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Zade Rosenthal / AP
Chris Evans, portraying Captain America, left, and Robert Downey Jr., portraying Tony Stark, are shown in a scene from "The Avengers."
While the Pentagon usually likes to get screen time on Hollywood blockbusters, government officials backed out of their opportunity to participate in Disney’s new film, “The Avengers.” Apparently there was some creative confusion over the military’s role in the movie, Wired reports.
Initially approached to contribute official army vehicles, the military declined. The ambiguity of S.H.I.E.L.D., the fictional international agency which assembles the superheroes, posed a problem for government officials because they weren’t clear how it stacked up to their own armed forces.
“We couldn’t reconcile the unreality of this international organization and our place in it,” Phil Strub, the Defense Department’s Hollywood liaison, said in an interview with Wired's Danger Room. “To whom did S.H.I.E.L.D. answer? Did we work for S.H.I.E.L.D.? We hit that roadblock and decided we couldn’t do anything with the film.”
As Strub pointed out to Wired, all U.S. military stealth jets that appear in the film, along with additional fight carriers and helicopters, were “digitally inserted by the studio…not actual planes provided by the U.S. military.” The government did allow the filmmakers to shoot Humvees during the movie’s final battle scene, however, and allowed New York National Guard members to participate.
According to Wired, S.H.I.E.L.D. proved confusing to the government as the agency seems to wear many hats, and a definitive interpretation cannot be determined. The acronym originally stood for “Supreme Headquarters, International Espionage Law-Enforcement Division,” but was changed in 1991 to “Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate.” The establishment’s fictional history is similarly vague, as it "began” as a U.S. venture, but was later overtaken by a United Nations-type group, eventually becoming a source for both covert operations and military functions.
All in all, it was too much for the Pentagon.
“It just got to the point where it didn’t make any sense,” said Strub.
John Lovett, an outside military technical adviser to filmmakers, told the Associated Press in 2001 that Hollywood must adhere to Washington’s demands.
"If you want to use the military's toys, you've got to play by their rules," Lovett told AP. "That's how it's done."
Did you see the film? What did you think? Which Avenger is your favorite? Tell us on Facebook.
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"If you want to use the military's toys, you've got to play by their rules," HELLO Pentagon!!.. This is called FICTION... Google it or look it up on Wikipedia!
Hello Zombiequest, the minute the military seems to be endorsing any multi-national group having even indirect control of the US military, the right wing will have a coniption - even if it is fiction.
the right wing loves that kind of propaganda, what are you smoking differnet??
Absolutely don't google Pentagon!
Google will track that and pass it on to Homeland Security and you will forever be on the possible terrorist watch list.
Actually it is better not to google anything because it is all tracked.
Lets go ahead and toss all the political mumbo jumbo in here just for the hell of it:
right-wing, left-wing, bi-partisan, partisanship, constituents, nobama, democrats, republicans, tea-party, liberals, conservatives, ultra-conservatives, independant, Ross Perot, allwedoisregurgitatethesamewords, debate, and HOTDOG STAND ON THE WASHINGTON MALL.
To all you people who sit foaming at the mouth ready to spew your cookie-cutter words, read the STORY before you go.
Go find the political stories to sit and chock full of words like "rhetoric".
Story is ridiculous, it's sadly hilarious. Read and move on.
(PS, i completely agree with Zombie.)
I'm a little late to the party here but seriously the blurred line between fantasy and reality is comical.
I don't know about the rest of you but I go to the movies to escape reality. Between this and the story I read about the adoption joke used in the movie we have turned into a whining, sniveling, over sensitive society that can't seem to understand what's real anymore.
This is a movie about a guy on ubber steroids, a guy that can turn eight feet tall and green, a demi god, a pompous billionaire with a cool suit and their support group. IT'S NOT REAL in any way shape or form. It's good to know that the people who run the defense system can't separate the two.
That being said, CGI is the way to go and probably a much less expensive option. Our men and women join the military to protect our country and its freedoms. They don't join to get cast for Hollywood blockbusters.
Great movie. The comedic timing was impeccable and the action was shot so you could actually tell what was going on. Marvel nailed it and I am already looking forward to the Avengers 2----Pentagon involvement or not.
To all of the immature, whining, I wear my heart on my sleeve, cry babies out there what are you going to do when Hollywood gets tired of you and your uber sensative selves and decides to cease making anything remotely resembling entertainment? Chew on that if you can get your thumb out of your mouth long enough.
The Pentagon actually has a paid resource to be liaison to Hollywood?
Is that part of the defense budget? Sheesh, and we wonder why our kids' futures have been mortgaged away by gross overspending.
The Pentagon makes oodles of money from Hollywood when they participate in a movie, so the cost of a liaison is easily justifiable.
If I recall correctly from my comic book reading days, SHIELD was something of an international organization that had close ties to the U.S. military and the CIA. This arrangement is, I think, similar to the one U.N.C.L.E. had, which was also an international organization.
This is only a movie, so why would the pentagon have a snit over who reports to who is silly.
WetWilly, because there are a crap load of crazed conservatives in congress who would exploit even teh appearance of the military supporting a multi-national agency as a threat to America.
As opposed to liberals who lust after a one world government and are willing to destroy the country to achieve it
stop being such a baby, good god grow up jtkirk, a 1 world government is inevitable. you conservatives are such fearmongering alarmists
JTKirk - Are you opposed to the idea of a one world government because of your desire for Earth to be a part of a many world government like the United Federation of Planets that you work for?
Military movies help put kids in uniforms - get a clue. Good investment.
Actually, there will not be a "one world government," there will be a "one world bank" and governments will be irrelevant since all governments will do what the one-world bank tells them. Wait a minute, don't we already have that?
The Pentagon actually has a paid resource to be liaison to Hollywood?
Don't worry, I'm sure there is a 25 member panel to watch the liaison, and make sure he does his job right. And, Just in case, There's probably a panel to watch the panel that watches the liaison. Isn't big government WONDERFUL?!
Pretty sure the equipment rental more than makes up for the cost of coordinating this with Hollywood.
“It just got to the point where it didn’t make any sense,” said Strub.
Its a film with, among others, a wise-a$$ in a steel suit and a giant green guy and the military wanted it to "make sense"? Really?
Well Yes, Even in a fictional movie, The Military would want to have control over any super power. Be it a giant green guy or a man in an iron suit. If any of these fictional charactors were real, They wouldn't be for long. Our government would have them locked up or disabled as soon as possible. Used as lab rats to exploit.
To be a pedantic geek, in the movies SHIELD is an acronym for Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division (the other two acronyms mentioned in the article are used in the comics).
So the pentagon is okay with alien robots that turn into cars and planes or a man that turns into a big green monster. Just as long as the army is portrayed as being in charge. Never mind that this is science fiction. The key word being fiction.
Jon-975125 actually your statement isn't totally true, the 1st Transformers movie a similar thing happened, Shockwave was supposed to be in the first movie, but someone said "no" they did not want the bot Shockwave was in the same movie as the Military bases they were showing/using.
I find it laughable that the Pentagon couldn't understand "whom" SHIELD answered to, it's pretty clear that it's a group from around the world that are outside and above of any and all government agencies.
But is this really news worthy? Anyone that saw the movie could care less if it was backed by the Pentagon or not, the movie was still fantastic.
Whatever the chain of command - If the military being depicted is supposed to represent United States Troops. I agree with the Pentagon opinion.
If American Taxpayers ar funding that fictional military force - then chain of command IS important. Somehow - confusion has become embedded the the common narrative, seems like people forget that armies exist because of CA$H. Unlike UN forces... USA forces are,have been and continue to be funded by and commanded by America.
We have insinuated our armies into several causes which "The World" felt intervention was required and our Leaders have agreed, and supported those "International efforts" and often took a leading or decisive role. But never have we ceded control of our forces to any combined Military effort. Even during WWII, The British wanted General Montgomery Mountbatten to Head the combined forces as they advanced on Berlin in the waning days of the war, there was a lot of pressure by our allies to give that courtesy to England... but that was never the plan. In the end, a joint force was created - but we maintained our sovereignty as did the Brits and Russians.
today UN command is in America ... but they are not in control of our forces. If push comes to shove, hey cn move the UN to where ever they feel safe. right now, they seem to feel safer with their headquarters in the USA.
Under our protections.
If they want to move the UN to Europe, the Middle East - Dubai, Asia - China , we'll help them pack.
Its just a movie, but at least - lets try to keep it in the same Zip code as reality?
Translation:
We couldn't reconcile the unreality of the US military not being the focus or #1 in everything so we turned down a massive paycheck due to our egos.
Movies don't give a Pay check for military background "bit parts" - mostly they are treated like recruitment posters, advertisment to get beneficial coverage ... what little money which my come from movie coverages pocket change compared with the development costs of our weapons systems. A few Officers, Non-coms - ay ge advisory money for staging battle scenes, etc. But we paid for that training. That ain't free.
To whom does SHIELD answer? The Illuminati! DUH!!
DISNEY???
Are they kidding??? What the heck did Disney have to do with that movie??
Disney, umm, kind of owns Marvel now.
While Disney may own Marvel, the Disney brand is nowhere on this film in the U.S. Disney is listed as an international distributor, but the credits list Marvel Studios and Paramount, not Disney, so one would have had to dig quite deeply to understand Disney's true relationship with this film. It's not very good reporting to just tout it as "Disney's new film" because the film hasn't been marketed that way.
Don’t yield, back S.H.I.E.L.D.
Wasn't the military closely involved with the Transformers movie? With the fictional "Section 7" or whatever the heck it was?
Maybe they were happy because the Special Ops team got to bully the Section 7 people and the Secretary of Defense backed them up.
I SIDE WITH THE PENTAGON on this story their toys or not they need to have control and that is that end of your story.
You mean kind of like the UN?
as if anything the pentagon says is believable. BUHAHAHAHA!
Maybe they're attempting to keep us from discovering that SHIELD is....real? lol
I think SHIELD is supposed to be like the CIA: performs both spying and military black ops, supposedly under control of the US government (and thus Congress and the POTUS), but actually does pretty much whatever they can get away with.
Anyone that works for the Government as I do and sees every single day how much "Red Tape" and incoherent, mindless Rules they have would understand that if the US Government got involved in any way with any aspect of the Avengers it would've made this movie worse then "Batman and Robin". Thank God they declined.
The government (and specifically the Pentagon) is broken, which is why SHIELD exists in the first place.
Stonehenge Influx Energy Loop Dimensionalistics, if I before E except after C has exceptions, what are resonant countersigns?
Is it surprising our government/military intelligence could not see that being apart of what will (probably) end up being the highest grossing movie of all time would be positive pr?? We just don't understand how SHIELD works?? Um they don't! IT. IS. A. COMIC. BOOK.
Comic book or not - you would be surprised at what makes for a good college thesis. For a Senior Thesis, one option - someone I knew, for the Psychology major's "capstone" requirement... A student interpreted the Psychosis is a symptom or feature of mental illness typically characterized by radical changes in personality, impaired functioning of Goldilocks (as in Goldilocks and the Three bears). Versus the co-dependant, enabling behaviour of the Three bears.
It was accepted and he passed.
Don't try to tell me that a comic book is just a trivial matter or bit of fluff. There are some lofty thoughts just under prepubescent, erotica.