There are lots of Fleet Weeks held around the country every year, but there’s only one New York City Fleet Week. And as Bill Murray’s character said in “Ghostbusters,” right before they flame-sprayed the Sta-Puff Marshmellow Man: “New York City knows how to take care of a sailor.”
One time, Jimmy Fallon filled his Late Night audience seats with troops from all branches, and then Adam Sandler and he serenaded them with this hilarious (and too true) version of “I’ve Got Friends in Low Places.”
Since 1775, the Marine Corps has been involved in some of the most epic battles in military history. From the flag raising at Iwo Jima to kicking down doors in Fallujah, it’s pretty much a guarantee that a Navy Corpsman was right next to his brothers during the action.
The bond between U.S. Marines and their Corpsmen is nearly unbreakable.
Richard Linklater sheds a charismatic light on this tight brotherhood in 2017’s “Last Flag Flying,” starring Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne.
U.S. Navy Corpsman dressing the back wound of a Marine who was hit by the enemy in the battle of Iwo Jima. (February 1945.)
What many people don’t know is that the Marine Corps doesn’t have an independent medical section. Since the Corps falls under the Department of the Navy, the majority of the medical treatment Marines get in the field is through the Naval Hospital Corps — except for reservists, who have different options.
Navy Corpsmen have fought with their Marine brothers and sisters in “every clime and place” since their creation. They train with their Marines in nearly every single aspect of warfare. The experiences — and hardships — they go through together builds a tight-knit bond of respect that lasts well beyond their service together.
HM2 Lamonte Hammond and HM3 Simon Trujillo from Bravo Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marines treat a wounded Marine during a firefight in the Helmand province, Afghanistan. (Source: Cpl. Artur Shvartsberg)
On multiple occasions, the “Docs” have run into harm’s way to render care to their wounded brothers — that tradition and heroism carries on to this day.
The Geneva Convention states that Corpsmen are technically non-combatants and are only supposed to discharge their firearms to protect their patient — but that’s no fun.
In the film Last Flag Flying, Larry “Doc” Shepherd (Steve Carrell), is a former Navy Corpsman and Vietnam veteran who loses his only son during the Iraq war.
Faced with tragedy, Shepard looks to reunite with his former Marine brothers for their most crucial mission yet: To bury Shepherd’s son and ultimately reconnect the brotherhood they shared 30 years ago.
What if the Allies lost World War II and the United States was invaded by Japan on the Pacific Coast and the Nazis on the Atlantic? The Amazon Studios show “The Man in the High Castle” premiered in November 2015 to answer just that question. The second season of the show drops on Amazon on Dec. 16, 2016.
The show is based on the novel of the same name, penned by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick. “The Man in the High Castle” is in good company; Dick’s other films and short stories include “Blade Runner,” “Minority Report,” and “Total Recall.” The Amazon Studios show does not perfectly follow the book, but stands tall on its own.
If you haven’t seen the first season, be advised: there are some minor spoilers ahead.
“The Man in the High Castle” is more than just an alternative history story. The science fiction element stems from the show’ namesake. Someone known as the titular “Man in the High Castle” is looking for films that appear to depict multiple timelines, including one in which the Japanese Pacific States and the American Greater Nazi Reich never exist.
(Amazon Studios)
The films are newsreels that show U.S., British, and Soviet forces defeating the Nazis. What’s more, one even shows the destruction of Japanese cities by an American superweapon. Now the Japanese and the Nazis are in an arms race as each try to capture as many of the films as possible. Resistance fighters are also looking for the films as the rest of what used to be America struggles under the boot of occupation.
Here are a few things we loved about the first season and some things we’re looking forward to for the next.
1. Seeing Juliana’s face as she watched a film for the first time.
When Juliana first discovered the films, she watched it (over and over) in her apartment. The film showed D-Day, the Japanese Surrender, the liberation of Paris, V-J Day, and the fall of Berlin. The look on her face was everything.
(Amazon Studios)
2. Googling Canon City to see if it’s a real place (it is).
In the show, there is a sort of neutral zone between the two Axis powers, and it looks like it encompasses the Rocky Mountains. Basically an ungoverned space, it’s the place to go for anyone seeking to leave the heavy-handed brutality of the Reich or the Japanese States. Canon City is what’s left of the former United States.
Canon City (Amazon Studios)
3. Inspector Kido is quietly frightening.
The head of the Kempeitai — Japanese secret police — in San Francisco is Takeshi Kido, a no-nonsense officer with the determination of Michael Ironside’s Richter from “Total Recall” and the look of Ronald Lacy’s Sturmbannführer Toht from “Raiders of the Lost Ark.”
Can’t you see his face melting from looking at the Ark? (Amazon Studios)
4. DJ Qualls!
Everyone’s favorite movie friend is in the cast too, playing Juliana and Frank’s friend (duh), Ed McCarthy. Ed does everything he can to keep Frank out of trouble and help Juliana escape capture by the Kempeitai. Now that Inspector Kido think’s he’s the would-be assassin of the Crown Prince, what will Frank do?
Isn’t he precious? (Amazon Studios)
5. Obergruppenführer John Smith is an awesome villain.
Cold, calculating, and murderous, the great thing about Obergruppenführer Smith is that he honestly believes he’s on the right side and will do anything to further Hitler’s Reich. Plus, he throws unsuspecting people off of buildings. It will be interesting to see if there’s any weakness in his resolve now that he has to kill his son.
We also like saying the word “Obergruppenführer”. (Amazon Studios)
6. There’s a Cold War coming.
It’s 1962 and Hitler is close to death. Everyone seems to think that the fragile peace between the two Axis powers is only because Hitler is still alive. Once he dies, everyone predicts a coming war. To stave off impending conflicts, the Japanese “acquire” a superweapon from a Nazi turncoat. Now both sides have the ability to destroy each other and the world.
Tentative peace at best. (Amazon Studios)
7. Trade Minister Tagomi tasted freedom.
Tagomi, who never seemed to be fully into the full-on oppressive occupation of America, suddenly ended up in the alternative history (that is, the real history as we know it, where America won WWII) and stepped into 1960’s San Francisco. It’s probably likely this experience significantly changed his character.
Fans get to see Carrie Fisher one last time in “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker,” and it was no easy feat to bring her to the screen one more time.
“It was a massive kind of problem, I mean, puzzle really. It was a gigantic puzzle,” visual effects supervisor Roger Guyett told Insider of the challenge the Industrial Lights & Magic team at Lucasfilm faced.
Fisher died in December 2016 after her filming for the last “Star Wars” movie, “The Last Jedi” wrapped. At first, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy told “Good Morning America” the actress wouldn’t appear in “Episode IX.” But, in July 2018, Disney announced unused footage from “The Force Awakens” would be utilized to bring Fisher to life to close out the Skywalker saga.
How exactly do you repurpose footage from a previous film to work for “Episode IX”? Very carefully.
Guyett and creature effects supervisor Neal Scanlan spoke with Insider Monday on the Walt Disney Studios lot in Burbank, California, about the difficulty of bringing Fisher’s scenes to the screen and the importance of making sure her performance came across as authentic.
General Leia Organa is seen in “The Last Jedi,” above.
(Lucasfilm)
‘TROS’ director J.J. Abrams originally thought they could do Leia digitally. They realized that wasn’t going to work.
“The first conversation I had with [Abrams] about it was that he thought we could just do a digital version of Leia,” said Guyett.
That wasn’t going to work.
“So say you went along that path. The issue that he had with that was that the performances that she gave at any moment would just be authored by some other actress or actor,” he added. “[Abrams] didn’t want that. He wanted to be able to look at this movie and say, ‘That’s Carrie Fisher playing Leia.'”
The team accomplished that with a stand-in, a mix of Fisher’s past performances, and a digital character.
That’s not all footage of Fisher moving around in “TROS,” but it’s very convincing.
(Lucasfilm)
What are we looking at when we see Leia in ‘The Rise of Skywalker’? Fisher’s face was put onto a digital character.
“When you see Leia in ‘Episode IX,’ basically it’s a live-action element of her face with a completely digital character,” explained Guyett of what the audience is seeing.
This was done because they wanted to make sure that Leia’s look in “The Rise of Skywalker” was distinct from her look in the previous two films.
“The reality of doing this is that you want her to have a new costume,” said Guyett. “It would be weird if she just looked like she did in ‘Episode VII’ or ‘Episode VIII.’ You want her to have a new hairstyle because she’s very specifically part of ‘IX.’ So we knew that we were going to have to do all of that.”
If you’re imagining that ILM simply cut and pasted Fisher’s face onto a body, it wasn’t that simple. ILM visual effects supervisor Patrick Tubach told Eric Eisenberg at Cinemablend the team tracked Fisher’s posture and body movements from “The Force Awakens” to apply to their new scenes in “TROS.”
One of the biggest challenges was matching Fisher’s voice to specific scenes in ‘Episode IX’
This is where the puzzle comes into play. Abrams and co-screenwriter Chris Terrio wrote scenes based off of the dialogue available to them from Fisher’s unused footage.
“The mechanics of that then became very much in J.J.’s court, initially, about writing scenes using lines that we knew we had access to so you can break it down in this massive pre-plan thing where you write the script, and you base it around deliveries,” explained Guyett of how Leia started to come together.
There were times where they found the right dialogue, but it wasn’t the correct intonation. They had to just move on.
(Disney/Lucasfilm)
“We went back through all that footage and you can see, ‘Oh, how did she deliver this line?’ You know, ‘Never underestimate a droid.’ Once you’ve got whatever the line is, once you’ve got that kind of library, you can start feeling the emotional quality,” he continued.
Imagine sifting through footage to figure out the perfect place to utilize a line of dialogue or a particular delivery. It had to be just right. There were times where they found the right dialogue, but it wasn’t the correct intonation. They had to just move on.
“Some things just didn’t work,” said Guyett. “Even though [Fisher] might be saying the right thing, she’s saying it the wrong way. So sometimes we’d abandoned certain ideas within the script. But basically the premise is now you have to stage the scenes and integrate her into those scenes, which is a massive undertaking.”
Daisy Ridley was looking at someone dressed up to look like Princess Leia while performing scenes with the character.
(Lucasfilm)
There was a stand-in for Fisher on set so the actors had someone to play against
When you see Daisy Ridley, Kelly Marie Tran, or any other cast member acting next to Fisher in “TROS,” there was always someone acting opposite them.
“There was great effort made to represent Carrie in those moments as well,” Scanlan told Insider. “There was a huge respect. It’s not just a visual effect. It wasn’t, ‘Oh, she doesn’t exist.’ There was actually a person there and the hairstyle and straight makeup. [We] found a place for [the cast] to feel comfortable and to feel that there’s some way we were representing Carrie in some physical entity.”
“We had a fantastic stand-in for Princess Leia who looked at all the footage and tried to learn the lines and represent Carrie as best as possible so that if you’re acting against her you’re not just looking at an empty space, you’re looking at a human being who’s delivering the line,” added Guyett.
There wasn’t a lot of wiggle room to fix things after filming
“The thing that I reiterated to [Abrams] about a million times was we had to get it right on the day we shot it,” said Guyett.
Roger Guyett (left) is seen on the set of “The Rise of Skywalker.”
(Lucasfilm)
“When you do something, quite often, you might do something and go, ‘OK, well we can fix that.’ We can change the timing of that explosion of something or whatever later on in post [production] or maybe that creature’s moving too fast or whatever. This was something we couldn’t do that with. We had to get it right on a day.”
During production, when the team looked at a moment with Leia, they made sure it had elements that they were going to use. Test composites of scenes were done to make sure everything would fit right and then they would go back and re-edit the scene together to make sure it felt authentic and correct.
“Having been through this process, you can put your hand on your heart and you can say every one of those performances is delivered by Carrie Fisher,” said Guyett.
This article originally appeared on Business Insider. Follow @BusinessInsider on Twitter.
Maybe it’s because I recently went head-to-head in a heated eighteen holes of mini golf with a Navy SEAL, or maybe it’s because Rob Riggle’s humor is so goofy and delightful, but I am really enjoying ABC’s new show Holey Moley.
“Last week billions watched as mini-golf swept the nation. Diseases were cured, families reunited, ABC executives promoted. The world came together in arms and wept in joy for the only sport that matters on earth: mini golf,” Riggle announced, and he would never lie.
Riggle joins Joe Tessitore as on-camera commentators while Jeannie Mai reports from the course, which includes holes like the “Slip ‘n’ Putt” (where one contestant literally fell on his face — like, right on his face, guys; he started bleeding) and “The Distractor” where golfers must try to get a hole-in-one while something, or someone, distracts the hell out of them.
Enter Sergeant Putton.
Putton may be wearing the Operation Enduring Freedom Camouflage Pattern, but his branch is 100% “Drill Sgt.”
(ABC/Eric McCandless)
In an episode titled “The Thunderdome of Mini Golf,” the “Distractor” as Sgt. Putton, whose only objective was to distract the golfer enough to miss the shot.
“He’s pushing buttons. The drill instructor is pushing buttons…because that’s what they do,” observed Riggle, who would know.
Played by Travis Joe Dixon, Sgt. Putton proved to be loud, forceful, and a crowd favorite — much like real drill instructors, who are absolutely hilarious…as long as you’re not their target.
“My guess is ‘Jimmy Tropicana’ doesn’t respond well to authority figures. No doubt Sgt. Putton is equally repulsed by Jimmy’s civilian tracksuit,” declared Riggle with a jaunty commentator voice.
Riggle’s been golfing for over twenty years and, in addition to hosting his new show, he produces an annual InVETational golf classic, raising money for Semper Fi Fund, a veteran non-profit that helps critically wounded service members and their families.
Holey Moley is on ABC Thursday nights at 8PM, sorry, 2000 hours — or you can find it on Hulu right now. Check it out and discover for yourself how satisfying it can be to watch people struggle succeed.
The year was 1988. Metallica had been making their way into the hearts and stereos of rock lovers for the better part of seven years. And wanting to make a political statement, the band decided to write and release an anti-war song. The result was their hit One from the album …And Justice for All.
Lead vocalist James Hetflied and drummer Lars Ulrich penned the song together, telling the story of a World War I soldier. In the gruesome song, the soldier was injured badly by a landmine, with arms and legs taken with the explosion, wanting to die in order to end his agony.
Anyone who knows anything about Metallica knows One went on to be a huge hit. In fact, it was their first top-40 song and reaching number one in Finland.
Enter the song’s music video.
By January of ‘89, Metallica’s music video for One began airing on MTV. What made it notable was the use of scenes from Johnny Got His Gun, a 1971 anti-war flick. The film was a box office failure and relatively unknown.
Soon after its release, the video ranked number one on MTV; the band ended up winning multiple awards for the song.
Johnny Got His Gun goes viral
After the release of the video, fans started paying attention to the movie, turning it into a cult film. What’s even more interesting is that Metallica itself owned rights to the film. To avoid paying ongoing royalties for their music video, the band decided to buy rights outright, allowing them to replay their own video with ease.
It’s worth noting that after its original release in 1971, the film did not even recoup its budget at the box office. Despite Donald Sutherland staring, fans paid little attention — and little in tickets, avoiding the film almost altogether.
Once Metallica used its scenes, the film seemingly came out of the woodwork, selling copies by the dozens, and even sparking multiple remakes.
Hetfield is quoted saying the movie Johnny Got His Gun was used for the music video because its storyline followed closely to the song’s theme. In fact, the band created their lyrics from the novel of the same title.
To date, One remains one of Metallica’s most-played songs. It was the first song to win the category for Best Metal Performance at the Grammy’s. It’s also the most played song from their …And Justice for All album.
Powerful punches, smooth moves, and acrobatic stunts are just some of the elements that make for an impressive action scene. To amp up a film’s imagery and add intensity, some filmmakers go a little beyond the standard fight and employ one of the most dramatic visual techniques: slow motion.
For years, movie directors have altered the frame rates on their cameras to either slow a sequence down or speed it up, based on how they want to tell a story.
Film historians credit August Musger, an Austrian priest and physicist, with inventing the slow-motion effect back at the beginning of the 1900s and, if you’ve been to the movie theater in the last decade, you’ve seen it employed today.
Now, filmmakers use the art of slow motion to allow audiences to pore over every detail of every frame of an intense sequence, to see the intricacies and beauty of an action in a different light. Sometimes, the technique doesn’t land well with audiences and comes across as trite and overplayed. In rare cases, however, the result is so badass that we end up watching the same few, magical seconds over and over again.
Although The Hurt Locker wasn’t a hit among many service members and veterans, director Kathryn Bigelow captured an epic opening sequence that involved cool camera work and a detailed explosion that ripples outward over a rugged landscape.
Who doesn’t like watching an awesome brawl between well-trained armies? That’s what Zack Snyder thought when he directed the combat-rich classic, 300. Although the film is filled with various slow-motion shots, it was best used when the audience runs alongside King Leonidas as he shreds members of the Persian army like it isn’t sh*t.
When the ultra-controversial action-comedy The Interview premiered in theaters, it drew in curious crowds who wanted to see if the film’s main characters were actually going to assassinate a fictional version of Kim Jong-un.
What we got was a slow-motion death scene so graphic that nobody could’ve predicted it.
A year after Hugh Jackman played Wolverine in X-Men, he played a computer hacker who was willing to break the law to reunite with his daughter. After being recruited to assist in a heist, the quickly goes awry, and filmmaker Dominic Sena gave us an explosion that the Wachowskis would be proud of.
Although this isn’t one of Brad Pitt’s most notable films, it does showcase one of the best up-close assassination scenes ever recorded.
The beautiful scene takes place on a moonlit, rainy night and gives the viewer the chance to watch every mechanical detail of a pistol firing rounds. Viewers watch tiny shards of glass fly through the air and see the wrinkles move on Markie Trattman’s (as played by Ray Liotta) face as he gets killed.
Marine Corps veteran and beloved character actor R. Lee Ermey was missing from the “In Memoriam” segment of the 2019 Academy Awards telecast.
Ermey, who passed away in April 2018, is best remembered for his role as Gunny Hartman in Stanley Kubrick’s classic movie “Full Metal Jacket,” a legendary performance that should have made him a lock to be included in the video segment.
Ermey also played memorable roles in “Se7en,” “Mississippi Burning,” “The X-Files,” “Toy Story 2” and that 2003 remake of “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.” He also hosted the TV shows “Mail Call” and “Lock ‘N Load With R. Lee Ermey.”
Other Hollywood legends left out of the tribute include Verne Troyer (Mini-me in the “Austin Powers” movies); the incredible Dick Miller (best known for playing a WWII vet in the “Gremlins” movies); Danny Leiner (director of the classics “Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle” and “Dude, Where’s My Car?”); Carol Channing (Oscar-nominated for her role in “Thoroughly Modern Millie”); Sondra Locke (Oscar-nominated for her role in “The Heart is a Lonely Hunter”); and the director Stanley Donen (“Charade,” “Singin’ in the Rain” and the unfortunate 80s sex comedy “Blame It on Rio.”).
We can all take a moment to remember Ermey with the “Left from Right” clip from “Full Metal Jacket.” RIP, Gunny.
When a locked-down America tunes into the May 25 premiere of NBC’s “The Titan Games”, sports-starved viewers may notice a familiar face competing for the title and $100,000 grand prize: Chantae McMillan Langhorst, the track and field Olympian and nude high-jumper for The BODY Issue of ESPN The Magazine.
“One of the biggest reasons I wanted to do “The Titan Games” was its challenges that I have never faced before and will never face again,” McMillan said. “I’m doing obstacles on the show that are strength and cardio all at one time. Each event is over in five minutes, but you’re so fatigued afterward.”
The 32-year-old from Rolla, Missouri knows all about pushing through fatigue. McMillan is not only an elite athlete, but an Army wife to Warrant Officer 1 Devon Langhorst, a helicopter pilot stationed at Fort Rucker, Alabama and mom to 18-month-old Otto. She is also the daughter of two career soldiers.
McMillan competed in the 2012 Olympics in London as a heptathlete and was training for the 2020 Olympic Trials as a javelin thrower when the coronavirus pandemic caused mass cancellations of sporting events. After competing in one track meet in March, organizers of future meets canceled their competitions.
At first, McMillan was unruffled.
“I thought, okay, my next meet will be in May, then trials in June,” she said.
The Tokyo Olympics and its trials were postponed until 2021. The initial disappointment turned out to be a “blessing in disguise,” she says.
“I was like, ‘Alright, let’s go,'” McMillan said. “It takes a lot of weight off my shoulders, because from March to June I didn’t know if I could be where I wanted to be, so I was kind of stressed out.”
McMillan lost her 64-year-old father in 2015 to appendectomy complications, right before failing to qualify for the 2016 Olympic games. She bounced back, becoming an Army wife and mom in 2018 and switching from heptathlon to javelin, one of her strongest events.
She’s still aiming for Olympic glory — just a year later than originally planned. She and her coach, two-time Olympic hammer thrower Kibwe Johnson, are training her body as if she were throwing her way through a normal season.
“A couple weeks ago, coach asked me where my strength is, and I feel the strongest I’ve felt in years,” McMillan said. “I feel very powerful. Now it’s just translating onto the field. I feel so strong.”
That strength has not gone unnoticed by those outside the track and field world. In November, a casting producer for “The Titan Games” asked McMillan to audition for the show’s sophomore season after seeing her training photos and videos on Instagram.
McMillan auditioned alongside thousands of others to be a competitor. She succeeded and spent the first two weeks of February filming in Atlanta. Not only did she get to meet Dwayne Johnson, the show’s host, McMillan also connected with plenty of fellow athletes.
“It was very amazing, being around so many people who are likeminded and striving to be the best they can,” McMillan said. “It has still carried on to this day to motivate me to be better.”
The show’s obstacles, designed for 13 episodes with entertainment in mind, were vastly different than the pure “run-jump-throw” actions McMillan said she is used to in track and field.
“They’re just weird obstacles that challenge you in ways you never thought you could be challenged,” McMillan said.
This season of NBC’s show pits professional titans like Super Bowl champion Victor Cruz, UFC fighter Tyron Woodley and “American Ninja Warrior” star Jessie Graff against “everyday” athletes like McMillan. Four of the 36 competitors are active-duty military members.
Viewers can expect to be surprised at who makes it to Mt. Olympus, the show’s ultimate event, McMillan said.
“I think people will be able to connect with all of us, the way our stories are going to be told,” she said. “It’s not every day you’re around motivated people like that.”
It’s 1987, I’m four years old and watching Predator. It was the 80s, so yeah, I lived on the edge. Arnold Schwarzenegger is yelling, “Get to the chopper!” and using mud to hide his thermal signature from a nasty, invisible alien. As I watch and re-watch Predator, awed as Arnold plays Major “Dutch” Schaefer, a Green Beret leading a covert, rescue mission, an idea pops into my mind: “I should be in Special Forces.”
Twenty-five years later, I don my Green Beret and earn my tab. Today, there’s still no question in my mind that Hollywood movies had a lasting impact on my decision to serve, and I’m not alone — you know it’s true.
Thirty years later, Arnold continues to inspire the next generation of military movies — even if he’s not hunting aliens or a robot sent from the future. Anyone who’s served knows the age-old saying, “attention to detail” and today, Arnold’s team at the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy is committed to helping Hollywood storytellers get the details right about military life. The Schwarzenegger Center recently hosted a workshop that combined the best of the Hollywood world with some of the best military leaders from across the globe, many of whom will become Generals/Air Chief Marshall (gotta love the foreign ranks). Regardless of what flag was Velcroed to their flight suit, the mission for those in the room was clear: build relationships that can extend into an idea, a script, and even a movie.
Arnold told We Are the Mighty,
“Hollywood wouldn’t be the same without the stories of our military’s heroism that have inspired Americans and taught the world our values. I’m proud the Institute can support this important collaboration by bringing together top military and entertainment talent.”
Heroism, unshakable values, and collaboration brought the best of the best together. Participants in the discussion included Jerry Zucker (Director of Airplane!), Sarah Watson (Creator/EP of The Bold Type), Jon Turteltaub (Director of National TreasureThe Meg), and actor Jamie G Hyder (True Blood, Call of Duty), along with pilots from the Air War College International fellow program, which included officers from 20 nations, as well as representatives from the U.S Navy’s Hollywood liaison office. This pairing of two seemingly different worlds couldn’t come at a better time. All branches of the military continue to work tirelessly each year to meet their recruiting, retention, and readiness goals, while Hollywood has continued to push mega-movies with a military spin, like the freshly released Captain Marvel, and create new platforms for military storytelling, like Netflix, Hulu, and We Are The Mighty (yeah, yeah… shameless plug).
L-R: Jerry Zucker, Sarah Watson, Jon Turteltaub, Katie Johnson discuss their roles as storytellers
Both sides discussed the various similarities and challenges in their respective fields. The pilots in the room, who almost unanimously admitted that they earned their wings as a result of Top Gun (unfortunately not a Schwarzenegger movie), asked the writers and directors how to best share their own stories, to which Director Jon Turteltaub fired back, “Hang out with us. Even just a personal story can spark an idea.”
In addition, many of the writers expressed how participating in a short visit with the military changed their entire view of military stories. Writer and showrunner Sarah Watson recounted how impressed she was with the female sailors she met on an aircraft carrier visit. As a result, Sarah has dedicated herself to creating a female military character in her next project.
The respect was mutual. Col Ken Callahan, Associate Dean, USAF Air War College, added,
“The opportunity to interact with the entertainment industry at the Schwarzenegger Institute event was priceless. Helping future Air Chiefs from allied and partner nations better understand the role Hollywood plays in expressing American values globally is exactly what we are trying to achieve. Our sincere thanks to Mr. Schwarzenegger, his staff, the team at USC, and all of the amazing and talented individuals that took time out to help forge new partnerships with our group.“
Lt. Col Andreas Wachowitz, German AF (left), chats with writer Will Staples
The discussions throughout the day included deep dives into how various successful collaborations between the US military and Hollywood, such as The Last Ship and Transformers, can shape public affairs, recruiting, and soft power diplomacy. Basically, the military leaders asked if movies can make the world safer, and the answer was a resounding yes (especially if we are one-day attacked by Predator aliens).
The real question of the day came from Norman Todd, EVP of Johnny Depp’s company, Infinitum Nihil, who asked, “Who is the greatest Hollywood Actor?”
“We love Arnold,” Capt. Russell Coons, director of the Navy Office of Information West responded immediately. Even an Army guy can agree with that answer. We’ll continue to keep you updated as Arnold, both a great actor and leader, continues his effort to bring the military and Hollywood closer together.
“An author cannot, of course, remain wholly unaffected by his experience.”
These are the words of arguably the most influential writer of the 20th century and WWI veteran, John Ronald Reuel “J.R.R.” Tolkien.
In June 1916, the newly commissioned lieutenant kissed his newly married wife goodbye as he boarded the transport to Calais, France. Come July 1st, one of the bloodiest battles in human history took place near the Somme River. That day, his closest friend was killed and Tolkien forever changed.
Shouldering the burden of leadership and the ever looming threat of death, by disease or the enemy, Tolkien carried on. Ultimately, it was Trench Fever that sent him home ten days before the dust settled.
Tolkien’s Battalion, The 1st Battalion, Lancashire Fusiliers. (Photo via Wikicommons)
Deemed no longer medically fit for service, Tolkien returned to his passion: writing. The rest is history.
When the second edition of TheLord of the Rings was released, the foreword stated: “The real war does not resemble the legendary war in its process or its conclusion.” Tolkien continued with, “But I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history, true or feigned, with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers.”
He hated direct comparisons of his works to real world events. No real world leader is Sauron. No real world army are the orcs. And the One Ring is not a reference to the nuclear bomb.
Much of the psychology and emotions of his works, however, did pull from his time on the battlefield, most notably with the Dead Marshes. In the second volume (and film) The Two Towers, the ghoulish Gollum lead the protagonist, Frodo Baggins, through a swamp full of bloated bodies under the mud and water.
Tolkien’s biography, The Letters of J.R.R. Tolkien, explained that what Frodo experienced in the Marsh was specifically based on the Battle of the Somme where Tolkien saw countless bodies across the muddy battlefield.
‘Somme 1 July 1916 Tragedy and Triumph’ by Andrew Robertshaw
Themes were also pulled from his leadership and the bravery of his men. Tolkien studied at Oxford and lead men from mining, milling, and weaving towns of Lancashire. In another biography, Tolkien and the Great War, Tolkien said he “felt an affinity for these working class men, but military protocol forbade him from developing friendships with ‘other ranks’.” This man-apart thematically affected many of the characters in his novels.
One of the largest changes from the novel to any film adaptation is the “Scouring of the Shire” and the mindset of Frodo after the war. In the final chapters of the last book, Saruman attacked the Shire and all of the townspeople had to defend their home.
Afterward, Frodo was left alone.
War changed him. Frodo couldn’t just return to being a happy, singing Hobbit like everyone else after the war. He’d been stabbed, poisoned, and lost a finger. Frodo, like Tolkien himself, had become “shell-shocked” after combat.
The forward of the 1991 release of The Lord of the Rings added another Tolkien quote: “The country in which I lived in childhood was being shabbily destroyed before I was ten. Recently I saw in a paper a picture of the last decrepitude of the once thriving corn-mill beside its pool that long ago seemed to me so important.”
Arts In The Armed Forcers (AITAF) is a non-profit organization started by actors Adam Driver (who’s a Marine vet) and Joanne Tucker to bring thought-provoking and impactful contemporary theater to the U.S. military.
“We’re hoping to show that language is a powerful tool, that self-expression is a powerful tool — it’s just as valuable as any rifle you carry or any tool you can put in your pack,” said Marine Corps veteran-turned-actor Adam Driver (Star Wars: The Force Awakens) while introducing a military audience to a performance.
In this VICE News video, Driver and his fellow actors (including Joanne Tucker, Natasha Lyonne, Eric Bogosian, Peter Scolari, Sasheer Zamata, and many more) are followed to bases across the country, and overseas as they perform for military audiences. He also explains his motivation and reasons for giving back to the military community.
Watch this short four-minute video for a quick synopsis:
Or, if you have time, watch the entire 30-minute video:
In 2014, the former Governator participated in an Omaze campaign to raise money for Afternoon All-Stars, a nonprofit organization which provides comprehensive after-school programs to keep children safe and help them succeed in school and in life.
Schwarzenegger’s campaign ended in 2014, but his promo video lives on and it is epic. For only $20, anyone had the chance to be flown to Los Angeles and drive over stuff with Arnold in his personal tank.
Omaze is a type of crowdfunding-online auction hybrid for raising money for good causes. For a set donation, anyone has the chance to spend time living an “experience” with a celebrity who teamed with a nonprofit to keep them in the black.
Other celebs and their experiences include learning to throw a spiral football pass with New England Patriots Quarterback Tom Brady to support the RED campaign to to create an AIDS free generation, or get a boxing lesson from Creed‘s (the movie, not the band) Michael B. Jordan to support Big Brothers and Big Sisters.
