Jarhead

A review by Sean Mathews
Staff Writer for the Daily O'Collegian

“Jarhead” stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Marine Private Anthony Swofford and is based on events taken from his book of the same name. “Jarhead” is a memoir of his experiences in the Marines during Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The film also stars Peter Sarsgaard as his sniper partner private Troy, and Jamie Foxx as Staff Sgt. Sykes. Gyllenhaal gives an emotionally charged performance as Swofford, one of his best to date. Jamie Foxx, however, was the standout of the movie. Coming off the success of “Ray” and “Collateral,” Foxx proves once again that he is adept at performing in dramas.

“Jarhead” is directed by Sam Mendes of “American Beauty” fame. He presents “Jarhead” with a natural palette of colors and the landscapes portray the bleakness of middle eastern deserts. “Jarhead” is a visual movie, as much as can be for taking place in a desert.

The movie delivers an accurate look at the life inside the military. However, if you are looking for a movie comparable to “Black Hawk Down,” you will walk away disappointed. “Jarhead” focuses on the psychological side of the military and builds upon the mental state of the characters that are in Swofford’s squad. Wives leave husbands, girlfriends leave boyfriends, and the members of Swofford’s squad are stuck in the desert standing still in time while the United States moves on. Much of the movie revolves around how Swofford and his comrades handle and react to these facts of their lives.

The movie begins with Swofford at marine boot camp. Viewers who are war-movie buffs will instantly be reminded of “Full Metal Jacket.” This detracts from the movie, but the scenes are necessary as they represent the beginning of Swofford’s career and sets the movie’s tone.

The movie is full of anti-climaxes. This is not bad though. Swofford is a marine sniper, but Operation Desert Storm is fast-moving and the purpose of Swofford’s squad is outdated. This leads to moments of anticipation, desperation and ultimately letdown for Swofford and company. Audiences will be left waiting for something that just isn’t going to happen.

The plot of “Jarhead” leaves something to be desired. As it is based on memoirs, it seems that the most interesting events of the book have been plucked out and then squeezed into the movie. This does not always work and some scenes seem forced or out of place. As a result, the audience might be scratching their heads a lot or asking, “Why?”

The light-hearted tone of “Jarhead” makes up for the plot shortcomings and will leave audiences laughing for much of the movie. “Jarhead” is as much a comedy as it is a drama, and viewers will gain a realistic look at how soldiers use their time to relieve stress and boredom. These antics make for the most interesting moments of the movie.

Overall, “Jarhead” is probably one of the better war movies in the way of humanizing the soldiers within. Its lack of action is true to the book but might leave some viewers upset. The acting in “Jarhead” holds the movie together but the lack of a solid flowing plot hurts the movie. In the end, viewers are given a funny, thought-provoking film that builds up to an ending that doesn’t quite fulfill their thirst.

“Jarhead” is rated R for sexual content, language and violence.

Hollywood's dirty little secret

02/20/05 "The Age" - - It's the scripts that pay a high price when Hollywood goes into battle. Brian Courtis looks at one of the movie world’s murkier truths.

Well, we've known the rules. We've known them since Errol Flynn liberated Burma without any help from British, Australian or New Zealand forces. Churchill and a few Diggers may have been upset, but the fact is when it comes to Hollywood only the good guys win and, since we're playing with their toys, those good guys must inevitably be Americans. Never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster.

They really do not want to discuss this, of course, in Tinseltown. They still see only their heroes and our villains. And they continue to win everything alone. Remember Steven Spielberg's D-Day spectacular Saving Private Ryan? Someone simply forgot that 72,000 British and Canadian troops were also involved. And if Hollywood is to be believed, it was the Americans who captured the Enigma coding machine from a German submarine; never mind that the Brits were there and accomplished that six months before the Yanks entered the war.

Not everything has been quite so eagerly promoted. We hear less, for instance, about the effects of the powerful relationship that has grown over the years between the Pentagon and the Hollywood studios, a partnership that not only can save millions of dollars for filmmakers and produce fine recruiting propaganda for Washington, but can twist history and reality to produce the ultimate in international spin.

In Operation Hollywood, filmmaker Emilio Pacull follows up an investigative study by film industry journalist Dave Robb on the help producers have sought from the military over the years. Robb, who worked for Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, says he found himself obsessed with the minutiae of these negotiations with the boys with ships, tanks, materiel, information, bases, access to land, troops and some very real-looking fireworks.

His report, a page-by-page study of scripts submitted by the studios to the Pentagon, reveals an intriguing pattern of censorship and propaganda. For Hollywood, acceptance of this system means the difference between "full co-operation" and no co-operation. For the military, it involves maintaining an idealised image of the forces, their behaviour, their view of the world, the superiority of their form of patriotism, and for that matter, their reasons for going to war.

So why, they would argue, should the Pentagon spend its money on pacifism or promoting the darker side of the soldier's world? Why reward a Platoon when The Green Berets is what you're after?

Among those with an opinion in Operation Hollywood are Australian director Phil Noyce, Phil Strub from the US Department of Defence, historian Lawrence Suid and Joe Trento, author and president of the anti-war Public Education Centre. This, they all agree, is a world where lines, plots and nationalities are changed so that film producers can gain access to expensive military hardware.

In the 1995 James Bond movie Goldeneye, for example, the original script had a US Navy admiral betraying state secrets. This was changed to make the traitor a member of the French navy. After that the military's co-operation was forthcoming. Pacull and Robb takes us from the pedantry to the powerful in examining the changes to scripts. They list the producers and the movies that have fallen into line and show how the military's script editors work. Interestingly, it's not the censors who come under fire here quite so much as those co-operative, self-censoring filmmakers.

Still, as Robb says, in what has become ostensibly his campaign against this system, the long-term effect on generations of young Americans is an unknown. “How many of those killed in Iraq died because they joined up after they saw what was presented in a film?” How many have died as the result of unknown recruiting propaganda?

All a producer needs do for assistance, it seems, is submit five copies of his script to the Pentagon for approval, make whatever script changes the Pentagon suggests, film the script exactly as approved by the Pentagon and preview the finished product for Pentagon officials before it's shown to its broader audience. And, according to Robb, as he puts the boot firmly into Jerry Bruckheimer, Tom Goldberg (Stripes), John Woo and other producers and directors, many do this gladly. It is, he insists, Hollywood's dirtiest little secret.

Not that the big screen is alone. Among the early changes we hear about is a scene from an episode of the children's television series Lassie in which a light aircraft crashing in the woods concerned the Pentagon. A change to the script was called for. The military didn't want children, the subject of its future recruitment drives, to get the idea that the US Army produced faulty equipment.

Not surprisingly, Washington will back what it sees as the positive message every time. There is enthusiasm for such gung-ho films as The Longest Day, Top Gun or, believe it or not, Pearl Harbor. There is no point talking to them about Apocalypse Now, Platoon or Dr Strangelove. As for films about the wounded and traumatised victims of war, concentration camp horror, or civilian casualties ... well, that has nothing to do with them, does it? Use your imagination, however, and make a heroic star of yet another four-star general and you will be marching step-in-step with America's medal-winning movie buffs. And be rewarded for it.

There are other ways to win the day. It would be interesting, for example, to see how the Pentagon would react to the sentimental reflections on wartime that British television so enjoys. In the escapism of Foyle's War, for example, the message is one of sacrifice and understanding. Michael Kitchen's wise old police chief, Foyle, uses wisdom, patience and tolerance in an idyllic Sussex setting against petty crimes and sabotage. This, rather than some one-sided battlefield slaughter, shows us the old values we're fighting for.

Soldiers and civilians are generally given positive treatment; blimpish landowners, politicians and generals get short shrift. This week, in They Fought In The Fields, the sweet and splendid Sam (Honeysuckle Weeks) is on the farm with a troubled gang of land girls, while her boss is out sorting spies from prisoners of war. There are few fireworks, few toys from the boys, but a gal's still gotta do what a gal's gotta do.

Operation Hollywood, broadcast on Australia's, SBS 02/23/05 

Copyright © 2005. The Age Company Ltd.

 Harrison Ford may lead charge in Falluja movie

CNN.com

December 18, 2004

LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Producers at Universal Pictures are developing what would be Hollywood's first feature film about the war in Iraq, with actor Harrison Ford ready to portray a U.S. general in the movie, the studio said on Friday.

The combat drama would be based on the upcoming book "No True Glory," an account of the battle for Falluja by Bing West, a Marine veteran and former U.S. assistant defense secretary now covering the war as a foreign correspondent, a studio spokesman said.

A Universal-based production company, Double Features, recently optioned movie rights to the book, which will be adapted by West and his son, Owen, a veteran Marine rifleman. The book is due out in May from Bantam, a unit of the Random House publishing company.

Although Ford, 62, is "attached" to the project -- Hollywood parlance for a loose commitment to star in the film if it gets made -- he is not under contract, the studio said. And Universal has only given the go-ahead for development of a screenplay. No money has been earmarked for production yet.

Ford's best known roles include the swaggering "Star Wars" space hero Han Solo and the rugged adventurer Indiana Jones in the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series.

In "No True Glory" he would play Maj. Gen. James Mattis, the U.S. Marine commander ordered to lead an assault on the Iraqi city of Falluja, an insurgent stronghold west of Baghdad, after four Americans contractors were killed and mutilated there by a mob in March 2004.

The offensive was halted the following month, and the Marines were withdrawn until U.S. forces renewed their assault on the Sunni Muslim city following the American presidential election in November.

While Ford would play a lead role in the film, the movie is envisioned as a broader look at the conflict in Falluja as a study of the connections between war and politics as seen through the eyes of the troops, their commanders and civilian leaders, Universal's spokesman said.

The Michael Moore documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11," which focused on U.S. conduct of the war in Iraq, was a major box office success, but "True Glory" would mark the first feature drama about the war.

Meanwhile, several Iraq war projects are being developed for TV, including a pilot series from "NYPD Blue" co-creator Steven Bochco titled "Over There" for the FX cable channel.

Movie dramas about U.S. military conflicts in progress have been unusual since World War Two, with big studios tending to shy away from subject matter perceived as controversial until years after the fact.

Such was the case with such memorable Vietnam War movies as "The Deer Hunter," "Apocalypse Now" and "Platoon."

"The Green Berets, starring John Wayne," was released at the height of the conflict in Indochina in 1968.

Robert Altman's "MASH," which came out two years later, was set in the Korean War but was widely seen as a commentary on Vietnam.

CIA enlists Hollywood for real-life action-adventure

Ex-Hollywood makeup artist recalls covert operation in Iran
By RICHARD LAKE
REVIEW-JOURNAL

November 2004

It was a Saturday morning 25 years ago, and Bob Sidell was between jobs. He had wrapped up a stint as the makeup artist on "The Waltons" and had yet to begin working on the blockbuster "E.T."

Then a strange thing happened. The CIA came looking for help.

When Iranian revolutionaries took dozens of people hostage at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran on Nov. 4, 1979, six State Department employees escaped. They took refuge in the Canadian Embassy, and they needed a way out.

Sidell, a Hollywood makeup artist with such projects as "Laugh-In" and "M*A*S*H" under his belt already, was on the short list of people to call for help.

"Are you busy?" the man on the phone asked Sidell, who was relaxing in his Southern California home.

And that is how a round-faced man who might look like Santa Claus if his beard were a little whiter got involved in one of the most unusual covert rescue missions in U.S. history.

"I am part of history," said Sidell, reflecting last week as he sat in the Las Vegas office of his makeup company, the California Cosmetics Corp. "It's a big-time thing."

Sidell, 67, who now lives in Summerlin, is not the only person with local ties involved in the once-secret rescue mission. The CIA man who led it, Antonio J. Mendez, was originally from Nevada.

Mendez, whom the CIA named one of its top 50 agents in history, was born in Eureka in 1940. He was the son of a miner and recounted stories of being raised poor in his 1999 book, "The Master of Disguise: My Secret Life in the CIA."

When the hostage crisis began, Mendez had recently been named to head the disguise, false documentation and counterterror division of the agency.

The 53 hostages were eventually released, 444 days after they were taken, but no one ever knew of the six State Department employees who secretly left through the back door. The CIA let Canada get the credit for the rescue until 1997, when details were released on the CIA's 50th anniversary.

Mendez and his colleagues cooked up a cover story they would use to get themselves in and to get the six hostages out: They would pose as movie producers scouting a location in Tehran.

"I said, `Let's do something outrageous,' " he said in a recent telephone interview from Maryland, where he now lives.

In his book, Mendez wrote: "Why not devise a cover so exotic that no one would ever imagine a sensible spy using it?"

For that, they needed experts.

He contacted John Chambers, the Academy Award-winning makeup artist who had worked on the first "Planet of the Apes" movie. Chambers had consulted the CIA before, according to Mendez.

But, in this case, Chambers needed help. He turned to his old "Planet of the Apes" colleague, Sidell.

"Are you busy?" he asked that Saturday morning when he called Sidell at home.

"Next thing you know," said Mendez, "I'm in Hollywood talking with Bob Sidell."

Sidell, who happened into the makeup business after serving in the Korean War in the U.S. Navy, said he was stunned when he heard what Mendez was proposing.

"When I got my chin up off the floor, I said `What can I do to help,' " recalled Sidell, who left Hollywood and moved part of the operation of his cosmetics business to Las Vegas about 10 years ago.

Sidell went about setting up a phony movie production company, Studio Six Production, named after the six escapees. He and his wife rented office space in Hollywood, ran advertisements in trade magazines for a phony science fiction movie, "Argo," and even took scripts in for movies they would never make.

They concocted elaborate "histories" for the six hostages in case they were questioned on their way out of the country. One would be a director, another a script writer, and so on.

Working with Canadian authorities, Mendez and another CIA agent traveled to Tehran in January 1980 to brief the six escapees on the plan.

It worked perfectly. The forged passports raised no eyebrows at the airport, and the "movie crew" safely landed in Zurich, and later, in the United States.

No one was allowed to know about it. Sidell said he didn't even tell his children until a few years ago.

Mendez got the six hostages out of Iran safely using the movie cover story. Sidell said he met four of them two years ago at the opening of a spy museum in Washington, D.C.

"It took that opening before it really hit me how important what we did was," he said. "I realized that if I die tomorrow, this is still here. ... I really have accomplished a legacy."

A documentary on the rescue mission is set to air this week on Canada's History Channel. The U.S. version is scheduled to air later this fall.

Find this article at:
http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Nov-01-Mon-2004/news/25136066.html 

Face of the Military Changes Thanks to Hollywood Makeup Artist

With the varied role of US Special Forces, Hollywood makeup artist Bobbie Weiner has changed the camouflage makeup pallet. She takes her experience as makeup artist on "Titanic" and creates camo for Marines, Navy Forces and US Army.

For More Information:           
For Immediate Release
Brian Feldman, (954) 828-9755

2004.09.09

Hollywood F/X Makeup Artist Changes the Face of the Military
Camouflage Face Paint Now In Use With More Realistic Coloring

“Bloody Mary” Takes “Titanic” Makeup to the Battlefield

Hollywood F/X makeup artist Bobbie Weiner has changed the face of the military.

Under contract with the Department of Defense, Weiner is providing Special Forces troops with an improved camouflage face paint that has a broader color pallet that can be used to realistically blend with terrains and tactical situations.

Weiner is the special effects makeup consultant for the newly released “Behind Enemy Lines.” She also supplied the movie with the camouflage face paint, death makeup and her signature F/X frostbitten look that she developed for the mega hit movie “Titanic.”

Weiner, through her company Bobbie Weiner Enterprises, LLC, has been supplying the military with her brand of makeup for nearly five years. She has been cited by the Department of Defense with a gold medal for quality performance.

The waterproof, four-color compact contains olive green, black, mud brown and gray colors. An artic version of the kit is also available. The makeup is easily applied with the fingers, will not stain clothing and although it is ideal for use in fresh and salt water, it is easily removed with soap and water. Some camouflages now in use by the military require a solvent to be used to remove the camouflage. Bobbie Weiner camouflage is FDA approved and non-toxic. The waterproof compact has its own unbreakable mirror in the lid.

“For years the military has seen camouflage makeup as incidental, but as military tactics have evolved to more diversified landscapes and tactical situations, with the result for the need to use a broader color pallet to successfully blend in.,” said Weiner.


The camouflage is popular with hunters and outdoorsmen as well because it’s odorless, and long lasting

In addition to the obvious advantages of concealment, camouflage makeup gives soldiers a psychological boost because it makes them look fierce, preparing them for battle in the same way native people used war paint, said Barbara Ehrenreich, author of “Blood Rites: Origins of Hunting and the Passions of War,” in a recent edition of the “National Post.”

“Hollywood wants the real deal to realistically depict battlefield conditions, but our troops know what it takes to be stealthy as possible to survive--and they want the best to give them an edge in their life and death work,” said Weiner.

Weiner was responsible for making-up Titanic’s icicle-coved, blue-lipped actors floating in the water. She started her makeup business after a Titanic extra asked her to borrow some of her face paint so he could make himself up for a pro football game. She began to package and market her face paint to college and pro teams after the completion of filming of the movie.

“I was in San Diego and saw Marines and Navy Seals running around with camouflage face makeup, but it was lifeless and I thought I could do better,” she said. “When I asked them about the camouflage they complained that it caused rashes and was hard apply since it required heat and was difficult to remove. That’s when I knew I had the right product for them.” She said.

She’s known throughout Hollywood as “Bloody Mary” for her special effects makeup genius. In addition to Titanic she was the makeup artist for the TV show “Renegade,” and “Pumpkin Head II.” She is sought as a makeup consultant in film and TV commercials, including World Championship Wrestling and Home Box Office, and ESPN.

Hollywood to Give U.S. War Games "Razzmatazz"

Stefan Lovgren
for National Geographic News
May 2, 2003

A routine food distribution deep in the mountains of a foreign land suddenly goes awry when a local warlord shows up, demanding to take over security from the U.S. soldiers carrying out the operation.

As the aid convoy pulls into the camp, a stampede erupts. When a hungry refugee attempts to steal food off a truck, a militiaman kills him with a single gunshot. Now Capt. Young, the inexperienced U.S. commander in charge, must make a decision before the situation spins further out of control.

No, we're not in Afghanistan. This action unfolds on a movie screen in an inconspicuous office building in West Los Angeles. The film is called Power Hungry, and it's one of several virtual reality projects being developed for the US military by the Institute for Creative Technologies.

Seeking lifelike training scenarios, the U.S. military has turned to Hollywood. Above, the cast members of the virtual war-gaming film Power Hungry, developed by the Institute for Creative Technologies.

A training exercise follows the 15-minute movie in which game participants can ask questions of Capt. Young and the other characters by typing them into a computer. Advanced word recognition software allows the characters to respond to questions like, "What was your understanding of the mission?" A digital character, meanwhile, guides the review process.

Administered by the University of Southern California, ICT launched in 1999 with a five-year, U.S. $45 million grant from the United States Army. Its mission: To bring some Hollywood razzmatazz to Army war games and training exercises.

It's all part of the US military's mission to transform itself from the bloated behemoth of the Cold War era to a flexible fighting force suited to the kind of asymmetric warfare the Army has faced in, say, Afghanistan and Iraq.

"The Army wanted the entertainment industry to add creativity to their world," said Dick Lindheim, a former television producer and now the executive director of ICT. "They wanted the Hollywood magic."

Emotional Connection

A few years ago, the U.S. Army invited Lindheim, then in charge of the digital entertainment division at the Paramount Television Group, to design a war simulation exercise. In Lindheim's scenario, participants were asked to advise the National Security Council in a crisis situation involving a brutal drug lord taking over Mexico.

While some participants were given interactive media to use, others were given only pen and paper. "The ones with pen and paper soon got bored," said Lindheim. "Those with computers didn't want to leave the classroom."

The Army hired Lindheim to run ICT.

The institute is housed in an office laid out by Herman Zimmerman, a Star Trek production designer, and it employs an army of "techies" whose job it is to construct training scenarios that will deliver a visceral wallop.

The greatest challenge is to give the games a kind of realism that doesn't exist in the Army's own training. The focus is on story and character, something the Army never paid much attention to. Each soldier and each enemy in the game must have his own personality and character development.

"If you can make an emotional connection with your learning, the learning sticks," said Lindheim.

Artificial Intelligence

ICT has designed several computer games. In one, "Full Spectrum Warrior," players assume the role of a squad leader in a dangerous urban warfare situation. But it doesn't work like a regular video game. There is no "shoot" button, for example; players can only give orders. They also must obey the laws of physics and the rules of engagement.

In addition to using sophisticated modeling and graphics, many of the games incorporate artificial intelligence. The goal is to have a virtual human that can be easily reconfigured to play new roles in virtual worlds and carry on dialogue with human users.

In ICT's virtual reality theater, viewers find themselves driving an Army truck down a Bosnian country road. They soon arrive at a city square where a collision between a US Army vehicle and a civilian car has left a Bosnian child seriously injured.

Assuming the role of the commander, the trainee must now make difficult leadership decisions: Soothe the angry crowd that is forming around the child or move on to stem a military confrontation somewhere up the road?

Wearing a special helmet, the trainee can talk to the virtual characters onscreen, who are able to logically respond to almost any command in either synthetic voices or using recorded voice chips.

"The artificial intelligence component is critical because it varies the degree of difficulty depending on how the trainee is doing," said Randall Hill, deputy director of technology for ICT. "The game adjusts to the player."

The Army will retain all U.S. Government rights to any technologies developed by ICT. But the entertainment industry can also tap into new ICT technology and may, for example, be able to use virtual sets and more realistic actors that could obviate the need for live actors doing dangerous stunts.

Learning From Hollywood

In the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, the Army even drew on its pool of Hollywood experts to come up with possible terrorism scenarios to help with training and preparedness.

The Army and Hollywood approach problem solving differently. Soldiers are taught to gather information needed to solve a problem and then devise a single solution. It's a very structured, careful and academic approach.

The Hollywood way, on the other hand, emphasizes people, character and story. "The question becomes, Where do we want to end up?" said Lindheim. "Let's back up and figure out how to get there."

Some Army officials argue that Hollywood's more creative approach to problem solving makes for better leadership training. "We can't always develop procedures ahead of time because sometimes there are many solutions to a problem," said Stanley Halpin, at the Army Research Institute at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. "We must learn to rely on men and women to make decisions as they go along."

A week into the Iraq war, the commander of the American ground forces, Lt. Gen. William Wallace, caused a stir when he told journalists that "the enemy we're fighting is different from the one we had war-gamed against."

In the future, thousands of troops worldwide may be able to participate together in live simulations devised by ICT. "When we first started this collaboration, the Army and the entertainment industry were highly suspicious of each other," said Lindheim. "That's now behind us."

Hollywood goes to war

By Peter Huck
September 16 2002

In a nondescript building on a quiet street near the Pacific Ocean last October, 30 screenwriters, directors and producers, drawn from the movie world's A-list, were called to a summit.

They were charged with a high moral purpose; to help combat terrorism during one of the worst crises in US history.

Meeting after their studio day jobs, the group talked into the small hours. Its brief was to devise plausible ways in which terrorists might launch new attacks against the US, a prospect that, in the paranoid aftermath of September 11, seemed chillingly possible.

The meetings took place at the Institute for Creative Technology, affiliated with the University of Southern California. Set up in 1999 with a $US50 million ($A92 million) budget provided by the US Army, it seeks to create advanced training simulators that will help the army shift from a Cold War mentality into a more flexible force, able to respond within 96 hours to complex missions - from civil wars to natural disasters.

But last September, war was on the nation's doorstep and, caught unawares, Washington was desperate for fresh ideas. Where better to look than the dream factory that has made billions from cinematic stories about fiendish villains, from Dr No on, intent on enslaving the world?

"After the attacks the army's top scientist, Dr Mike Andrews, who created the ICT, came to us and asked us to suggest what terrorists might do in the future," says Richard Lindheim, a former TV executive with NBC and Paramount who is the institute's executive director. Lindheim assembled a team, many of whom had won Academy Awards, responsible for the most popular action films and video games of the past decade.

Unusually for Hollywood, where everyone wants a credit, the participants chose to remain anonymous. Equally odd, they didn't want to be paid. Indeed, many of the group were thrilled because this was the first time they had been able to collaborate with their industry competitors. They continue to meet occasionally. They also agreed that their ideas would remain secret.

"Our worst nightmare was that we would suggest scenarios to terrorists," said Mr Lindheim. "There's been too much history of people copycatting ideas from TV and movies." Eventually, about 16 scenarios were dispatched to Washington.

Their value is uncertain. Lindheim says the Pentagon believes that some would be acted on, but it is clear that a beautiful friendship has emerged.

The Pentagon's tilt towards Hollywood after September 11 had been foreshadowed by a mutually beneficial relationship between movies and the military stretching back to the silent era, when 60 planes and 3500 men were loaned for the World War I epic Wings.

Since then, every major US conflict has been re-fought by Hollywood and, with the exception of a temporary frost provoked by anti-Vietnam war movies such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, and The Deer Hunter , it has enjoyed a cosy relationship with the top brass. Moviemakers gain access to expensive weaponry for such Boys' Own fodder as Top Gun, Pearl Harbor and Black Hawk Down, while the military (which has film liaison offices in Los Angeles) basks in an heroic glow that buffs its image and boosts recruitment.

In one sense this love-fest continues. Last northern autumn the White House summoned studio executives to Washington to help raise America's morale. A flag-waving, three-minute montage of movie clips, The Spirit of America, duly emerged in local cinemas.

But on another level, Hollywood's cooperation with the military echoes World War II, when actors and directors donned uniforms. The Army Air Corps' first motion-picture unit made training and propaganda films, using actors including Ronald Reagan for voiceovers, and directors such as John Huston, John Ford, Frank Capra and William Wyler.

What intrigues Washington is Hollywood's ability to think outside the box. Military and scientific planners tend to be linear thinkers, identifying a goal and then working towards a solution. But Hollywood often works backwards, identifying a scene - say, how to follow the trajectory of a bomb from a Japanese plane into the deck of a US battleship in Pearl Harbor - and then working out how to make it happen.

The hunt is on to recruit hi-tech boffins. Last July, a virtual-reality expert at Disney's imagineering group quit to join the National Security Agency, the secretive spy agency.

"Under ordinary circumstances I would never have dreamed of leaving Disney," he told the Los Angeles Times, "but these aren't ordinary circumstances."

At the Institute for Creative Technology's futuristic offices (all faux metal surfaces, curved blonde-wood walls, and Starship Enterprise ambience, created by Star Trek designer Herman Zimmerman), 45 staff work with consultants, such as the designer Ron Cobb of Star Wars creatures fame and screenwriter John Milius, who wrote Apocalypse Now.

"It's a stimulating environment," said Lindheim. "In entertainment we get a lot of money to play in the sandbox and make mud pies. But you know it's a movie or a video game. Here we're doing something that can save lives. The biggest challenge is to be real. This isn't Spiderman. We can't use artistic license."

Using tools such as a virtual-reality theatre with a 150-degree screen, a monster SGI computer, and a 10.2 Dolby sound system, the institute seeks to create interactive games that reflect conceivable, 21st-century military challenges. It is at the forefront of work on artificial intelligence, and expects to create a virtual human, able to talk, express emotions and display body language, within five years.

In Full Spectrum Command, a war game run on a laptop computer, soldiers will interact with virtual characters in situations based on real events and tweaked by screenwriters to add emotional verisimilitude. A prototype is expected this month and a workable model by year's end.

Interest from military types, including those in Australia, is keen.

No doubt interest is also keen in the commercial game world. The institute controls all non-military use of its ideas, a potentially lucrative market that ranges from entertainment to medicine, education and law enforcement. . September 11 may have changed many things, but in Hollywood the bottom line is eternal.

-Peter Huck is a Los Angeles-based journalist.

This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2002/09/14/1031608342634.html

Military Experts Help Hollywood Get It Right

Thursday, May 30, 2002

By Marla Lehner

NEW YORK — Tom Clancy's The Sum of All Fears has been criticized as being too realistic — but realism is exactly what the filmmakers wanted.

In fact, moviemakers who create spy and military films rely on a host of government experts to ensure that everything from sets and uniforms to planes, protocol and plot are as realistic as possible.

"Paramount sent us the [Sum of All Fears] script and asked us to comment on the degree of realism," said Chase Brandon, the CIA's film liaison. "It certainly took some poetic license … But overall the script was a good read."

Brandon, who spent 25 years as a special operations officer in the CIA, worked with the film's director, Phil Alden Robinson, to hone the details of the script.

"Phil especially wanted to make this as realistic as he could while still having this based on a fiction piece," Brandon said, "I was struck by how realistic the premise was."

In answer to the question of whether audiences are ready to see such an authentic look at terrorism, Morgan Freeman, who co-stars in the film answered: "Yeah. This is a big country. We are courageous and we are not easily frightened, and this is just a blankety-blank movie."

And Ben Affleck, who plays CIA analyst Jack Ryan, told Fox News: "If you feel deeply affected or so traumatized that you don't necessarily want to see anything that has anything to do with terrorism ... I certainly would understand that."

However he added, "By the same token I'm really proud of the movie ... I think it's not just about terrorism but about recovering from disaster."

While the CIA opened up parts of its headquarters to set designers and actors, Brandon emphasized that government secrets aren't revealed to outsiders — no matter how famous they are.

"Ben sat at the desks that are occupied by the real Jack and Jill Ryan," said Brandon. "But he's not thumbing through desk drawers and looking through people's rolodexes."

The practice of calling on the government for expert advice started during the silent film era. The Department of Defense first aided filmmakers on the 1927 World War I drama Wings, according to Department of Defense film liaison Phillip Strub.

And the tradition continued from there. Films such as Black Hawk Down, Air Force One, The Right Stuff, and Behind Enemy Lines have all gotten cooperation from the appropriate branches of the military.

But even with all the expert advice, movies clearly stretch the truth for dramatic effect.

"Sometimes even in pictures we work on, the details are inaccurate, but it's a movie, it's fiction. We don't expect it to be totally accurate," said Strub. "If we were in charge, [the films would] probably be totally boring and no one would go see them."

As an example of a "wildly unrealistic" film moment Strub cites the Steven Seagal, Kurt Russell flick Executive Decision. In one scene a special forces team secretly boards a commercial airliner that has been taken over by terrorists.

"That whole notion of the aircraft through which they inserted a special forces team is totally unrealistic," Strub said. "It looks like a Stealth Fighter, which is unrealistic. But we thought, 'We'll accept that as artistic freedom as long as what they do once they get on the plane was realistic.'"

As for members of the military, they try not to be bothered by inaccuracies on the big screen.

"It's often a source of amusement and head-shaking," said Frederic Peterson, a former lieutenant colonel in the Marines. "It distracts from the credibility but not necessarily from the entertainment value.

"People who have been in the military notice the most minute details that would pass by the general public."

Among those details Peterson cites are a "smattering of ribbons" on uniforms that don't make sense, belt buckles swapped between branches of the military and silly haircuts.

"Some of these actors have the need to preserve their own Hollywood demeanor," he said. "Particularly Tom Cruise. He can't get a proper [military] haircut."

The degree of help the government gives filmmakers depends on several factors including the availability of personnel and equipment, according to Strub.

Sum of All Fears is mostly a CIA picture, but the Department of Defense helped out in a few key scenes, said Strub. "The Marines provided some helicopters for filming," he said. "And the Air Force allowed air-to-air filming of one of our airborne operations centers."

But while the military seems to go out of its way to help certain Hollywood films get it right, the CIA's Brandon emphasized that the government still has its own priorities in line.

"We're not here to make movies," he said. "We're here to keep the country safe so people can make movies, to guard the country's freedoms."

Hollywood, military meet at tech crossroads

By Marsha Walton
CNN Sci-Tech
2001.12.25

(CNN) --When people envision Hollywood, words like creative, flashy and cutting-edge likely come to mind. But when people think of the military, the reaction is probably the exact opposite: precise, controlled and traditional.

Yet when it comes to technology, these two worlds often merge.

Some of the same high-powered graphic techniques that bring dinosaurs to life in movies such as "Jurassic Park," or create the stunning waves in "The Perfect Storm" are adapted by the U.S. Department of Defense to train pilots and provide virtual reality training to Special Forces.

"The military and entertainment are the two customers that push Silicon Graphics the most. Each one of them are the ones that are never satisfied with 'good enough,'" said Greg Estes, vice president of marketing for SGI (Silicon Graphics).

Artists and computer experts have been pushing the envelope for more than 20 years for these seemingly strange bedfellows.

"Our first customer was NASA, our second customer was the Walt Disney Company," Estes said.

Estes said a lot of the flight-simulator technology now used to train military pilots was driven by early requirements from the entertainment industry.

Graphics help convey information

That training, plus aerial surveillance and weather forecasting, were among the displays at a recent forum on graphic technology and the digital battlefield, hosted by SGI in Washington, DC.

"You can absorb a lot more information in a graphic sense than you can in text, so visualization is important in all of this," said Arthur Money, former assistant secretary of Defense for Command and Control Communications. Money is now on the board of directors of SGI.

Money says putting markers on a wall map was about as high-tech as things got early in his military career.

Now, he says, "The information is collected from anywhere in the world, processed in another place, disseminated seamlessly so everybody has the same picture. So that to me is a revolution."

Some pilots who have trained on these high-tech simulators say the visualization of terrain and vegetation helped them out in the cockpit.

"I have war fighters coming back from a mission and basically saying, 'It's as if I had been there before,'" said Robert Mace of Anteon Corp.

"It is best to fight on familiar terrain, and we provide that in a three-dimensional format, so they can truly rehearse their mission before anybody is shooting at them," said Mace, a retired naval flight officer.

Anteon, a systems engineering company, works with the National Imagery and Mapping Agency to translate raw data into usable form for the Department of Defense.

Time crunch

While Hollywood has the luxury of time to tweak and adjust its imaginary twisters and triceratops, military strategists may have just hours or even minutes to make decisions.

That quick processing of information can be crucial for military weather forecasters. A correct forecast can be a crucial component in a battle, or in making a decision to fly or not to fly.

While meteorologists have used supercomputers for years to develop their forecasts, SGI says its technology helps translate the information into a form that pilots, navigators, or ground troops can almost immediately understand.

"Rather than just seeing reams of data and scrolling text, what you can do with our technology is take it and create a visual representation that is much more understandable, and more rapidly, for human perception," said John Burwell, director of government industries for SGI.

Companies such as Alias/Wavefront that specialize in 3-D graphics for films, videos and interactive games are using those technologies to develop war games for the U.S. Army, the U. S. Navy, and the CIA. Programmers can combine photos and 2-D satellite images to create "walk-throughs" or "fly throughs" to preview a mission.

SGI's Greg Estes says the military and entertainment industry's symbiotic relationship keeps them both on the leading edge.

"The same super computers that are being used by the military to model weather, for instance, were used by Industrial Light & Magic to make the waves for "The Perfect Storm" and for "Pearl Harbor," he said.

Hollywood think-tank creating terror scenarios for Army

ROBERT JABLON, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, October 10, 2001

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Some of the filmmakers who craft tales of violence and terrorism for Hollywood are helping the U.S. Army prepare for deadly reality.

A group of entertainment professionals has been hired to work up scenarios for possible future terrorist attacks.

The group was assembled through the Institute for Creative Technologies, a University of Southern California think tank that works on virtual training programs for the Army.

"In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, the Army and USC's ICT have worked together to coordinate ongoing panel discussions with some of Hollywood's top talent," the center said in a statement Tuesday.

The group will brainstorm possible terrorist plots against American targets.

The Army declined to provide specifics about the work or to name members of the group. The trade paper Daily Variety said it included Steven E. De Souza, who co-wrote the 1988 hit "Die Hard," a movie about a Los Angeles office building commandeered by terrorists.

De Souza, through the Writers Guild of America, declined to answer questions.

The military has a long history of working with filmmakers, said Michael Macedonia, chief scientist for the Army's Simulation, Training and Instrumentation Command, based in Orlando, Fla.

"You're talking screenwriters and producers, that's one of the things that they're paid to do every day -- speculate," he said in a telephone interview.

"These are very brilliant, creative people. They can come up with fascinating insights very quickly."

And, he added, "They are some of the biggest patriots I've met."

The Army doesn't know if the terrorism scenarios will prove useful, because it normally takes "several months to over a year" for such projects to be completed, Macedonia said.

Some of those involved worked on earlier Army projects, he added.

The Institute for Creative Technologies was founded in 1999 with a $45 million Army grant. The research and development operation creates virtual reality and simulation technologies for training troops.

"Part of this program involves creating scenarios that soldiers might face in combat," USC said in a statement. "Terrorism is obviously something that Army personnel must confront."


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2001/10/10/state1936EDT0121.DTL
©2004 Associated Press