An often-time very funny amalgamation of vintage training films, classic (and not-so-classic) war movies, as well as a chunk of newly-minted footage, Military Intelligence and You! wraps everything together under the guise of a hair-brained feature-length instructional session on the strategic advantages of good intelligence gathering during war time. With more than a nod toward the U.S.'s on-going governmental and military calamities (most specifically -- and not surprisingly -- its inability to gather decent intelligence), the film uses World War 2 as a backdrop for its goof on the overly-earnest military and public service training pieces which were produced a dime a dozen in their day, never losing sight of its modern target.
Designed to show the connected works of a wide range of servicemen and -women in their quest to discover the location and institute the destruction of a deadly German air fleet known only as “The Ghost Squadron,” the film plays out mostly flush with the sort of gee-whiz ethos possessed by its forbearers, right down to a cast in the newly-shot headquarters-set segments who truly look their parts. Most jokes come courtesy of a typically blustery narrator, as well as context-inappropriate one-offs during the HQ set pieces. The story occasionally loses sight of its construct, but never complete blows the gag thanks to appropriately stagy compositions and performances.
Writer / director Dale Kutzera, a TV veteran marking his big-screen debut, does a splendid job of blending the various materials to a cohesive whole. He frames his new materials against vast expanses of black, dotting figures along its margins to give the impression of sprawling control and board rooms straight out of Dr. Strangelove. The performers are all game, particularly an enjoyable Patrick Muldoon as our “hero” of sorts.
Unlike a lot of faux-documentary material, Military Intelligence and You! wears its true colors on its sleeve from the outset. In the end, when dealing with a) the ridiculously zealous mannerisms of the short pieces it apes and b) the seemingly backward nature of military operations then-and-now, one wonders why the audience couldn't have been trusted to find the humor inherent in all this on their own. It isn't that the film isn't funny -- it is, frequently in a laugh-out-loud-vein -- but it seems to have missed an opportunity to work its magic in a more subversive fashion. All that being said, the medium of film (unlike its increasingly progressive counterpart TV) continues to lack honest responses to the current quagmire, so whatever debits one can find it's impossible to deny Military Intelligence and You! takes a stance and sticks with it in an admirable, good-humored fashion.
While not a wholly unique endeavor, Military Intelligence and You! works its concept successfully enough to a few new levels where one can't help but be impressed and foresee bright things from Kutzera in the future. The film tries a little too hard to let us in on the joke and occasionally suffers for it, and its broader attempts at drawing parallels to the current US-led invasion / occupation / get-together / whatever-the-hell-you-want-to-call-it in Iraq tend to fall flat (jokes about the threat-level color coding system aren't required, despite what everyone has apparently been told). That being said, it still hits plenty of marks and should stand as a unique, endearingly small-ish time capsule with regard to the Iraq conflict when all is said and done.
Military Intelligence and You! online
Trailer (Quicktime)
