"The vast, and vastly influential, American military machine has been aided and abetted by cinema since the earliest days of the medium. The US military realized very quickly that film could be used in myriad ways: training, testing, surveying and mapping, surveillance, medical and psychological management of soldiers, and of course, propaganda. Bringing together a collection of new essays, based on archival research, Wasson and Grieveson seek to cover the complex history of how the military deployed cinema for varied purposes across the the long twentieth century, from the incipient wars of US imperialism in the late nineteenth century to the ongoing War on Terror. This engagement includes cinema created and used by and for the military itself (such as training films), the codevelopment of technologies (chemical, mechanical, and digital), and the use of film (and related mass media) as a key aspect of American "soft power," at home and around the world. A rich and timely set of essays, this volume will become a go-to for scholars interested in all aspects of how the military creates and uses moving-image media"--Provided by publisher.

"Fletcher Jones Foundation humanities imprint"

1. Military's cinema complex / Lee Grieveson and Haidee Wasson -- PART ONE : THE MILITARY'S CINEMA APPARATUS. 2. Experimental viewing protocols : film projection and the American military / Haidee Wasson -- 3. Mobilizing the moving image : movie machines at US military bases and veteran hospitals during World War II / Andrea Kelley -- 4. Through America's eyes : cinerama and the Cold War / Rebecca Prime -- 5. An army of theaters : military, technological, and industrial change in US army motion picture exhibition / Ross Melnick -- PART TWO : STRATEGIES OF VIEWING. 6. War in peace : the American Legion and the continuing service of film / Tom Rice -- 7. Managing the trauma of labor : films in the military psychiatric apparatus of the second World War / Kaia Scott -- 8. The cinema intelligence apparatus : Gregory Bateson, the Museum of Modern Art Film Library, and the intelligence work of film studies during World War II / Nathaniel Brennan -- 9. Epistemology of the checkpoint : Gillo Pontecorvo's Battle of Algiers and the doctrine of counterinsurgency / Vinzenz Hediger -- PART THREE : MILITARY-MADE MOVIES. 10. Between the frontlines : military training films, machine guns, and the Great War / Florian Hoof -- 11. From wartime instruction to superpower cinema : maintaining the industrial documentary / Noah Tsika -- 12. Framing the bomb in the West : the view from Lookout Mountain / Susan Courtney -- 13. Occupation, diplomacy, and the moving image : the US army as cultural interlocutor in Korea, 1945-1948 / S. Park-Primiano -- 14. Shots made around the world : DASPO's documentation of the Vietnam War / James Paasche -- PART FOUR : THE MILITARY AND ITS COLLABORATORS. 15. War, media, and the security of state and capital / Lee Grieveson -- 16. Star testimonies : world war and the cultural politics of authority / Sue Collins -- 17. "A treacherous tightrope" : the Office of War Information, psychological warfare, and film distribution in liberated Europe / Alice Lovejoy -- 18. "A campaign of truth" : Marshall Plan films in Greece / Katerina Loukopoulou.