s Content. For many years he was a labor and legal reporter for The Hollywood Reporter and Daily Variety.

Table of Contents

Foreword13
Acknowledgments23
Introduction25
Chapter 1.Censoring James Bond29
Tomorrow Never Dies
Goldeneye
Chapter 2."A Commercial for Us"33
Clear and Present Danger
Chapter 3."Discrimination Against Speech because of Its Message Is Presumed to Be Unconstitutional"41
Countermeasures--The Unproduced Movie
The Last Detail
Cinderella Liberty
Chapter 4."Revisionist History"53
Thirteen Days
The Perfect Storm
Chapter 5.Changing History59
Windtalkers
Chapter 6.Bending Over Backward67
Independence Day
G.I. Jane
Chapter 7."The Producers Will 'Punch It Up' in Any Manner We Dictate"73
Jurassic Park III
Chapter 8."The Mooning of a President by a Uniformed Soldier Is Not Acceptable Cinematic License"77
Forrest Gump
Chapter 9.Rewriting Renaissance Man81
Chapter 10."It's All in the Negotiations": The Films of Jerry Bruckheimer91
Black Hawk Down
Pearl Harbor
Armageddon
Top Gun
Crimson Tide
Chapter 11."Show Stoppers"101
Air Force One
Chapter 12.Self-Censorship Is Still Censorship105
The Tuskegee Airmen
Afterburn
The Wall
A Dangerous Life
Chapter 13.The First Amendment Doesn't Always Come First113
Hearts in Atlantis
Chapter 14.Approval Denied117
Citizen Cohn
Fail Safe
Mars Attacks
Outbreak
Space Cowboys
Memphis Belle
The General's Daughter
Sergeant Bilko
Courage Under Fire
Lone Star
Broken Arrow
The Pentagon Wars
Chapter 15."Dishonest Propaganda"123
My Father, My Son
Fields of Fire
Chapter 16.Sanitizing JAG131
Chapter 17."A 45-Minute Commercial for Marine Aviation"137
Pensacola: Wings of Gold
Gardens of Stone
Chapter 18.Bending the Rules143
Jets
Silver Wings
Executive Decision
Family of Spies
Chapter 19."I Want Page Six and Seven Completely Thrown Out or You Don't Get to Use Our Aircraft Carrier"149
The Agency
The Sum of All Fears
In the Company of Spies
Chapter 20.Turning Vodka into Water153
The Presidio
Chapter 21.Censorship: The Final Frontier163
Star Trek IV
Chapter 22.Almost Sunk by the Navy171
The Hunt for Red October
No Way Out
Chapter 23.Turning Movies into Recruiting Posters177
The Right Stuff
The Final Countdown
Air Force One
Flight of the Intruder
The Hunt for Red October
Top Gun
Behind Enemy Lines
Deep Impact
In the Army Now
Airport '77
D-Day: The Sixth of June
Second to None--The Unproduced Movie
To Hell and Back
Take Her Down
Chapter 24."Editorial Control Over the Product"189
JAG--The Unproduced Movie
Chapter 25.Changing Stripes191
Stripes
Evolution
Chapter 26.An Officer, But Not a Gentleman197
An Officer and a Gentleman
Chapter 27."Writing the Scene to the Admiral's Specifications"205
Raise the Titanic
Chapter 28.Join the Navy--Be Indicted213
Final Countdown
Clear and Present Danger
Good Morning, Vietnam
Chapter 29.Join the Army--Be Indicted221
The General's Daughter
McHale's Navy
Chapter 30.Clint Eastwood versus the Pentagon227
Heartbreak Ridge
Chapter 31."Is That Not Propaganda?"241
A Rumor of War
Chapter 32.Sanitizing The Great Santini247
Chapter 33."A Wonderful Public Relations Tool"261
Taps
Chapter 34.Mooning the Pentagon267
Inchon
Chapter 35.Let There Not Be Light273
Maria's Lovers
Chapter 36."The Propaganda Value of the Film"277
The Green Berets
Chapter 37.Bowing to Political Pressure285
Blood Alley
Chapter 38.Erasing Private Pedro287
Battle Cry
Chapter 39."A Shameful Attempt to Impose Censorship on a Film"297
Attack!
Chapter 40.Lassie Wants You to Join the Army303
Lassie
Chapter 41.Babes in Arms307
The Mickey Mouse Club
Independence Day
Steve Canyon
West Point
Men of Annapolis
Chapter 42.Babes in Gas Chambers315
Devil Pups--The Unproduced Movie
Chapter 43.The Cy Roth Story321
Air Strike
Chapter 44."Cooperation by the United States Navy Should Evince a Certain Reciprocity in Making Changes in the Script"329
Hellcats of the Navy
Chapter 45.Even Good Men Do Bad Things: The Frank McCarthy Story335
Three Brave Men
Patton
Chapter 46.Covering Up the Cover-up345
The Court-Martial of Billy Mitchell
Chapter 47.Religiously Incorrect351
The Proud and the Profane
Chapter 48.Torpedoed by the Navy353
Admiral Rickover--The Unproduced Movie
Supercarrier--The Canceled TV Show
Chapter 49.Heroes and Villains361
Conclusion365
Sources369
Index373
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