3-Minute Film Salutes American Character, Clip by Clip

The first wartime film project hits theaters Friday, in a montage of 130 clips that creator Chuck Workman hopes represents America’s pluck, bravery and compassion.

The three-minute film, “The Spirit of America,” will play on 10,000 movie screens across the country, about one-third of the screens in the United States.

The film was conceived in the days after the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks and uses movie images to represent aspects of the American character. It begins and ends with glimpses of John Wayne’s 1956 film, “The Searchers,” where his character, surrounded by a darkened doorway, looks out onto a wide field that symbolizes potential and life.

In between are clips from “Working Girl” (1988), “Born on the Fourth of July” (1989), “The Deer Hunter” (1978), “The Blues Brothers” (1980) and dozens more.

“It’s basically a personal film,” said Workman, who won an Oscar for his 1986 short “Precious Images” about the history of cinema. “You have a reluctant hero character that you see in almost every film, whether it’s Erin Brockovich or Mr. Roberts. The funny thing is that that reflects our political situation right now. [The terrorists] just pushed us over the edge, and while these movies don’t say that, it’s in the characters and the spirit of America.”

Theater owners around the country have generally embraced the short film. “It’s subtle. It doesn’t talk about Sept. 11. It doesn’t talk about the war. It talks about themes common to America, no matter who you are. Values. Family. Diversity,” said John Fithian, president of the National Assn. of Theater Owners. “It is a patriotic piece, but it is not blatant propaganda or rhetoric.”

The film’s production predated the first of three meetings between Bush’s senior advisor, Karl Rove, and industry leaders to discuss ways the entertainment community could contribute to the war effort.

While such efforts are ongoing, White House requests immediately resulted in shipments of just-released DVDs to personnel overseas as well as their families on U.S. bases. The cast of “Ocean’s Eleven” visited U.S. troops in southern Turkey the night of the movie’s premiere. Some television casts, such as CBS’s “Everybody Loves Raymond,” taped good wishes to the troops, and the cast of NBC’s “The West Wing” taped four public service announcements to encourage tourists to visit Washington, D.C.

While many in the industry said they were eager to feel useful, there was also concern that White House pressure on the studios and networks sent a chilling message that projects critical of the U.S. government were forbidden.

“[Filmmakers] just don’t want to be told what to do,” Workman said, sitting in his office Friday afternoon as he cleaned up eight frames in the film before it was sent to the lab for printing. “Everyone who makes films is concerned that content and style may be suggested.”

But Fithian and a White House spokeswoman said federal officials had no input on “The Spirit of America.” To emphasize that point, Rove denied through a White House spokeswoman that he had viewed a copy delivered to the White House on the eve of the third meeting. But several people who spoke to Rove the next day said he raved about it.

As to any expectations the Bush administration might have of Hollywood, Mark McKinnon, who has helped organize the White House-Hollywood meetings, said: “We just cast the seeds out there, and they’re growing on their own, and that’s what we had hoped.

McKinnon, who was Bush’s chief media advisor during the presidential campaign, said, “It’s a significant effort and investment for a lot of people.”

“The Spirit of America” began with producer Michael R. Rhodes, who wanted Workman to create a project that would spur classroom discussions on the meaning of patriotism. As Rhodes shopped around for additional funding and distribution, he found support from Fithian’s organization, which encouraged him to make the movie for release in theaters. The project was made with private donations, Kodak’s contribution of film, Technicolor’s free reproduction of every scene and permission from certain actors, like Tom Cruise, to use their images in the project.

Theater owners are donating some of the competitive holiday screen time. In Los Angeles, late December trailer time is sold for about $75 a minute per screen. That adds up to an estimated $6,300 in lost weekly revenue for each screen that runs “The Spirit of America” four times a day. Some theaters are showing it on several screens, and it is unclear how many weeks beyond the requested holiday season the film will run.