The Iraq war movie: Military hopes to shape genre

Breasseale's desk is piled high with scripts, each marked with his name and stamped "confidential." It's his job to help decide which movies should get Army help.

The mission is both harder and more important than it might appear.

After the Vietnam War, movies like "Apocalypse Now" and "Born on the Fourth of July" helped cement an image of psychologically damaged Vietnam veterans.

"In the '80s and early '90s, the Vietnam War vet was the 'other,' " Breasseale said. "Hollywood had created the crazy Nam vet."

For the Army, it was a bitter lesson.

With the country now enmeshed in another long, unpopular war, Breasseale is hoping to influence a new generation of filmmakers in order to avoid repeating the experience.

So far, Breasseale feels, most of the movies made about Iraq have really been about Vietnam.

"It is the self-licking ice cream cone of Hollywood: They make a war movie based on another war movie," Breasseale said. "It's important to tell the full story, not a story based on a weird Vietnam-era idea of what the military is like."

The Army has been helping filmmakers ever since it furnished aircraft and pilots for 1927's "Wings" -- winner of the first best picture Academy Award.

With military assistance, moviemakers get access to bases, ships, planes, tanks and Humvees. Military leaders also offer script advice.

And unless a filmmaker agrees to address any problems, the Pentagon generally opts out.

Most movies involving the military have been summer action films, like this year's "Iron Man," which was made with Air Force help.

But Army officials are eager to work with filmmakers making serious movies about Iraq -- the kind of pictures that have the power to shape the public's view of the war and its warriors.

"In the past, have there been instances of disagreements with scripts? Yes," said Maj. Gen. Anthony A. Cucolo III, chief of Army public affairs. "The message I would send is: Give us a try."

The problem for military officials is that some in Hollywood see their script advice as a subtle form of censorship or an attempt to spin the war.

Paul Haggis, writer and director of the Iraq war movie "In the Valley of Elah," said he concluded that the Army was not interested in telling honest stories about the war or soldiers.

"They are trying to put the best spin on what they are doing," Haggis said. "Of course they want to publicize what is good. But it doesn't mean that it is true."

Few directors focused on Iraq or Afghanistan have approached the military for help. Haggis did.