Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Saving Private Ryan analysis
Glorification of war in movies
Saving Private Ryan analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Saving Private Ryan analysis
Analyzing Movies of War
Even though the films “Battleship Potemkin”, “From Here to Eternity” and “Saving Private Ryan” are all movies based on military life during war time the variation in time periods and culture made each film very different. These differences did not take away from the impact the films had on their audiences at the time or the messages they were each trying to covey. The Horrific images and hear wrenching scenarios helped to evoke strong emotions and patriotic feeling from audiences allowing film makers to pass along their truths. Thru these films we are magically transported to several dark periods in the world history and left to experience the pain, fear, isolation and ultimately the triumph of these soldiers’ lives.
The film “Battleship Potemkin” was filmed in 1925 and was based on a fictional story about a mutiny aboard a naval ship during 1905 and it results. It is an amazing film if one thinks about and considers the time and atmosphere it was filmed in. It is definitely a film with a political message and agenda. It show how ordinary soldiers in the Soviet Union rose up to over throw the Czars Navy when they were being forced to exist in unlivable surroundings and deplorable conditions. It also shows how the people rose and took up the cause after the soldier is killed. As the movie continued we see how ordinary citizens were massacred by the Czars army. The scene on the stair were the little boy is trampled and then he had his mother are shot is very profound. There is no doubt that he filmmaker wants you to feel the horror of the situation. This film served the state by showing how the people chose the communist life. It showed how the rose up against the rule of the Czar and fought for the...
... middle of paper ...
...o thought to restraint. The tried to show us what happened exactly has the soldiers saw it. The opening scene on D Day was very gruesome. It was extremely hard to watch the violent death of all those men. In the early movies they had to try to convey the same emotions with our all the filming technologies that were available for the last one.
I think that the movies that portrayed World War I and World War II were different because in these films we had more pride. We knew what we fought for. People at the time supported their country and soldiers. It today the movies are all about blood and blowing things up. There is very little pride in our country. We don’t stand up for our soldiers the way that we should. We blame them when our government sends us to war. Our movies of resent wars have just been action movies and have lost the loyalty and pride we once had.
Wallace Terry has collected a wide range of stories told by twenty black Vietnam veterans. The stories are varied based on each experience; from the horrific to the heart breaking and to the glorified image of Vietnam depicted by Hollywood. Wallace Terry does not insinuate his opinion into any of the stories so that the audience can feel as if they are having a conversation with the Vietnam Veteran himself. Terry introduces the purpose of the book by stating, “ Among the 20 men who portray their war and postwar experiences in this book. I sought a representative cross section of the black combat force.”(p. XV) Although the stories in this book were not told in any specific order, many themes became prominent throughout the novel such as religion, social, and health.
War is cruel. The Vietnam War, which lasted for 21 years from 1954 to 1975, was a horrific and tragic event in human history. The Second World War was as frightening and tragic even though it lasted for only 6 years from 1939 to 1945 comparing with the longer-lasting war in Vietnam. During both wars, thousands of millions of soldiers and civilians had been killed. Especially during the Second World War, numerous innocent people were sent into concentration camps, or some places as internment camps for no specific reasons told. Some of these people came out sound after the war, but others were never heard of again. After both wars, people that were alive experienced not only the physical damages, but also the psychic trauma by seeing the deaths and injuries of family members, friends or even just strangers. In the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” by Bao Ninh about the Vietnam War, and the documentary film Barbed Wire and Mandolins directed by Nicola Zavaglia with a background of the Second World War, they both explore and convey the trauma of war. However, the short story “A Marker on the Side of the Boat” is more effective in conveying the trauma of war than the film Barbed Wire and Mandolins because of its well-developed plot with well-illustrated details, and its ability to raise emotional responses from its readers.
O'Brien, Tim. "How to Tell a True War Story." Writing as Re-Vision. Eds. Beth Alvarado and Barbara Cully. Needham Heights, MA: Simon & Schuster Custom Publishing, 1996. 550-8.
I chose Saving Private Ryan, the 1998 movie directed by Steven Spielberg about the invasion at Normandy and a special mission that follows, as the topic of my paper. The mission is for eight men to go behind enemy lines and rescue a soldier who’s brothers have died in battle and bring him back.
When people think of the military, they often think about the time they spend over in another country, hoping they make it back alive. No one has ever considered the possibility that they may have died inside. Soldiers are reborn through war, often seeing through the eyes of someone else. In “Soldier’s home” by Ernest Hemingway, the author illustrates how a person who has been through war can change dramatically if enough time has passed. This story tells of a man named Harold (nick name: Krebs) who joined the marines and has finally come back after two years. Krebs is a lost man who feels it’s too complicated to adjust to the normal way of living and is pressured by his parents.
O’Brien, Tim. “How to Tell a True War Story.” The Things They Carried. Boston and New York: Mariner Books, 2009. 64-81. Print.
Known today as two of the most prominent American satirists, Joseph Heller and Kurt Vonnegut both served time as soldiers during World War II, Heller serving as a bombardier in Italy (Scoggins) and Vonnegut as a soldier and prisoner of war in Germany (Parr). Not coincidentally, both Heller’s 1961 novel Catch-22 and Vonnegut’s 1969 novel Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death follow the journeys of young men in combat during the Second World War – Captain John Yossarian of the US Army Air Forces and soldier Billy Pilgrim, respectively. While it is evident that these fictional novels are both set during the World War II era and convey bleak images of war, closer inspection of both texts brings to light the common
Fighting the Vietnam War dramatically changed the lives of everyone even remotely involved, especially the brave individuals actually fighting amidst the terror. One of the first things concerned when reading these war stories was the detail given in each case. Quotes and other specific pieces of information are given in each occurrence yet these stories were collected in 1981, over ten years following the brutal war. This definitely shows the magnitude of the war’s impact on these servicemen. These men, along with every other individual involved, went through a dramatic experience that will forever haunt their lives. Their minds are filled with scenes of exploding buildings, rape, cold-blooded killing, and bodies that resemble Swiss cheese.
A genre of movie that many people enjoy seeing a war films, representations of past conflicts on the big screens of Hollywood. One film that really drives into the heart of what it was like to actually be in the Pacific Theater of war from the Axis perspective; Letters From Iwo Jima is a film the captivates its audience is an emotional story, while entertaining the action lovers with epic battle scenes.“I’ll always be in front of you.” One of the many memorable lines from the movie shows the bravery and courage that forced difficult battles. Just due to the fact that hardly no movies are made to represent what the Japanese or Germans felt or thought during the war; the hardships they endured and the difficult choices they had to make, made this one an absolute keeper. Letters From Iwo Jima, showing historical accuracy through setting, drama, costume, different moral stances, and the characters people encounter through the story; creates an amazing experience for the viewer and takes that person on a journey through the hardships at Iwo Jima.
It is evident that the occurrence of war throughout history has made a lasting impression on soldiers and civilians alike. This has been expressed over the years through different works of literature. The cost of war to the individual is illustrated in “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, and “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick because each story shows some element of mental, emotional, and physical toll.
Before the Second World War began Hollywood’s purpose lied within entertainment for the American people. After the war started, the main focus shifted to wartime propaganda. Film was used to display the war in a way that did not show its true colors—including the censorship of soldier causalities and other negative connotations that are a simple fact of war. There was even a time in which some actors became better known to America than politians. Through films, Hollywood began to make a statement of their anti-Nazi beliefs. They began to make motion pictures for American recruitment into the Army as well as many that supported the war effort, and intended to make other Americans more aware of the war’s effect on the United States, and how people can get involved. Many European countries banned these Hollywood films, as they began to affect not only America but many other countries that were involved in the war as well.
Life and death, kill or be killed, both are phrases used to describe war. Soldiers in war are pressured to think these phrases in active duty. In the many ways soldiers think of these results, they begin to reflect on the alternate situational outcomes. In “The Things They Carried” and “The Man He Killed,” the characters ponder what could have been if their actions had ended differently. These works illustrate how the soldiers cope with the idea of someone dying and how things could have been different if the individual had survived.
Many individuals look at soldiers for hope and therefore, add load to them. Those that cannot rationally overcome these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley precisely depicts the critical impact wars have on people in his novel by showing how after-war characters are not what they were at the beginning.
Revolution or war activities are not smooth, transitions between events or contain even, unsettling effects on the individuals or participants. Battleship Potemkin is anything less showing and displaying images woven together that jar the viewer, against his or her will. This is best illustrated in "The Odessa Staircase". During this segment, the Tsarist soldiers are seen massacring the Odessans. Whether or not, the viewer understands the circumstances of the war or can pinpoint a particular side to be on; ultimately you feel for those involved in the revolution, most notably the victims.
There is an intellectual discussion over the accuracy of war films and whether or not these should focus more on telling the truth or decorating it a little. Indeed, the narrative of war films has change throughout the years because the purpose of such films has evolved, especially those representing the World War II years and the aftermath. At the time of war, films were employed with diverse objectives for example to urge the public to support the war, to narrate the latest events, or to rebuild the image of the heroes. Most of the times the perspectives of films could vary depending on the country the film was produced in or which side of the story was being narrated. The plot of most war films might not be real, but they were necessary