war and popcorn

March 13, 2003 8:30 AM

The return of the Movietone?"We fell on this idea of recreating films that looked like and were the length of the old Movietone forms of the 1940s," said Marine Lt. Col. Jim Kuhn, military producer for the undertaking called the Movietone Newsreel Project. Kuhn says the objective is to put together a short film that combines the commentary of real-life soldiers with the kind of footage civilian journalists would be unable to get. (more inside)
posted by damn yankee (6 comments total)

"To put a glossy Hollywood finish on the project, the military is contracting with an outside firm, Santa Monica-based American Rogue Films, for $1.2 million. American Rogue Films' co-owner, Lance O'Connor, said the plan is initially to create a 4.5-minute film to show in theaters, to be followed later by a 60-minute film. "
posted by damn yankee at 8:32 AM on March 13, 2003

There's something vaguely creepy to me about the return to an era when moviegoers are subjected to government propaganda before they can watch the movie they came to see. It's not like people don't have tvs and computers from which they can get their war news these days. The military may say it's documentary, not propaganda, but if that's the case then why distribute these films in what sounds like a forced-viewing scenario?
posted by damn yankee at 8:37 AM on March 13, 2003

So now I have to watch government commercials, then corporate commercials, then previews which are commercials, then the movie chain's own branding commercials before I get to watch a movie filled with commercials. Argh.
posted by ao4047 at 8:45 AM on March 13, 2003

I hate to admit this but I am old enough to remember newsreels. TV's were just coming on the scene in Idaho when I first started going to the movies, so we always saw a newsreel and cartoon before the feature...
posted by y2karl at 8:48 AM on March 13, 2003

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone.
posted by The Jesse Helms at 9:03 AM on March 13, 2003

...the commentary of real-life soldiers with the kind of footage civilian journalists would be unable to get...

...because the civilian journalists would not have survived the offensive.
posted by silusGROK at 9:15 AM on March 13, 2003