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MICHAEL BAY AND THE PENTAGON. Scott Brown at Wired describes Transformers director Michael Bay's relationship with the Pentagon:
Thanks to the success of Pearl Harbor, Bay has built up so much goodwill with the Pentagon that he can call up and order F-16s the way the rest of us order hot wings. What's more, this movie's theme -- "No sacrifice, no victory" -- certainly must resonate with the military mindset right about now. An excellent way to keep costs down is to get aircraft, tanks, technical advice, locations (Edwards Air Force Base, White Sands Missle Range), and already-costumed troop extras on the cheap."When Hollywood comes to us for assistance, we see it as an opportunity to inform the public about the US military," says Phil Strub, the Pentagon's Hollywood liaison. "If they want our help, they have to show us the script and listen to our suggestions for increasing the military realism." Bay puts it a little more bluntly: "I think they look at it as a recruitment thing."
When the military helps shape issues of representation, it's not just being charitable. It has an image to protect and it has interests of its own (you know, like decreasing enlistment in a time of war). Luckily for them, the entertainment industry actually has a long history of positively depicting militarism. Not that Bay seems to mind. Robert Farley may be right that Bay "sucks," but the extent to which he sucks goes slightly beyond just being a "no talent hack."
--Steven White
COMMENTS (9)
he's as thoughtful and serious a citizen as he is a director
Posted by: benjoya | July 11, 2007 2:44 PM
IIRC the military has a long history of cooperating with Hollywood only if the particular movie makes them look good, and not to "increase military realism."
Posted by: Ugh | July 11, 2007 4:52 PM
Mr. White is correct that Hollywood has a long-standing role in making fascist propaganda movies. However, it isn't limited to the silver screen. If anyone doubts that they need look no further than that awful t.v. show "24". It is made-to-order brainwashing in one-hour segments. Need to convince a skeptical public about the "necessity" of torturing "terrorists" to get information? Well just watch the episode of "24" and see how Jack Bauer saves the day, made possible only by torturing a brown-skinned person. Need to prepare the mass American consciousness (such as it is) for another 9/11 false flag op, this time with suitcase nukes? No problem there, just make an episode of "24" about it. Joseph Goebbels would be very proud.
Posted by: Realist | July 11, 2007 4:52 PM
No sacrifice, no victory -- isn't that a fairly cogent description of the current Iraq war?
Posted by: SalHepatica | July 11, 2007 6:08 PM
Several thousand dead and maimed might disagree.
Posted by: cjr | July 11, 2007 8:41 PM
He's made some pretty good movies; certainly the public has responded to most of them....but then, the nitwit who wrote this crap is most likely a member of an al Qaeda sleeper cell.
Posted by: Loren | July 12, 2007 9:03 AM
Yeah, I'm really worried about how the Pentagon is using Hollywood to stir up hatred against Giantrobot-Americans.
Posted by: Mike G | July 12, 2007 9:30 AM
Mike G: I don't think Mr. White was saying that the Transformers movie is designed to stir up hatred of an ethnic group but that the tagline "No sacrifice-- No victory" smacks of militaristic propaganda and seems to come along at a convenient time when the amount of Republifascists that support continuing the bloodbath in Iraq is shrinking daily, and almost all of the Left has turned against it.
Loren: I must have missed something. Did you mean that you think that Scott Brown from Wired is a member of an Al-CIAda sleeper cell? Or that you think Mr. White is? I'm not trying to be difficult, I just misunderstood what you were saying.
Posted by: Realist | July 12, 2007 7:44 PM
بنت جده
Posted by: شات بنت جده | June 18, 2009 9:11 PM