Saturday, March 14, 2020

The Combat Film essays

The Combat Film essays The war hero portrayed in these films is almost always representative of the common man. A soldier picked out of the masses with his every victory in battle a stepping stone to greatness. Masculine traits - aggressiveness, violence, an apparent lack of feeling - are often depicted to the extreme. In the WWII combat film the hero is depicted as the men who are heroes and who have been willing to sacrifice their lives for something larger than themselves. These films define war as a contemporary democracy vs. dictatorship, virtue vs. moral corruption. Basically WWII films were used to depict patriotism. These films had a clear agenda that was to emphasize, as a recruiting tool, and to depict the courage of our American soldiers. The films used to portray the Vietnam War had a decidedly different tone. These films, for the most part, came out a good time after the war began. By this time the unpopularity felt by the American public in regards to this war had gained momentum. Many people were suspicious of the government, their motivation, and the tactics used in this war. That general feeling of discontent and disapproval seeped into the films used to portray the war. In these films the audience is generally offered a view of a war that is exhausting, ugly, terrible, and largely meaningless. Survival rather than noble cause becomes the focus of a soldier's day. The majority of the films about Vietnam make it clear that they are claiming that there was no call to action, no clear and worthy goal to be pursued, and that society wasnt recognizing the sacrifice of Americas young people in the way that they were able to during. For the most part, the actual trials and tribulations of the soldier are the same in both types of films. It is the government that is condemned either subtly or outright, not the soldiers fighting the governments war. The issue of morality, in regards to the soldier is the same for bo...

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