Inside the Pentagon's Film Liaison Office, whose staff read Hollywood war-movie scripts before deciding whether to lend the military's jets, ships, and bases to a production. The film traces what that leverage buys: Top Gun was shot with full Army and Navy cooperation, while Platoon, judged too critical of Vietnam, got none and had to be made abroad at greater expense. A more recent case study is the TV movie built around Private Jessica Lynch's rescue in Iraq, made with a military official on set and control over the script even as journalists were already disputing the official account. Interviews with military officials and filmmakers lay out the trade plainly: cooperation in exchange for scripts that flatter the armed forces, smooth over battlefield realities, and, not incidentally, help recruitment. The film also asks what gets lost when directors accept the deal, from softened characters to rewritten history, and lets the head of the Liaison Office describe his own goals without much disguise.