Transcript I am missing a lot of reviews…

American Cinema
• Before class begins, turn in your Comedy units:
• Unit Notes
• Young Frankenstein
• The Princess Bride
• The Truman Show
• We will begin War and Cinema today
War and Cinema
War Films Basics
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Explosive action sequences
Superhuman feats of bravery
Displays of mass destruction
Hellish no-man’s land of violence and death
Slightest actions can end in death (own or of friends)
Life is lived moment by moment
Morality
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Laws, beliefs, behavior and morality are suspended
Not just permitted to kill, characters must kill
Might makes right and the ends justify the means mentality
Good guys (usually “us”) fight fair
Bad guys (usually “them”) torture and kill innocent civilians
Good guys break the rules for moral or compassionate reasons
Group Goals
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Traditional Hollywood films focus on the individual
War films focus on the group
Needs of the individual give way for group needs
Individuals will do whatever it takes for the good of the platoon,
squadron, division, etc.
Gender roles
• Women roles are infrequent
• Women threaten male roles by introducing emotion – man’s
essential vulnerability
• Psyche of male soldier reshaped to repress feminine traits – must
be ruthless, unemotional, fighting machines – in training often
refered to as “ladies”
• Machismo is presented as the key to survival on the battlefield
Back from the front
• Focus on the difficulty of returning to “normal” life
• WWI and II this was shone as possible
• Vietnam changed this idea – more traumatic – over-masculinization
of soldiers
• Showed uncontrollable potential for rage and violence
• Some showed as vulnerable due to disabilities and injuries
• Others shown as becoming outlaws or social outcasts
Modern examples
• Vietnam created desire to explain the war’s outcome and even
rewrite it
• Films showing rescue missions of POWs became popular
redemption
• Approach to combat as a source of personal trauma
• Toll of war on soldiers and their families – post-traumatic stress
disorder (PTSD)
• Videos shot from the soldiers perspective (phones and web
footage)
Our unit films
• Glory – 1989 – Edward Zwick
• The Monuments Men – 2014 – George Clooney
• Lone Survivor – 2013 – Peter Berg