![]() The Korean War film The Battle at Lake Changjin, released in 2021, was funded almost entirely by Beijing’s propaganda department to the tune of £160m, duly becoming the highest-grossing film in China’s history with a £730m haul. ![]() In fact, the Department of Defence’s (DOD) backing of Top Gun: Maverick will be chump change compared to some of the figures China has been pumping into state-sponsored cinema of late. Directed by the late Tony Scott, this testosterone sandwich of a film was such a successful bit of marketing that recruitment booths were installed in cinemas to capitalise on the hype. However, it wasn’t until we first heard the call signs of Goose, Jester and Iceman in the original Top Gun that this “quid pro quo” really hit the target: the film’s combination of dizzying aerial combat, thumping MTV-friendly soundtrack and shirtless beach volleyball helped US Navy recruitment shoot up 500 per cent following its release. More than 800 Hollywood films have been heavily supported by the US military over the last century, stretching as far back as the 1927 Best Picture Oscar winner Wings and the misfiring The Green Berets (1968), a schmaltzy White House-approved Vietnam War picture released at the height of the conflict. ![]() Its all-American cool and fetishistic patriotism also reinforces a very modern trend in film the world over: cinema as a military recruitment tool. This week, the critically acclaimed Top Gun sequel swoops into cinemas at a time when US diplomacy might as well be stuck in the Eighties: Russia is on the march, the threat of nuclear war hangs over geopolitics like a toxic cloud, and Tom Cruise is back in the cockpit as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, looking barely a day older than when he first donned the aviators back in 1986.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |