Sony Pictures drew the line at editing out the Statue of Liberty (yes, really), as Hollywood studios reconsider kowtowing to Chinese censorship of American movies.
the DoD and CIA have script approval over the American film industry
On Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), in the scene where Bond is about to parachute jump into Vietnamese waters, [the Department of Defense liason] Strub successfully requested that a CIA agent not warn Bond: ‘You know what will happen. It will be war,
and maybe this time we’ll win.’
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker
Let’s begin with the classic case of US military film propaganda. In The Green Berets, Western star John Wayne convinces sceptical news reporters that the Vietnam War is necessary and leads a team of Green Berets (US Special Forces) and Army of the Republic of Vietnam (ARVN) soldiers on a successful mission to capture a top North Vietnamese field commander.
During production of Green Berets, the DOD requested that the scriptwriter delete any mention of the soldiers entering Laos because it ‘raises sensitive questions.’ Presumably, these questions revolved around the fact that in the real world the US had been secretly bombing a neutral country for the past three years.
In a scene that explains the purpose of the war at the start of the film, Francis Tully, Speech Review Staff for the Department of State, also suggested that the scriptwriters insert the following language:
We do not see this as a civil war, and it is not. South Vietnam is an independent country,
seeking to maintain its independence in the face of aggression by a neighbouring country.
Our goal is to help the South Vietnamese retain their freedom, and to develop in the way
they want to, without interference from outside the country.
These lines do not appear in the final film, but Tully’s suggestion indicates that he hoped to simplify the war in Vietnam in a way that Americans could support, and this simplification occurs though in the final version of the scene, as military leaders explain to reporters that the war boils down to stopping ‘Communist domination of the world.‘
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker
Charlie Chaplin’s 2,000-page Bureau file shows that, as a result of his left-wing beliefs, the
FBI conducted lengthy investigations into his politics and his sex life, including pursuing leads
offered by anonymous sources, clairvoyants and gossip columnists. Destroying Chaplin’s iconic status became an obsession for the Bureau, who reached out to MI5 for help trying to dig dirt, though the British found nothing indicating he was a Communist, let alone a Soviet spy. In September 1952, Chaplin and his family left the US to go on a European tour to promote his new film, and, after consulting with Hoover, the Attorney General revoked Chaplin’s re-entry permit, banning him from the country. Even though the Bureau’s files concede that they had no evidence that could be presented in court to justify barring him from re-entering the US, Chaplin decided not to contest the decision and lived the final 25 years of his life in Switzerland. He did not return to America until 20 years later. In short, the FBI quietly ended the career of the greatest comedian of all time on the false grounds that he was a Communist.
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker [PDF]
the DoD and CIA have script approval over the American film industry
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker
from National Security Cinema by Alford & Secker [PDF]
deleted by creator
wHaTaBoUtIsM
imagine being so anticommunist that you go to some weirdo who claims to talk to ghosts to end the career of funny silent movie guy