Hollywood Goes To War

In World War II, James Stewart and Clark Gable flew bombing missions, John Ford, Frank Capra and John Huston made military documentaries, and studios churned out morale-boosting films for the home front.

During Vietnam, Jane Fonda went to Hanoi, Robert Altman used the Korean War as the arena for his anti-Vietnam film "M*A*S*H", and anti-hero movies such as "Easy Rider" and "Midnight Cowboy" became beacons of American unrest.

Always a cultural barometer, Hollywood has responded only in small ways so far to the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. Studios have delayed touchy films, producers have shelved terrorism projects, celebrities have raised money for victims.

It will likely take years before Hollywood films deals meaningfully with recent events.

"There is such a gigantic sadness connected to what happened on Sept. 11 that movies about it would be difficult for a filmmaker to stomach now," said Rod Lurie, director of "The Last Castle," a military-prison drama that opened Friday. "I think it will take a while and a lot of distance. It may take a decade."

After Pearl Harbor, an immediate reaction in Hollywood was to churn out combat dramas as propaganda depicting the U.S. entry into the war as a noble cause. More definitive films that put a human face on World War II appeared late in the war and in the years after with "The Story of G.I. Joe," "The Sands of Iwo Jima," "Twelve O'Clock High" and the homecoming drama "The Best Years of Our Lives."

Hollywood barely touched Vietnam during the war itself, turning out only one notable film, John Wayne's woeful "The Green Berets," with its infamous ending gaffe in which the sun sets in the east.

But as Vietnam triggered anti-war protests, filmmakers such as Mike Nichols with "Catch-22" and Altman with "M*A*S*H" used past wars to make topical satires. Altman notes he deliberately omitted references to the Korean War in "M*A*S*H," which he meant as a condemnation of the Vietnam War.

"If you look at that film, there's no mention of what war it is," said Altman, adding that the studio made him put a disclaimer at the beginning that "M*A*S*H" was set in Korea.

"If you ask people now what `M*A*S*H' was about, 75 to 80 percent would say it was Vietnam."

Fonda was reviled by many Americans for visiting Hanoi in 1972, and she salted the wound several years later by winning her second Oscar for "Coming Home," about a disabled Vietnam vet. In 1988, she apologized to veterans for some of her actions during the Hanoi trip.

"Coming Home" was among a crop of provocative Vietnam movies that appeared in the late 1970s, including "The Deer Hunter," "Go Tell the Spartans," "The Boys in Company C" and "Apocalypse Now." Another surge came in the 1980s with Stanley Kubrick's "Full Metal Jacket" and Oliver Stone's "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July."

Similarly, the first major conflict of the film age, World War I, was not examined seriously on film untiyears afterward. Cheerleading patriotic movies were made during the war. Not until the 1920s and 1930s did probing World War I films emerge, including "The Big Parade" and "All Quiet on the Western Front."

Maverick filmmaker Samuel Fuller produced the challenging Korean War examinations "The Steel Helmet" and "Fixed Bayonets" during the conflict. But it was years before mainstream films such as "Pork Chop Hill" and "The Bridges at Toko-Ri" seriously tackled that war.

A handful of movies have been set in the Persian Gulf War, most notably "Courage Under Fire" and "Three Kings."

Now, if Hollywood wanted to explore the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in a movie, it would take a long time. In today's sluggish industry, substantive films can take two years or more from conception to release. Projects could be quickly outdated.

"Hollywood, just like the book-publishing world, is at a standstill," said Frank McAdams, author of "The American War Film: History and Hollywood," a book due out next spring. "They're just scratching their heads about what they're going to do."

Television can respond rapidly. "The West Wing" aired an episode about the White House dealing with a terrorism crisis, a show written and shot in the three weeks after the attacks.

So far, however, movies and television have responded mainly by postponing or editing some projects. Arnold Schwarzenegger's terrorism film "Collateral Damage," due in theaters this month, was delayed indefinitely. So was an episode of CBS' new spy series "The Agency." Trade-center images were cut from the film comedy "Serendipity" and an episode of TV's "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit."

"Nobody wants a film that even shows a picture of the trade center," said Howard Suber, a film historian at the University of California, Los Angeles. "That's like showing pictures of the dead to the grieving widow."

Producer Dan Paulson, who made the terrorist flick "Passenger 57," shelved a project about Osama bin Laden. Paulson had been about to shop it around for financing when the attacks happened.

"There will be a time when we're poised and ready again for the Osama project, but not now," Paulson said. "Right now, I'd like to go out and pitch romantic comedies, because it's sheer escapist fare."

With its swift studio system in World War II, the industry produced such timely battle films as "Wake Island," "Bataan," "Guadalcanal Diary" and "Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo."

But most films during World War II were meant to take people's minds off the fighting and lift morale. Abbott and Costello, who starred in the military comedies "Buck Privates" and "In the Navy" just before Pearl Harbor, stuck mostly to non-war romps for the duration.

James Cagney hoofed it through the red, white and blue musical "Yankee Doodle Dandy" in 1942. A year later, its director, Michael Curtiz, used the periphery of the war as backdrop for one of the most romantic films ever, "Casablanca."

Struggleon the home front were handled in "Mrs. Miniver," "The Human Comedy" and "Since You Went Away."

Besides Stewart and Gable, thousands of Hollywood players served in the military. Gable's wife, Carole Lombard, died in a plane crash returning home from a war-bond tour. Leslie Howard (Ashley Wilkes in "Gone With the Wind"), who had gone home to England to make films on behalf of the war effort, died when his plane was shot down by Nazi fighters.

Celebrities embarked on USO tours to entertain troops. Military documentaries by Capra and Ford won Academy Awards. The Oscars were broadcast to U.S. troops on Armed Forces Radio.

The Oscar ceremony became muted. The festive banquet format was scrapped in favor of a theater setting. Because of metals shortages, Oscar statues were made of plaster, which winners swapped for the real thing after the war. Tuxedos and gowns gave way to business dress and military uniforms.

At the Oscars in 1943, military privates Tyrone Power and Alan Ladd displayed a banner honoring Hollywood men and women in uniform. Ladd was discharged because of hernias later that year, a grave disappointment to the actor, said his son, producer David
Ladd.

"He felt it was his duty to go to war," Ladd said. "Especially for kind of macho stars, it was embarrassing to be kind of living in the lap of luxury in Hollywood when other men were out dying."

Today's celebrities have pitched in with million-dollar donations for terrorism victims and a telethon that raised $150 million.

About 40 TV executives, producers and other Hollywood leaders met last week with White House officials to consider what the entertainment industry can do in the fight against terrorism. Possibilities discussed included documentaries on the anthrax threat, how to address terrorism scenarios in TV shows and fostering better understanding of the United States overseas.

"There's a lot of talent in the arts community that can be put to great use in these trying times," said Craig Haffner, a producer who helped organize the meeting.

By chance, Hollywood had a crop of flag-waving, military-themed films on tap, including "The Last Castle" and next year's World War II dramas "Windtalkers" and "Hart's War," the latter produced by David Ladd. On television, HBO began showing its 10-part "Band of Brothers," about a company of American soldiers fighting the Nazis, two days before the terrorist attacks.

Such military dramas had been out of vogue in the 1980s and early '90s. Lurie, who graduated from West Point in 1984 and served four years in the Army, said it was "not the most popular thing to be a soldier then."

In 1995, 50th anniversary memorials for the D-Day invasion brought new respect for soldiers and veterans. Steven Spielberg's "Saving Private Ryan" in 1998 helped open the door for current patriotic films.

Escapism, always Hollywood's strong suit, likely will remain the focus of films. But since the Sept. 11 attacks took place i America itself, almost any subject for a movie could be tinged with aftereffects, said UCLA film historian Jonathan Kuntz.

"In a weird way," Kuntz said, "a film about us and ordinary life after the attacks would be a war film if it takes into account all the hysteria going on today."

By David Germain
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