The Military-Entertainment Complex Hits Summer Cinema Screens

By on July 2, 2012 in News 25

What do you get when the Pentagon joins into a symbiotic relationship with our major entertainment industries? The birthing of the ever-growing baby that we call militainment. The military grants filmmakers access to high-powered technology and in return, Hollywood propagates films that make warfare seem legitimate. Al Jazeera discusses Act of Valor, an $80-million-grossing action film released earlier this year which was commissioned by the Navy’s Special Warfare Command and goes “beyond propaganda”:

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  • Anarchy Pony

    They’ve wormed their way deep into the video game industry as well.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_JR6QMHI5D3L6Z4JJBSAKO4KJBE brock

    I wonder about all the movies that don’t get made because of the military industrial complex.

    • Anti-Crowley

       Probably not too many as there seems to be plenty of them that paint a picture of corrupt military. 

  • Noah Way

    YOU WILL BE ASSIMILATED

  • Irish Potato Gun

    Battleship certainly was a nice BJ with a rim job to the Navy.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=748182869 Josh Davis

    Sometimes I feel like commenting…. but Anarchy Pony already stole my thought. 

  • Simiantongue

    This movie may be a step forward in movie and video games, but militainment has had a heavy presence in TV since the black and white heyday of TV.

    I think I’ll have to take this movie in just to see for myself. The last propaganda movie I saw was Battle Los Angeles. Movie was thick with militainment, aggrandizement and all that jazz. Was a bit ham handed in the way it put the propaganda out there, on that level the movie was fascinating to watch. Otherwise it sucked.

  • Anti-Crowley

    Man, can’t get anything past this crafty bunch.  Now let’s talk about homotainment, nuetics-tainment and any other agenda placed in “entertainment” with the express purpose of engineering and desensitizing the populace for a cause.

    • Anarchy Pony

      Right, because those things are totally just as immoral as rampant military imperialism.

      • Anti-Crowley

         Cuts are occurring across the entire Department of Defense.  Bases are closing and are preparing to be closed around the World from Japan to Europe.  Don’t confuse an imperialistic administration with an imperialistic “rampant” military.  Your paranoia is bordering pathological.  The best cure for this is looking for facts and knowing more about reality.

        • Andrew

          Name some of the cuts, and some of the bases to be closed.

          • Anti-Crowley

            Selective memory huh?  This was a pretty big deal last year with the budget stand still in congress.  Take a look at the State Dept Japanese Embassy website for the closure of bases and moving of troops off of the island of Okinawa.  Camp Futenma is the first to go in the next year or so.

            Marine Corps cutting over 40,000 personnel from their total force size, dumping the joint strike fighter and carrier replacement program, a freeze in pay raises for the DoD (which was simply there to match inflation annually.)  Almost all re-enlistment bonuses gone ect. 

            Don’t get me wrong, gov’t can waste some money, DoD included.  But this assuming that there is some malevolent purpose behind it is wrong and simply comes out of over simplication and conspiracy theory. 

            Nobody would be happier to take a break from war with the hopes of never returning to it than those that have been fighting and dying for the last decade.

        • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

          You make an important distinction about the difference between an imperialistic presidential administration and an imperialistic “rampant” military.

          This situation is quite convoluted though. First, I don’t think for the most part that the rank and file of the U.S. military is imperialistic or rampant.

          Many people on disinfo would agree with me about this, but certainly not all. Generally speaking, the Military does a very good job – especially considering the amount and quality of manpower they are given and the complexity of their mission.

          Ironically, the parts of our military with which I am personally least comfortable are entities like Joint Special Operations Command which seem to work more closely than usual with our civilian leadership. Despite (or perhaps because) of their admirable qualities like consummate skill at arms and complete loyalty, they end up being the ones out doing the unsavory, “illegal”, and arguably counter-productive missions. Frequently (actually, Always since the end of WWII because we haven’t declared war since then) in countries we are not techically at war with. The Constitutionality of such actions has not been adequately addressed, in my opinion, though the prudence (or lack thereof) of such behavior has been amply demonstrated.

          The Military itself bears little blame for its misuse, though. They are loyal and subordinate to the Civilian government, just as they are supposed to be. The fault lies mainly with the Civilian government in general and the Executive branch in specific.

          Despite the budget cuts which you cite (or at least the ones I think you’re citing), I wouldn’t come to the conclusion that the Obama administration isn’t Imperialist. Those cuts were the consequence of a misbegotten game of “Political Chicken” between the Democrats and the Republicans in Congress. The Republicans agreed to an astounding (some would argue ruinous) level of cuts to the Military as collateral for a political ploy to get tax cuts for certain special interests. (The Democrats did something similar with domestic spending).

          Anyhow… there is little debate that our Military gets used by our leaders to pursue not only the security of our country, but also “vital interests” which are frequently revealed to be rather short-sighted and pursued in a way (by force of arms) which is often counterproductive.

          As far as the actual subject under discussion in the posted article, I do think that the cooperation shown by the Military toward film projects which it considers to be “flattering” is problematic. It may even amount to illegal propaganda, since there are reports that the Military has required plot or script changes in some cases as a condition of assistance.

          Since it seems unkind and unreasonable to force our Military to take the time,expense, and aggravation to assist some Hollywood profiteers who would make a movie critical of the Military, perhaps we should get the Military out of the movie business altogether.

          • Anti-Crowley

             I agree with you with what seems to be 100% of your post.

        • Calypso_1

          At first glance I thought your opening statement was “Cults are occuring across the entire DOD.”  Wow, I was actually going to agree with you. 

          • Anti-Crowley

             Cults as in the cult of the Marine Corps ect, in that I would agree.  Systematic brain washing is the only way to achieve mass production of killers.  There is the occasional pissing on dead bodies and torturing prisoners that must be dealt with as an after thought though.

    • Bruteloop

      Oh, grow the fuck up.

      • Anti-Crowley

         I am rubber you are glue, anything you say to me bounces off and sticks to you. 

        A person who goes by the name “Bruteloop” just told me to grow up!?

    • http://www.ContraControl.com/ Zenc

      I’d love to talk about the homotainment, especially if it’s the kind with two (or more) women in it. Some of my favorites are Opearl, Belladonna, Summer Cummings, Claire Adams (queer bondage rigger/model who’s an acquaintance of mine), and those Queensnake girls. The causal yet inventive sadism displayed by the Queensnake girls is simply amazing.

      I suppose we can talk about the guy-on-guy variety of homotainment if you really want to, but there’s something about having guy parts of my own that makes me apathetic to that whole scene.

      Also, what is nuetics-tainment? I tried to google the root word but it revealed little and suggested “noetics” which is what I thought you meant when I first read it. I’d even be interested in talking about noetics-tainment. In fact, that actually sounds quite interesting. Google also suggested “Neuticles”, but that’s probably covered under some homotainment sub-genre.

      • Anti-Crowley

         Pretty elaborate way of saying “you spelled Noetics wrong.” 

    • http://www.facebook.com/derick.wade Derick Wade

      Engineering the populace for a Cause? Cause from the Latin “Causa”? Which means “reason”? Reason, which is concerned with forming conclusions, judgments, or inferences? ..Wait, wait..Back up,,Read that part about “reason” again..and again..and again.. until you grasp the difference between a Cause and a Civil Right.

      Blokes like you are the REASON that others need “causes”.

  • MoralDrift

    People just dont understand how deeply the military sucks. It is the epitome of “suck” Take a look at suicides, drug abuse(i include alcohol here), marital problems including abuse and divorce, not to mention death, dismemberment, and mental scarring. 

    • Anti-Crowley

       Done some time in the service I take it?

  • NotReallyShocked

    Shocking news, the military uses Hollywood movies and TV to boost recruitment.