The Evolution of a War Film Genre

Introduction

This paper will be analyzing the evolution of a particular film genre. In context to the film genre we will be discussing the war film. A war film is a film dealing with the theme of war, focusing generally on the naval aspect, air, or land disputes. Some films are more focused: Prisoners of War, training.

Characteristics of the War Film

Simply put, the war film focuses on the narrative level conflicts using modern weapons and military technology. One feature of modern warfare is the complete anonymity of individual soldiers because of the large scope and often great destruction potential of modern weapons. In a backlash to the war films of the show 1980s increased the male physicality and an archaic warrior (Gerhard, 15) while newer war movies straight stage in a special way the vulnerability of the human body and the possibility of its destruction. An example is Saving Private Ryan (1998).

This integration of individuals into the collective "military machine" is made ??clear in many films, if the main character as a recruit learns in the military everyday insert (Full Metal Jacket, 1987, or in Jarhead - Jarhead, 2005). This is done in most war movies because the main character is a possible perfect soldier is, in other words, by the hero copes with the war, he gains his individuality back. Through visual, auditory, and narrative features can describe the basic structure of war films as follows (Gerhard, 21):

The war film is a mixture of fiction and non-fiction. May also be the fictional story, yet the viewer is aware that what is shown quite like or similar may have occurred. Simultaneously, the audience usually knows which groups confront each other and how the historical outcome of this conflict was. This on the one hand the demands of viewers increases the realism of the film as opposed to, for example, the action movie , on the other hand, the war film obtained by the proximity to the actual events, a certain "memorial function" - he holds horrors of past wars in memory (Gerhard, 20).

Protagonist of the war film either, as indicated above, a hero who prove themselves in the situation of war and the army and go through a development needs, or a number of different individuals who have internal differences must away to develop a unit to successfully overcome threats.

These plots lead some viewers to idealize war and soldiering - as “character forged "or as" true camaraderie among men "in a military community.

The staging of the war film as a visual-aural spectacle. In the film the other uses the setting of the fighting war movie stunts; pyrotechnics and aural effects to those of the action film are similar (Stephan & Christer, 23). Even movies that want to be understood as a critical war tend to show the warlike spectacle, just for the sake of spectacle. This and the flood of visual and auditory impressions can make a critical reflection of the ...