“IT HAS got to a point where the general public are not particularly shocked or even bothered that the Pentagon would directly intervene on a script that was critical of the US or its military,” says Abu Dhabi-based writer and academic Stephen Trinder.

Trinder is alarmed by declassified government reports of direct interference in film-making by people in power but the real focus of his research and writing is the extent to which neoliberal thinking is reinforced by subtler forms of influence and constraint.

“Understanding how the taken-for-granted truisms came to be there is most important in encouraging self-reflection and, ultimately, real change,” he says. “How did we get to this point? What are the underlying reasons that ultimately see such an action treated so apathetically by the public?”