Hollywood and the War of Ideas

HOLLYWOOD, LOOKING FOR POLITICAL POINTS AT HOME AND GROSSES OVERSEAS, SLIDES INTO PUBLIC DIPLOMACY.


USIA and CBS news vet Alvin Snyder's got an interesting article at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy site. Hollywood, it seems, is making at least four feature movies about the U.S. military including one on the battle(s) for Fallujah. Studio execs are betting hundreds of millions that they can put forth a positive image of the U.S. and its military while doing well at overseas box offices. Most interesting will be whether Jarhead, Anthony Swofford's alternately striking and self-indulgent book about being a Marine sniper in the first Gulf War, can successfully make the jump to celluloid.