War cinema

poster or poster Paths of Glory (1957), Stanley Kubrick's war film.

The war film is the cinematographic genre to which the films whose plot focuses on wars belong.

History

Sequence of the documentary The Battle of Somme (1916), preceded by an intertitle: "British people rescued a comrade under the obus fire (this man would die 30 minutes after reaching the trench)".

Since its invention, it became clear that cinema could be a medium that allowed reaching large numbers of people quickly and relatively easily. These qualities turned the invention of the Lumière brothers into a privileged informative instrument; as early as 1916 the classic documentary The Battle of the Somme was made; which was used as a tool at the service of governments and their nationalist or patriotic propaganda services (Guadalcanal Diary, 1943 or Back to Bataan, 1945), but also in a form of criticism from pacifism (All Quiet on the Front, by Lewis Milestone, 1930) or in an epic branch of historical cinema (Napoleon, by Abel Gance, 1927, and Waterloo, 1970, by Sergei Bondarchuk), or epic and heroic adventures (Objective Burma, 1945, by Raoul Walsh).

Already in the Spanish civil war, both sides used artists for communication work or to reinforce the morale of combatants and civilians, but it was the rebel side, the one that, thanks to the strongest German influence, opted for celluloid as a channel for the distribution of their doctrines.

During World War II, the belligerent countries continued to use the big screen as a way to transmit to their troops and inhabitants the evolution of the campaign and awareness of the needs for victory in the conflict. These messages, generally in the form of newscasts, took a qualitative leap in the US, where it was decided to use the enormous potential offered by Hollywood, as a gigantic advertising agency. However, honest films were also made where the war was shown with dramatic verismo, in which a wounded veteran of World War I stood out as William Wellman, author of ensemble films such as The story of G. I. Joe / We Are Human Beings Too (1945) and Battleground / Fire in the Snow (1949). The later Battle Cry (1955) by Lewis Milestone and When the Storks Fly by (1957) by Mikhail Kalatózov are also of this genre.

British troops moving forward The Battle of Somme (1916)

At this time, numerous actors and directors contributed to the war effort, doing their regular jobs, whether it was cheering on the troops or making documentaries or movies that served to boost American morale. The type of cinema made at that time is loaded (with propaganda content) and the films tend to show the heroic sacrifice of the US military and its allies in standing up to the evil axis powers, enemies of peace, the democracy and freedom.

After the war, the war genre loses its force; critical visions of the war are not supported, and in some cases, such as Paths of Glory (1957), by Stanley Kubrick, with a very marked anti-militarist charge, its release was prohibited for more than twenty years in highly militarized countries such as France or Spain. Another major reason for the loss of relevance was market restrictions (Johnny got his gun, 1971, by Dalton Trumbo, perhaps the toughest film ever shot about the consequences of war on an individual). Also antimilitarist is King & Country (1964), a film by British director Joseph Losey with a theme very similar to Paths of Glory. But in the 1960s, a series of major productions that recreated the great battles of the war (for example, The Longest Day, 1962), about the Normandy landings, dominate the scene, and revitalize this type of cinema The films of this era no longer place so much emphasis on sacrifice, although they do continue to show us their protagonists as heroes convinced of the goodness of their beliefs and sure that they are doing the right thing to improve the world.

Once again, due to the rise of pacifism and the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, but also due to censorship, which made it impossible to treat this war except in an elliptical way (for example, in MASH (1970), by Robert Altman, set in the Korean War...), the war genre declined, and it was not until the 1980s that it resurfaced, at first with films closer to the adventure in which the American hero wins in the screen as he couldn't in the jungle. This is the case of Los perros de la guerra (1980), by John Irvin, about an unprecedented war theme in cinema: the use of mercenary troops.

John Wayne in The Longest Day1962

In the middle of that decade and already in the 90s, a new trend emerged, leaving conflict to one side, which became the stage and focused on the soldier as a person, who has feelings and fears, as well numerous moral doubts about the correctness of the actions he is forced to carry out (Apocalypse Now (1979), by Francis Ford Coppola; The Big Red One (1980), by Samuel Fuller; Das Boot (1981) by Wolfgang Petersen; Gallipoli (1981) by Peter Weir; Red Dawn (1984) by John Milius; Oliver Stone's Platoon (1986), Joseph Vilsmaier's Stalingrad (1993), Schindler's List (1993) and Saving Private Ryan (1998), by Steven Spielberg; The Patriot (2000), by Roland Emmerich; Harrison's Flowers (2000), by Elie Chouraqui; Black Hawk Down (2001), by Ridley Scott; The Pianist (2002), by Roman Polanski; Der Untergang (2004), by Oliver Hirschbiegel, The Flowers of War (2011) by Zhang Yimou; Red Dawn (2012) by Dan Bradley; Dunkirk (2017) by Christopher Nolan; 1917 (2019) by Sam Mendes and All Quiet Ahead (2022) by Edward Berger). In this new type of film, war and its consequences are observed with much greater cruelty than in its predecessors, who knows if with the intention of instructing the viewer about the need for armed conflicts to remain only in the cinema and history books..

Subgenres

War films have several subgenres:

1. The War Documentary (Shoah1985)
2. The propagandistic filmFace to Face with Communism1951)
3. The historical drama (The Longest Day1962; 300, 2006, by Zack Snyder)
4. Epic biography (Epical biography)Lawrence of Arabia1962; Patton1970)
5. The romance in times of war (The English patient1996)
6. The submarine film (Das BootWolfgang Petersen, 1981)
7. The prisoner of war (The great evasion1963, by John Sturges; Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence1983, by Nagisa ⋅shima; The bridge over the Kwai River1957 of David Lean
8. The warlike comedy (Underground / Podzemlje1995 by Emir Kusturica; Life is beautifulof Roberto Benigni, 1997
9. The cinema of wartime animation (The tomb of the fireflies1988; Vals with Bashir2008)
10. Antimilitarist or pacifist cinemaNo novelty on the front1930 by Lewis Milestone; Full Metal Jacket1986, Stanley Kubrick
11. The cinema of war correspondents (The Year of Living Dangerously1982 by Peter Weir; Under Fire1983 by Roger Spottiswoode; The Grites of Silenceof Roland Joffé, 1984; Salvador1986 by Oliver Stone; A Private War, 2018 Matthew Heineman.