War

WAR

These films are about transgression and power. How does the individual survive intact, physically and mentally? How are we, the audience, to feel about a particular was or about war in general? Battle scenes and war have been the subject of films since the beginning of cinema, but as a genre, war films came of age during World War I. Often they take an anti-war stance, but equally they can be made to stir up popular support and even serve as propaganda. War is often the setting for another genre, such as the Love Story. It is specifically about combat. In this genre the film you write may be pro-war, or anti war: Platoon, Windtalkers. The war genre could even be blended with the musical genre and result in a film such as Milos Forman’s brilliant anti-war drama Hair. The central character has one primary goal: survival – this may mean personal survival, national survival, or the survival of the personal or political values he believes in. The character’s values are tested. The polarities of human behaviour (altruism and barbarism) coexist and are as much in combat as are the combatants. Violence plays a central role in this genre. Each film carries a particular political perspective of war. The antagonist is often never seen (Full Metal Jacket)

What to Watch: Paths of Glory (1957), Apocalypse Now (1979), Das Boot (1981), Full metal Jacket (1987), Saving Private Ryan (1998), The Thin Red Line (1998), Three Kings (1999), Flags of Our Fathers (2006).