Militainment, Inc.

Synopsis

Militainment, Inc. offers a fascinating, disturbing, and timely glimpse into the militarization of American popular culture, examining how U.S. news coverage has come to resemble Hollywood film, video games, and ""reality television"" in its glamorization of war. Mobilizing an astonishing range of media examples -- from news anchors' idolatry of military machinery to the impact of government propaganda on war reporting -- the film asks: How has war taken its place in the culture as an entertainment spectacle? And how does presenting war as entertainment affect the ability of citizens to evaluate the necessity and real human costs of military action? The film is broken down into nine sections, each between 10 and 20 minutes in length, allowing for in-depth classroom analysis of individual elements of this wide-ranging phenomenon.

Release Date:2007

Duration:124 min

ISBN:1-932869-15-8

Subtitles:English

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Filmmaker Credits

Written, produced & narrated by

Roger Stahl

Filmmaker Biographies

Roger Stahl

Writer, Producer & Narrator

Roger Stahl is a professor of Communication Studies at the University of Georgia who studies rhetoric, media, and culture. His work has focused on understanding propaganda and public relations as they relate to state violence, conflict, and security. His most recent book, Through the Crosshairs: War, Visual Culture, and the Weaponized Gaze (Rutgers UP, 2018), traces the history of the gun-camera and examines the ways that the public has been increasingly invited to picture war through the weapon’s eye. His previous book, Militainment, Inc. (Routledge, 2010) maps the military-entertainment complex. In a more public capacity, he has produced documentary films, including Theaters of War (2022), Through the Crosshairs (2018), Returning Fire (2011), and Militainment, Inc. (2007), all of which are currently distributed by the Media Education Foundation. He and his work have been featured in such venues as NPR’s All Things Considered, The Guardian, and Al Jazeera.

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Praise

"Highly recommended, especially for courses on mass communications and popular culture."

- Educational Media Reviews Online

"Roger Stahl's Militainment is a real eye-opener. In a highly engaging and well-documented film, Stahl shows how the media have largely functioned as instruments of propaganda in recent U.S. military interventions, and he documents as well the culture of militarism in popular entertainment, ranging from TV shows, sports, and toys, to video games, all of which present war as entertainment. This development is both shocking and dangerous and contributes to a militarization of our culture and society that makes us more likely to go to war, despite our traumatic experiences in Iraq (and now Afghanistan). Every citizen should awaken to these dangers and Stahl's documentary is an important tool of enlightenment that should be widely used in the classroom and public spaces."

- Douglas Kellner
UCLA
Author, The Persian Gulf TV War and Media Spectacle and the Crisis of Democracy