The Military-Entertainment Complex Is Bigger Than You Realize
The release of Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 offers a timely lens into the US military’s entanglement with the entertainment industries. The practice has a long history, stretching back to Top Gun, Rambo, and the anti-communist films of the McCarthyist period.
US Air Force staff sergeant Ryan Propst (center) plays a Call of Duty video game with a small group of service members at the United Service Organizations lounge at Kandahar Air Field on December 8, 2010, in Kandahar, Afghanistan. (Paula Bronstein / Getty Images)
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As a helicopter encircles the ceaseless Afghan landscape, a tall, muscular, shirtless man crouches behind a craggy peak, carefully fitting a sharp arrow into its shaft. Suddenly he emerges, making eye contact with a terrified Soviet pilot. His arrow rips through the helicopter, which erupts into flames — to the delight of Americans everywhere. Delight, why? Because they have just watched one of Hollywood’s most memorable action scenes. Sylvester Stallone has taken out a murderous, pillaging Soviet invader in Rambo III. It’s a thrilling sequence and a reminder that freedom and liberty will always prevail over evil, no matter the odds.
While this beloved scene regularly resurfaces on social media, the plot context is less well-known. In Rambo III, Rambo is fighting against the invaders alongside his mujahideen brothers — or as they’re better known today, the Taliban.
