Movie Review: Military Intelligence and You!

At a time when we, citizens of the U.S., are still scratching our heads over former Secretary of State Colin Powell's pre-Iraq war intelligence presentation to the United Nations in 2003, all of which was wrong, wrong, wrong and for which he is embarrassed today, a new film strikes a rather heartsick humorous chord.

Military Intelligence and You! is a unique satirical film that not only looks and feels like a World War Two-era training film, but is comprised of actual scenes from the era's propaganda/training films. It takes place during WWII at a place called Central Command where the daunting task of gathering and analyzing accurate military intelligence is dealt with on a minute-by-minute basis. There's a secret German military base somewhere out there whose fighters — the evil Ghost Squadron — is attacking U.S. bombers. It must be located and destroyed. The film parodies the importance of knowing what we're attacking before we attack it. Done completely in black and white to maintain an air of authenticity, it begins with a white-scripted message on a silent screen explaining that the film was declassified by the Freedom of Information act that was enacted on January 19, 2006. Indeed, these vintage sequences have gone unseen for over 50 years.

Throughout the film, you see actors such as Ronald Reagan, William Holden, and Elisha Cook Jr. playing out their actual roles from black and white military films, their performances shedding new light on human intelligence failures with the help of Writer and Director Dale Kutzera's modern additions. Cook plays the guiding army pal to a small town rookie named Jimmy Ryan (Russell Arms), a soft-hearted young man who at first has a despairing and confused attitude about his place in the war, but eventually learns to be a proud killing machine for America. Holden plays Lt. Packard Cumming, an Army intelligence recon pilot. Scenes from the old films are blended seamlessly in both a physical and artistic sense, in that you never feel the scenes played by the modern actors are contrived or forced into their predecessors' scenes.

There are five major characters at Central Command.  Major Nick Reed is a hotshot military analyst determined to locate the hidden Nazi base in time for the 4th Amoured to attack. Lt. Monica Tasty is an ex-cigarette girl turned Central Command lieutenant whose current beau is Major Mitch Dunning, who is a conscientious and responsible Central Command major. General Jake Tasker, as we learn from the narrator, answers to "the man" himself - the leader of the free world - the Vice President of the United States. And Corporal Skip Andrews who is the radio operator at Central Command rounds out the main characters.

Article Author: Jude Nagurney Camwell

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