Hollywood hates America.

• Author: Bresler, Robert J.
• Position: Movie industry

SOON AFTER THE BOMBS DROPPED on Pearl, Harbor, Hollywood began making movies to bolster the nation s morale and dramatize its cause. The industry was, as cinematic historian Neil Gabler put it, "turning out film after film about the Nazis' cruelty, the sedition of Nazi sympathizers here, the bravery of our soldiers, the steadfastness of our people and the righteousness of our mission, and they were no less zealous against the Japanese." For those of us old enough to have seen those pictures when they first were released, we remember how they reassured us that America eventually would prevail against a sinister enemy in what could be a long and difficult war. Even movies about the darkest days of World War II--such as "Wake Island" (1942) and "Bataan" (1943)--ended on a note of hope and gratitude. Themes of national unity pervaded the culture. Popular music rang out with song after song that unabashedly was patriotic ("He Wears a Pair of Silver Wings," "Praise the Lord and Pass the Ammunition"). Journalists were reluctant to divulge any information that could compromise the war effort or be of value to the enemy. Even the comic strip heroes got into the act as Joe Palooka, Mickey Finn, and Buzz Sawyer joined the military. No doubt Superman and Captain Marvel were involved as well. Certainly, no American film, comic strip, or popular song portrayed our military and its civilian leaders in anything but a favorable light.

Slowly at first, all of that was to change. There were few songs about the Korean War. The few movies that were made about it during the war were forgettable. With the possible exception of Steve Canyon, most of the comic strip heroes stayed home, and it is hard to think of a popular song about that war. One could say that the popular culture was mildly indifferent to the conflict in Asia, but far from hostile.

In the 1960s, the change was far more dramatic. Stanley Kubrick's "Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb" (1964) brought a fiercely suspicious attitude toward the military and the whole idea of nuclear deterrence. In that film, the Pentagon command center resembled, as one critic put it, "a tour through a Hollywood insane asylum." The same year, the movie "Seven Days in May" projected a sinister underside to the American military. Butt Lancaster as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs is involved in a plot to overthrow the president who has just signed a nuclear disarmament treaty.

During the...