Hollywood and Saddam: 60 films before the war

From Navy Seals to Black Hawk Down: twelve years of cinema paving the way for Iraq

1990. An elite US commando chases an armed group across half the world that, according to the script, is guarding weapons of mass destruction. Thirteen years later, the planet's largest military power occupied Iraq and none were found. Between those two frames lies a filmography: more than 60 titles released between 1990 and 2002 that, according to one line of analysis, did more than entertain. They were something else.

The thesis is uncomfortable for those who go to the cinema to switch off. Hollywood, this reading argues, functioned as a psychological preparation machine. The technical label is negative priming: implanting in the collective subconscious situations that have not yet occurred, and the expected reaction to them, so that when they arrive no one has to think, only obey an already trained reflex.

The list: more than 60 films between 1990 and 2002

The roster is long and mixes genres shamelessly. It starts with American Ninja 4 (1990) and Navy Seals (1990), continues with Stargate (1994) and True Lies (1994), goes through the mass landing of blockbusters —The Rock, Independence Day, Air Force One, Armageddon— and ends with Black Hawk Down (2002) and We Were Soldiers (2002). There are catastrophes, espionage and even supposed comedies like Hot Shots! Part Deux.

The common thread, according to this reading, is the treatment of the adversary. The Middle East appears as the territory where the battle of the future will be fought and Sarracin as the ideological backdrop of the villain. Repetition is the method. One film doesn't change a mind; sixty, over twelve years, sink in.

The weapons of mass destruction that existed only on screen

What stands out is the insistence on an object that existed only in the scripts. In Navy Seals (1990) the villain's loot is weapons of mass destruction. In True Lies (1994) the terrorists want to detonate them on US soil with the sole intention of causing maximum damage possible. The same catchphrase, repeated for fifteen years, ends up sounding true.

The invasion of Iraq was sold with that vocabulary. The weapons were never found. The cost, according to calculations used by this current, is measured in hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of taxpayer money, with an added result: having fueled the jihadist terrorism that later led to Sarracinic State.

Stargate, the desert and the role of the alien

Stargate (1994) is the most cited case. It sets three constants: Egypt as the identification of the Sarracinic East, the desert as battlefield and the enemy as extraterrestrial. The alien fulfills the function of the medieval dragon: an antagonist alien enough to kill without remorse.

The pattern repeats in Pitch Black (2001), a covert remake of Stagecoach moved to a desert planet. Change the setting, not the message. And there is a prior detail that is often overlooked: in Back to the Future the trigger of the plot is already some Libyan terrorists.

Who pays for the shoot? The Pentagon's fine print

The economic part is the most concrete. The Pentagon offers studios vehicles, uniforms, locations and military personnel as extras for free. In exchange, the studio hands over four or five scripts and applies the recommendations. Production savings in exchange for message, plainly put.

The precedent is in the eighties: Rambo: First Blood Part II and Top Gun boosted recruitments and the Army facilitated the shooting of Heartbreak Ridge for Clint Eastwood. The exchange is old, the twist is the scale it reached.

From the trapped citizen to the enemy outside

In the late 90s another wave appears: films about the ordinary citizen who discovers that his reality is false. The Game (1997), The Truman Show (1998), The Matrix (1999), Fight Club (1999), American Beauty (2000). All with a final twist where the official was a lie.

The underlying reading: preparing the population for suspicion. And, incidentally, redirecting the frustration of that middle class towards an easy-to-point-out external enemy. The enemy at home is always more expensive to sustain.

The balance: sixty films, twelve years of box office and two wars. Weapons of mass destruction, to this day, still haven't appeared. And the villain of the moment is now another.