Selling War

Its no secret that the American military establishment works and collaborates with Hollywood, it has proven a fruitful relationship for both since it became a real partnership following World War One. Hollywood gets access to areas and equipment and the Military gets some good PR and advertisement.

Recently, we've seen such films as Battle: Los Angeles, www.battlela.com, which portrays the Marine Corps fairly accurately (The tactics and lingo are slightly off, but they got the most important part, the attitude, correctly) and Battleship, www.battleshipmovie.com, which features the modern US Navy. These films serve almost unapologetically as feature length commercials, everyone knows they aren't winning Academy Awards. And yet, we still flock in droves to watch Marines kill aliens.


There are however, films that seem to depict the negatives of military service, Platoon or Jarhead are notable examples. But in the words of novelist Matthew Swofford, they still work as a recruitment tool, "because the magic brutality of the films celebrates the terrible and despicable beauty of their fighting skills."


So whether they mean to or not, any movie that displays the violence and character of action present in war will serve as a commercial. And, as one of the kids who fell for it, I am totally okay with that.


Sources:
http://www.brandchannel.com/home/post/2011/09/09/Brandcameo-090911-Warrior-.aspx


http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92421139