Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood (2022)

Theaters of War: How the Pentagon and CIA Took Hollywood investigates the largely hidden relationship between the American national security state and the entertainment industry. Drawing on tens of thousands of pages of internal government documents, the film reveals how the Pentagon and CIA have influenced the scripts of thousands of films and television productions, exchanging access to military equipment, locations, and expertise for control over how the military and its actions appear on screen.

Moving from Top Gun and Transformers to James Bond, Marvel, and reality television, the documentary traces a vast military-entertainment apparatus in which war becomes spectacle and Hollywood becomes an instrument of public relations. It examines how official intervention can remove depictions of war crimes, torture, racism, corruption, and other uncomfortable histories, raising broader questions about where entertainment ends and propaganda begins.

Roger Stahl is a filmmaker, writer, and professor of Communication Studies whose research focuses on propaganda, war, media, and the relationship between military institutions and popular culture.

United States 2022 | 88' | English | no subtitles