Phil Strub escorting then-Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, at the "Iwo Jima" memorial, where Clint Eastwood was directing a scene for the movie "Flags of Our Fathers."

Phil Strub is the Director of Entertainment Media at the Department of Defense.

When people see what looks like an actual modern American combat vehicle or aircraft in a movie like “Transformers” or a TV show like “24,” chances are they don’t wonder “Did they get that from the U.S. military?” But for my two-person Defense Department (DoD) office in the Pentagon, and the small Military Service staffs based in Los Angeles, working with Hollywood filmmakers is a full-time job.

Entertainment media producers have wanted access to U.S. military equipment and real estate — including ships — since the dawn of American cinema. The first movie to get an “Oscar” in the then-new “Best Picture” category was the 1927 silent film “Wings.” “Wings” was a big hit commercially and critically because the support the studio got from the Army Air Corps allowed it to portray World War I training and combat far more realistically than it could ever have done on its own. And the Army got a great opportunity to showcase itself to millions of Americans.

Things haven’t changed much since then. Despite the sophistication of special effects, computer generated graphics, and other technologies, filmmakers still very much want U.S. military production support — even though it comes with strings attached. For example, along with their “wish lists” for military support, filmmakers must also send us the scripts. These ultimately have to present a reasonably realistic portrayal of the military — though obviously what is reasonably realistic varies widely depending on the production. It’s one thing for “Black Hawk Down,” and quite another for “Iron Man 2.” If filmmakers are willing to negotiate with us to resolve our script concerns, usually we’ll reach an agreement. If not, filmmakers are free to press on without military assistance, and they often do.

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