War Movies

War movies are a quite specific genre, and yet the approach of the director and the plotline can be used to distinguish these various movies from each other. What’s more, the majority of war movies have a strong political undercurrent, whether it is supporting the government or being more of an anti-war stance.

Within war movies, the majority of the plot or setting is the battlefields and fighting which provides the action for the film. However, the majority of war movies are heavily drama-based with the gruesome nature of war represented on screen for the audience to experience. Perhaps the most gruelling war sequence was the opening twenty minute scene for Saving Private Ryan (1998), which depicted the Omaha beachhead assault of June 6, 1944.

War movies do not necessarily have to be confined to the battlefields however, with many using Prisoner of War camps, covert military operations and the training academies as the setting for many dramas.

When it comes to war movies the World Wars are often the most notable ones depicted, however there are a great many others that are populous across the movies industry. Since the 1920’s war movies have played a significant role in the public perception of war and how the different perspectives of the battlefield shape the understandings of war.

Essentially, war movies are a unique blend of historical fact, action and drama that is designed to highlight the unknown world of war for audiences.

Examples of War movies are The Pianist, which is also under the Biography and Drama genre and Forrest Gump:

The military and the film industry

Many war films have been produced with the cooperation of a nation's military forces. The United States Navy has been very cooperative since World War II in providing ships and technical guidance; Top Gun is the most famous example. The U.S. Air Force provided considerable verisimilitude for The Big Lift, Strategic Air Command and A Gathering of Eagles, filmed on Air Force bases and using Air Force personnel in many roles.

Typically, the military will not assist filmmakers if the film is critical of them. Sometimes the military demands some editorial control in exchange for their cooperation, which can bias the result. The German Ministry of Propaganda, making the epic war film Kolberg in January 1945, used several divisions of soldiers as extras. Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels believed the impact of the film would offset the tactical disadvantage of the absent soldiers.

If the home nation's military will not cooperate, or if filming in the home nation is too expensive, another country's may assist. Many 1950s and 1960s war movies, including the Oscar-winning films Patton, Lawrence of Arabia, and Spartacus, were shot in Spain, which had large supplies of both Allied and Axis equipment. The Napoleonic epic Waterloo was shot in Ukraine (then part of the Soviet Union), using Soviet soldiers. The D-Day scenes in Saving Private Ryan were shot with the cooperation of the Irish army, and all of the major sequences in Dark Blue World were shot in the Czech Republic, at a disused air force base.

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