The Pentagon Wars
| The Pentagon Wars | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Genre | Comedy War |
| Based on |
The Pentagon Wars by Col. James G. Burton |
| Screenplay by |
Jamie Malanowski and Martyn Burke |
| Directed by | Richard Benjamin |
| Starring |
Kelsey Grammer Cary Elwes John C. McGinley Olympia Dukakis Richard Benjamin |
| Music by | Joseph Vitarelli |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) |
Martyn Burke Danny DeVito Michael Shamberg Stacey Sher Gail Lyon (co-executive producer) |
| Producer(s) |
Howard Meltzer Gary Daigler (co-producer) |
| Location(s) | Washington, D.C. |
| Cinematography | Robert Yedman |
| Editor(s) | Jacqueline Cambas |
| Running time | 1 h 43 min |
| Production company(s) | HBO |
| Distributor | HBO |
| Release | |
| Original network | HBO |
| Original release |
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The Pentagon Wars is a 1998 dark comedy film from HBO, produced by Howard Meltzer and Gary Daigler, directed by Richard Benjamin, that stars Kelsey Grammer, Cary Elwes, and Richard Schiff. It is based on the book The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard by Colonel James G. Burton, USAF (retired).
The film describes the dishonesty associated with the 17-year development of the M2 Bradley fighting vehicle.
Tagline: They aimed to build the ultimate fighting machine. They missed.
Major General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer) is in charge of the Bradley project, that has been in development for seventeen years at a cost of $14 billion. In an effort to curtail excessive spending by The Pentagon, Congress appoints an outsider, USAF Lieutenant Colonel James Burton (Cary Elwes) to observe the testing of several new weapons in development, including the Bradley.
Burton quickly becomes disillusioned by the way the process works in an atmosphere of corruption and inefficiency. He delves into the mountains of paper documenting the Bradley's history and comes to the conclusion that it is "a troop transport that can't carry troops, a reconnaissance vehicle that's too conspicuous to do reconnaissance, and a quasi-tank that has less armor than a snowblower, but has enough ammo to take out half of D.C."
Burton's attempts to test the Bradley under combat conditions are obstructed by Partridge and his two cronies, Colonel Bach (John C. McGinley) and Major Sayers (Tom Wright). But then Burton is contacted by Lieutenant Colonel Robert L. Smith (Richard Schiff), the frustrated officer in charge of the vehicle’s production, who feeds him evidence on condition of anonymity.
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