The Pentagon Wars

The Pentagon Wars is a 1998 comedy film directed by Richard Benjamin and based on the book The Pentagon Wars: Reformers Challenge the Old Guard by Colonel James G. Burton, United States Air Force, about the development of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle. Plot Major General Partridge (Kelsey Grammer) is in charge of the Bradley Fighting Vehicle project, which 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, U.S. Air Force 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 atmosphere of corruption and inefficiency at the Pentagon. He delves into the mountains of paper documenting the Bradley's development 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 Bock (John C. McGinley) and Major Sayers (Tom Wright). But then Burton is contacted by Brigadier General Robert L. Smith (Richard Schiff), the frustrated officer previously in charge of the vehicle's development program, who feeds him evidence on condition of anonymity.