The military and the
film industry
Many war films have
been produced with
the cooperation of a
nation's military
forces. The
United States Navy
has been very
cooperative since
World War II
in providing ships
and technical
guidance;
Top Gun
is the most famous
example. The
U.S. Air Force
provided
considerable
verisimilitude for
The Big Lift,
Strategic Air
Command
and
A Gathering of
Eagles,
filmed on Air Force
bases and using Air
Force personnel in
many roles.
Typically, the
military will not
assist filmmakers if
the film is critical
of them. Sometimes
the military demands
some editorial
control in exchange
for their
cooperation, which
can bias the result.
The German Ministry
of
Propaganda,
making the epic war
film
Kolberg
in January 1945,
used several
divisions of
soldiers as extras.
Propaganda Minister
Joseph Goebbels
believed the impact
of the film would
offset the tactical
disadvantages of the
missing soldiers.
If the home nation's
military will not
cooperate, or if
filming in the home
nation is too
expensive, another
country's may
assist. Many 1950s
and 1960s war movies,
including the
Oscar-winning
film
Patton,
were shot in
Spain,
which had large
supplies of both
Allied
and
Axis
equipment. The
Napoleonic epic
Waterloo
was shot in
Ukraine (then
part of the
Soviet Union),
using Soviet
soldiers. The D-Day
scenes in
Saving Private Ryan
were shot with the
cooperation of the
Irish
army, and all of the
major sequences in
Dark Blue World
were shot in the
Czech Republic, at a
disused air force
base.
See also
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