The War Film Genre - 538 Words

The war film genre includes films about warfare, including naval, air or land battles. Films in this genre may focus on the battles, prisoners of war, military training, life during wartime or morality and humanitarian issues of warfare. This genre commonly includes works of fiction, works based on historical facts and occasionally works based on alternate-history fiction. According to American Cinema/American Culture, the genre also includes four narrative elements: the suspension of morality during times of war, the prioritization of collective goals over individual motivations, the rivalry between men and their objectification of women and the issues of reintegrating veterans. (Belton 165-71) The 1986 Oscar winning film Platoon (Stone) is a classic example of this genre and why it is so popular. As such, Platoon is a fictional work that follows Chris Taylor, a young American who gives up college and volunteers for combat duty in Vietnam. Following Taylor’s tour of Vietnam, the film’s main focus is not only his life during the war, but also the mortality issues he must find a way to deal with. Furthermore, Platoon includes all four of the narrative elements necessary to fit into this genre. The first and third narrative elements, the suspension of morality during times of war and the rivalry between men, even though demonstrated throughout the film, really becomes prevalent when the platoon discovers a food and weapons cache in a village. While searching this village,Show MoreRelatedThe Vietnam War Film Genre1313 Words   |  6 PagesThe Vietnam film is a specific sub-genre of the conventional Hollywood war film that arose as a result of the 1960s counter culture. According to Elliot Stegall’s article Ideological, Dystopic, and Antimythopoetic Formations of Masculinity in the Vietnam War Film many American war films depicted the glorification of war and emphasized the concept of American masculinity (Stegall). Previous to the Vietnam period, Hollywood war films stuck to contemporary tropes. These films often re-enact the ideaRead MoreWar Film Genre: Platon523 Words   |  2 PagesThe war film genre includes films about warfare, including naval, air or land bat tles. Films in this genre may focus on the battles, prisoners of war, military training, life during wartime or morality and humanitarian issues of warfare. This genre commonly includes works of fiction, works based on historical facts and occasionally works based on alternate-history fiction. According to American Cinema/American Culture, the genre also includes four narrative elements: the suspension of morality duringRead MoreEssay on War Film Genre1668 Words   |  7 PagesM Avodian September 20, 2012 War from the Beginning War films have been around for quite some time. They have many different aspects to them. Each film has a little bit different view, depending on what the director wants the audience to get out of the movie. Some target the importance of how horrific and heart breaking war was, while others were used to inspire their country to support their troops. There are films though that go straight to the point of war and show all of the intense combatRead More Saving Private Ryan: An Excellent Example of the War Film Genre495 Words   |  2 PagesSteven Speilbergs Saving Private Ryan The opening 30 minutes of â€Å"Saving Private Ryan† is significantly effective as an example to the war film genre. It begins brilliantly with battle between the American and German forces. As the American troops were approaching enemy lines, the representation of the soldiers is that they are just ordinary human beings, not gung-ho. The conscripts were full of anxiety and fear. 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An animated movie is a drawing, painted, or digitally created film that uses stop-frame cinematography to simulate movementRead MoreFilm Noir: A Style Spanning Genres Essay1016 Words   |  5 Pagescategorize items applies also to objets d’art, including film – and the recognition or dismissal of film noir as a genre has been argued since the term was coined. While the term itself is valid, film noir as a genre is a misnomer. More properly, film noir should be considered a style unto itself, but definitively not genre, defined by the very definitions of the words â€Å"style† and â€Å"genre†. We will limit our subject matter here to the classic film noir period of 1941-1958, recognizing that all modernRead MoreThe Science Fiction Film Genre Essay1683 Words   |  7 PagesScience Fiction Films The science fiction film genre has been around almost as long as movies have, but like the cinema it is still a fairly young art form. 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