Porkins Policy Review
Tom Secker and I were recently guests on Len Osanic’s Black Op Radio. We discussed The CIA and Hollywood series and specifically our episode on The Quiet American and Edward Lansdale. We discuss the theory that Lansdale was acting as a former ad-executive and was attempting to sell war in South East Asia. Tom and I also talk about the CIA’s use of George Orwell as propaganda, Charlie Wilson, and why government interference in cinema and culture is so dangerous.
Show Notes:
From Our Interesting Times:
Pearse Redmond of Porkins Policy Review returns to the show to discuss the 2016 Presidential race and his research regarding the Disney Corporation’s ties to the CIA. We talk about the assistance Disney received from Langley in building Disney World and the Magic Kingdom’s other connections to the intelligence community.
James Evan Pilato is our latest guest as we dissect the 2009 Disney UFO adventure Race to Witch Mountain. We start off looking at Disney as a corporation – its long standing interest in UFOs and extraterrestrials, the connections to government agencies and their recent takeover of the fantasy genre. We then get into Race to Witch Mountain itself – a strange blend of a kids’ movie, a love letter to the UFO culture and an homage to spy thrillers especially Enemy of the State. Next, we examine the deliberately hyperreal nature of the film and dwell on the effects of a fantasy movie set in the real world with real people. A children’s movie about ‘illegal aliens’ being pursued under the Patriot Act is not Hollywood’s typical output.
Then the conversation moves on to the mysterious CIA involvement in Race to Witch Mountain, which the CIA themselves deny but the director Andy Fickman insists took place. After discussing the CIA Inspector General’s Report on their Engagement with the Entertainment Industry we move on to the question of infiltration of the UFO culture, and the use of UFOlogy to infiltrate alternative cultures more broadly. We round off looking at the effect of films like this on people’s perceptions and expectations of government secrecy, and we each try to answer the question ‘are you a believer?’.
Download The CIA and Hollywood ep 13
Show Notes:
Silver Screen Saucers (book by Robbie Graham)
ClandesTime 076 – Walt Disney and the FBI
A Look Back … Robert Carey Broughton: From Walt Disney to War Movies
CIA’s Role in the Study of UFOs, 1947-1990
A History of Government Management of UFO Perceptions through Film and Television
“Alien language” presented by CIA & Disney
UFOs and Disney: Behind the Magic Kingdom
Robbie Graham – UFOs, Hyperreality, and the Disclosure Myth – Copenhagen 2014
From SpyCulture:
We will begin releasing season 2 of The CIA and Hollywood this weekend, and to give you a taste of what’s to come we have produced a linkchart combining data and connections from both season 1 and the forthcoming season 2. New additions include The Rock, Angelina Jolie and former Sony executive Amy Pascal, along with self-confessed (though officially denied) CIA agent Chuck Barris. Much of this season’s material links up with the people and organisations we discussed in season one, including the two production companies Participant Media and Relativity Media.
As with the previous linkchart, embedded in the pdf are links to various resources – interviews, documents, making of featurettes and other sources of information for those who want to know more about the relationship between the CIA and Hollywood, and of course where Pearse and I get the information we use. The 8 films we examine in this second season are: The Quiet American (1958), Good Night, and Good Luck (2005), Confessions of a Dangerous Mind (2002), Men who Stare at Goats (2009), American Ultra (2015), Race to Witch Mountain (2009), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and Salt (2010).
The linkchart is available as a high-resolution PNG file or as an even higher-resolution PDF, which has the source links embedded within it.
Porkins Policy Review 