MEF documentary Theaters of War highlighted in major new report on the militarization of Hollywood
The research presented in our bestselling film Theaters of War: How the Pentagon & CIA Took Hollywood features prominently in a stunning new report by the Costs of War project at Brown University.¹ Titled “The Militarization of Movies and Television,” the report — the first in a series examining how the military has captured American pop culture — examines how the Pentagon and other elements of the national security state have collaborated with Hollywood for decades to shape thousands of war-themed films and TV shows.
In a research note, the report’s author cites Theaters of War as “the best documentary movie about the DoD-Hollywood complex, noting 2,500 entertainment products shaped by the DoD from the beginning of Hollywood to the present day.”
“Our film leaned hard on the Costs of War project to describe the stakes of our militarized society,” Roger Stahl, the director and narrator of Theaters of War, told us today. “It’s satisfying now to come full circle and serve as a source for this essential report.”
Theaters of War is now available to purchase in a variety of formats.
Featuring scores of clips from blockbuster films like Top Gun: Maverick, and incisive commentary from propaganda experts, media scholars, combat veterans, and industry insiders, Theaters of War is at once an explosive investigative piece, a riveting viewing experience, and a powerful classroom resource for understanding how Hollywood shapes perceptions of U.S. militarism and war.
Theaters of War is based on thousands of pages of documents acquired by co-producer and investigative journalist Tom Secker through FOIA requests, and tens of thousands more acquired by Stahl from various archival sites. The film also draws on analysis from Secker and co-producer Matthew Alford’s book National Security Cinema and David Robb’s Operation Hollywood.
Watch Theaters of War now to see why award-winning journalist and author Norman Solomon called it “a high-impact documentary that the USA’s most powerful filmmakers and warmakers don’t want you to see.”
1. “The Militarization of Movies and Television,” by Tanner Mirrlees, The Costs of War project, February 25, 2025.
Praise for Theaters of War
“A high-impact documentary that the USA’s most powerful filmmakers and warmakers don’t want you to see. Confronts head-on the hugely deceptive images that help to promote one horrific war after another.”
— Norman Solomon | Author, War Made Easy: How Presidents & Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death
“Like a bloodhound on the trail, the film tracks toward one riveting revelation after another, managing to shock even as it confirms what we imagined we knew about the role and reach of military propaganda.”
— Jonna Eagle | Author, War Games
“An impressively documented examination of the U.S. security state’s role in promoting militarism via popular media. Think propaganda’s the wrong word? Think again!”
— Stacy Takacs | Professor of English & American Studies at Oklahoma State University
“Theaters of War convincingly argues [that] the Pentagon’s covert influence over popular culture can have a decisive role in raising support for divisive wars.”
— Jonathan Cook | Middle East Eye
“Lively, engaging, and meticulously researched.”
— Rebecca A. Adelman | Associate Professor of Media & Communication Studies at University of Maryland Baltimore County and co-editor of Remote Warfare: New Cultures of Violence
“This powerful documentary forced me to wonder: How many hours of my lifetime have I spent staring at movie screens and TV screens unknowingly absorbing DOD and CIA propaganda? Is this part of a military-industrial-entertainment complex? Theaters of War is a terrific teaching experience.”
— H. Bruce Franklin | American historian and author of Crash Course: From the Good War to the Forever War
“By taking all this recently acquired knowledge from the highly specialized field of propaganda research and putting it in cinematic format, Roger Stahl and his production team have created a documentary with an outstanding potential for reaching the same masses of people targeted by the Pentagon’s marriage of convenience with Hollywood, an educational achievement for Professor Stahl and his crew.”
— Daniel Espinosa, “Propaganda in Focus”
“A must-see documentary.”
— David Sirota | Journalist and Academy Award-nominated Screenwriter
