A Look at War Films

In observance of Memorial Day, the second half of today’s episode of Sounds of Cinema featured music from war films. Here is a recap of the movies discussed on the program as well as some additional titles.

M*A*S*H (1970)
Dir. Robert Altman

Most war films are somber affairs, and rightly so, but there is also the subgenre of the war comedy. These films usually have a mordant sense of humor such as Good Morning, Vietnam or Catch-22. Among the most popular war comedies is Robert Altman’s 1970 feature M*A*S*H. Set during the Korean conflict, the staff of a military hospital use humor to cope with the horrors of war. The film was spun off into a series that was one of the most successful programs in television history. Fans of the show are often surprised to find that the movie version of M*A*S*H is darker and meaner than the television program.


Patton (1970)
Dir. Franklin J. Schaffner

Patton was a biographical picture about General George Patton, focusing on his campaigns in North Africa and Europe during World War II. Patton was a colorful and controversial figure and the film explores his complicated legacy with intelligence and nuance. The movie opens with a speech that has become one of the most iconic moments in American film.


Platoon (1986)
Dir. Oliver Stone

Although he made better films, Platoon is the defining title of Oliver Stone’s career. The movie captures his skill as a storyteller and it critiques the mission in Vietnam, one of the filmmaker’s obsessions, but it also displays Stone’s tendency toward hysteria. As a dramatization of the Vietnam War the movie is flawed but as an expression of a veteran’s feelings about his experience, Platoon is a passionate success.


Top Gun (1986)
Dir. Tony Scott

One of the most popular military films—both among the general movie-going public and among military recruiters—was 1986’s Top Gun. One of the essential titles of the 1980s, Top Gun was a huge hit that established Tom Cruise as a movie star. This story of elite fighter pilots was also extraordinarily successful as a recruitment film and many young filmgoers enlisted in the United States Air Force following its release.


Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Dir. Stanley Kubrick

Stanley Kubrick is not necessarily renowned for his humor but if you are tuned into Kubrick’s mordant sense of the absurd, Full Metal Jacket is one of the funniest war films ever made. Set in the Vietnam era, the first half of the movie takes place at the Parris Island Marine Corp training camp and the second half occurs amid the 1968 Tet Offensive. Kubrick’s vision of humanity is sardonic and bleak and Full Metal Jacket makes an interesting companion piece to Dr. Strangelove.


Saving Private Ryan (1998)
Dir. Steven Spielberg

Steven Spielberg’s 1998 film Saving Private Ryan was widely praised at the time of its release for the opening sequence that re-creates the D-Day invasion at Normandy. This movie redefined the visual style of the war film and the gritty handheld cinematography and the intense violence of the D-Day scene have been frequently imitated.


The Thin Red Line (1998)
Dir. Terrence Malick

Released the same year as Saving Private Ryan, Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line was an adaptation of James Jones’ novel. Malick’s movies are less stories and more cinematic poems and The Thin Red Line is a mediation on combat, meaning, and mortality set during the Guadalcanal campaign of World War II. The Thin Red Line got lost in the hoopla over Saving Private Ryan but it’s a beautifully made movie.


Band of Brothers (2001)

Following the success of Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks produced the miniseries Band of Brothers for HBO. Based on the book by Stephen Ambrose, Band of Brothers was a dramatization of American soldiers in the European theater of World War II. The team behind Band of Brothers reunited for the companion series The Pacific, broadcast in 2010, which focused on Marines fighting the Japanese.


Black Hawk Down (2001)
Dir. Ridley Scott

Following the lead of Saving Private Ryan, Ridley Scott’s Black Hawk Down applied the same gritty style to a dramatic retelling of the 1993 firefight between American soldiers and Somalian militants. The movie is an intense and bloody affair and at the time of its release it was controversial with detractors arguing that it dehumanized Somalians and simplified a complex situation.


Flags of Our Fathers & Letters from Iwo Jima (2006)
Dir. Clint Eastwood

Clint Eastwood released two war films in 2006: Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima. The former was about the American experience in the Battle of Iwo Jima while the latter told a similar story from the Japanese perspective. While Letters from Iwo Jima was the better film, they were both smart stories about what warriors symbolize to a culture and the lasting consequences of warfare after the battle is over.




Generation Kill (2008)
Directed by: Susanna White and Simon Cellan Jones

Based on the book by Evan Wright, Generation Kill was a miniseries set during the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Wright embeds with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion of the Marine Corps in the early months of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The series immerses the viewer in the invasion of Iraq in a way that makes us look critically at what Americans did there but Generation Kill also helps a civilian audience begin to understand the veterans’ experience.