The article discusses the issue of cultural aspects of national security in its relation to the context of contemporary art. The author examines Russian and American military cinematography of the 2010s. It is revealed that typical features of the representation of images of the army, the soldiers and the war in general in two different national cinematographic schools. The connection between the features of war cinema and the specifics of historical fate and the circumstances of current foreign policy is marked out. In conclusion, the author identifies some of the risks and threats to national cultural security associated with the broadcast into the Russian cultural space of the point of view expressed in American war cinema.