Lights, camera, military action!

Profiles from the Front Line is reality television, war movie, documentary video, and military propaganda all rolled into one. Set in Afghanistan with edgy musical accompaniment and no narration, the ABC series has promised to take viewers "to actual battlefields in central Asia" and to "bring home the danger faced every day by America's bravest in the war on terrorism." ABC also proudly states that "the Pentagon and Department of Defense lent their full support and cooperation to this unique production by [Hollywood producer] Jerry Bruckheimer and [Cops creator] Bertram van Munster, which will feature compelling personal stories of America's military men and women and the elite U.S. Special Operations Forces."

During the months when Profiles was filmed, "real" journalists weren't allowed anywhere near the front lines, and news organizations had to survive on a limited diet of highly coordinated military briefings. Meanwhile, Profiles camera crews were given nearly unlimited access to U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.

"There's a lot of other ways to convey information to the American people than through news organizations," Rear Admiral Craig Quigley told The New York Times about Profiles last year when the show was in development. The gang at Profiles was, as Quigley described, "trooping around all over the countryside--flying on planes, going on ships, going on patrol with the 101st Airborne, [and] living a rugged life."

In the premiere episode of Profiles from the Front Line, we meet some of the soldiers Quigley spoke about. There is Colonel Abraham J. Turner, who emphatically tells his troops that "the American people expect you to be at the point of the spear" in the war on terrorism. Army Specialist Alvin Fields is loving his wartime assignment. "I couldn't think of any place I'd rather be than right here doing my job, knowing I'm doing my part to keep America free," the smiling soldier tells us not long after we see him excitedly handling a new bazooka-like anti-tank weapon.

Soon we meet the "elite soldiers" of U.S. Special Operations Forces. Master Sergeant Mark (first names only for the "Rambo Guys," as they're called) explains that his team's primary mission is to "find and kill Al Qaeda," but says that identification is a problem. "To us, everyone pretty much looks the same." Staff Sergeant Mike agrees: "It's frustrating because you can't kill the guys that need to be killed." At one point the three-man crew begins to drive off with a suspect they've apprehended--an elderly, one-armed former Taliban leader. When the man's fifteen-year-old son starts to run after their vehicle, Staff Sergeant Drew coolly contemplates shooting the teen. "It's pretty easy to pull the trigger and shoot the boy, but that's not what we're there for," he says. For the most part, the military men and women featured in Profiles are good looking, articulate, and enthusiastic about what they're doing. They are archetypes of characters you'd expect to see in a big-budget Bruckheimer film.

Virtually everyone who watches television or goes to the movies has been struck by the lightning bolt that imprints all Jerry Bruckheimer productions. He is perhaps the most successful producer and the most powerful man in Hollywood, with more than $12.5 billion in film, video, and recording receipts. If you didn't see Flashdance or Beverly Hills Cop, you probably caught The Rock, or Con Air, or Enemy of the State. Maybe J. B. reeled you in with his two CSI (Crime Scene Investigation) television series, which are the main courses feeding America's seemingly insatiable appetite for graphic blood and gore.

More than likely, however, it was one of his big-budget war epics that got you. Those films have not only captured the disposable income of millions of filmgoers but, more to the point, the hearts and minds of the Washington establishment. In fact, three of Bruckheimer's biggest war movies--Tap Gun, Pearl Harbor, and Black Hawk Down--were also made with military cooperation.

Pretty powerful stuff for the Detroit native who was born in 1945 to working class German-Jewish immigrant parents. Bruckheimer has described his folks as "very strong Democrats," while characterizing his own views as more right than left. (He acknowledges that he voted for Bush in the last election.) While growing up, Bruckheimer went to weekly film matinees, developed an interest in photography, and got his career start in the world of advertising. One of the ads he produced for Pontiac while still in his early twenties caught the attention of Time magazine, and that led to a job at the high-profile ad agency BBD&O. It took less than five years for Bruckheimer to make his way from Madison Avenue to Hollywood, where he was soon producing films like the early Richard Gere vehicle American Gigolo.

Bruckheimer's partnership with producer Don Simpson led to a string of box office winners, including Bad Boys (with Will Smith and Martin Lawrence) and Crimson Tide, the story of two naval officers squaring off while on the brink of nuclear war (with Denzel Washington and Gene Hackman).

Many of the films Bruckheimer has produced in more recent years, like Con Air (with Nicolas Cage) and Armageddon (starring Bruce Willis), are marked by the militaristic features that have earned Bruckheimer less than flattering monikers like "explosion-meister."

None of Bruckheimer's movies lived up to that label more than the 2001 release Pearl Harbor. The $135 million historical drama was pure Hollywood: shamelessly pro-American, filled with sappy melodrama, overcooked romance, and, worst of all, historical inaccuracies. The women in the film--primarily military nurses--are reduced to little more than husband-hunting airheads, while the male leads are just a bunch of good ol' boys who seem more concerned about fighting over a girlfriend than with the Japanese attack.

Black Hawk Down, released the same year as Pearl Harbor, is even more troubling. It presents a graphic minute-by-minute retelling of the ill-fated U.S. military mission to Somalia, specifically, the 1993 operation aimed at the forces of faction leader Mohamed Farah Aidid in Mogadishu. The action led to the crash of two Black Hawk helicopters and left hundreds of Somalis and eighteen Americans dead. The movie did little to explain the motivations of the Somalis, so audiences were left with the feeling that the dark-skinned anti-American mobs depicted in the film were the equivalent of a pack of wild animals. The New York Times review said that the film "reeks of glumly staged racism."

Bruckheimer responded to the racism charge by appearing on the Fox News Networks most reactionary program, The O'Reilly Factor. When asked whether he thought the charge of racism would hurt Black Hawk Down's chances in the upcoming Academy Awards, Bruckheimer responded, "It's possible. Could be," adding that he thought "there was a lot of backstabbing [over race] in Hollywood about this picture. They don't say it to our face, but...."

The powers-that-be in Washington were unfazed by the charges of racism. After an exclusive screening of Black Hawk Down for lawmakers and Pentagon officials, Washington expressed its glowing approval of the film. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz told The Washington Post he thought it was "a powerful film." Other enthusiastic attendees included Vice President Dick Cheney and Lynne Cheney, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Iran-Contra man Oliver North.

No doubt the Washington reaction to Black Hawk Down helped Bruckheimer secure support for the Profiles series, but not without controversy. Reports said that the Pentagon would be allowed to prescreen and approve all of the Profiles footage before it aired. Bruckheimer has denied the charge, telling The Guardian of London that military leaders wouldn't have veto power on the content. But, he added, "Put it this way. If I were to rent your apartment, I'm not going to trash it. It wouldn't be right. So I'm not going to go and expose all their blemishes."

Government censorship wasn't the only concern expressed by media critics. "You have a bunch of journalists who should be covering this kind of material who are being denied access to it," Robert Thompson of Syracuse University's Center for the Study of Popular Television told Reuters. Thompson denounced "the new alliance between Hollywood and the government."

Even CBS news anchor Dan Rather voiced his disapproval for this kind of programming. "I'm outraged by the Hollywoodization of the military," he told the Santa Monica Mirror. "The Pentagon would rather make troops available as props in gung-ho videos than explain how the commanders let Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda leaders escape or target the wrong villages."

In spite of its heavy-handed, lopsided, pro-American view, Profiles does offer compelling elements. Who wouldn't be intrigued by the story of Peter Sarvis, the Army specialist who left his new bride and Wall Street stockbroker job to sign up for military duty after the events of 9/11, or by the opportunity to see some of the tactics used by our military to supposedly win the war on terrorism. But those elements are far outweighed by the frightening prospect of a continued intimate union between the fiercest hawks of D.C. and the biggest explosion-meister of L.A.

One night, a few weeks ago, I found myself trapped in a Bruckheimer loop. On the networks, it was CSI: Miami, full of decapitated limbs and charred body parts. On the movie channels, it was the vapid Coyote Ugly here, the maudlin Pearl Harbor there, the racist Black Hawk Down everywhere. I began to have repressive visions of an American society where citizens were allowed access only to Bruckheimertainment.

But then an even more nightmarish vision came over me: Jerry Bruckheimer and the Pentagon sign an exclusive contract to manufacture and shape the way U.S. wars are perceived and remembered. If Profiles from the Frontline is any indication, we'd better start waking up.

Andrea Lewis, a San Francisco-based writer, h co-host of "The Morning Show" on KPFA Radio in Berkeley.

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