War Film: Uncovering the Tactical Mastery Behind Cinematic Battles

By Fouad Sabry

What is War Film

The film genre known as "war film" is primarily concerned with warfare, and it often focuses on naval, aviation, or land battles. The primary focus of the drama is on the combat sequences. The 20th century has been heavily identified with it throughout history. Because of the inescapable nature of battle sequences, the conclusion of war films frequently occurs with them. Combat, survival and escape, friendship between soldiers, sacrifice, the futility and inhumanity of warfare, the repercussions of war on society, and the moral and human dilemmas that are presented by war are some of the themes that are discussed in this book. In the world of war films, the most popular subjects are the Second World War and the American Civil War. War films are frequently classified according to their milieu, such as the Korean War instance. These tales could be of a fictional nature, a historical drama, or even a biographical nature. It has been pointed out by critics that there are parallels between the Western and the war film.

How you will benefit

(I) Insights, and validations about the following topics:

Chapter 1: War film

Chapter 2: Akira Kurosawa

Chapter 3: Documentary film

Chapter 4: Cinema of Japan

Chapter 5: Masaki Kobayashi

Chapter 6: Why We Fight

Chapter 7: Isoroku Yamamoto's sleeping giant quote

Chapter 8: Tora! Tora! Tora!

Chapter 9: The Battle of San Pietro

Chapter 10: Pearl Harbor (film)

(II) Answering the public top questions about war film.

Who this book is for

Professionals, undergraduate and graduate students, enthusiasts, hobbyists, and those who want to go beyond basic knowledge or information for any kind of War Film.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Billion Knowledgeable
• Release date: Jun 24, 2024

Book preview

Chapter 1: War film

The film genre known as war film is primarily concerned with warfare, and it often focuses on naval, aviation, or land battles. The primary focus of the drama is on the combat sequences. The 20th century has been heavily identified with it throughout history. Because of the inescapable nature of battle sequences, the conclusion of war films frequently occurs with them. Combat, survival and escape, friendship between soldiers, sacrifice, the futility and inhumanity of warfare, the repercussions of war on society, and the moral and human dilemmas that are presented by war are some of the themes that are discussed in this book. In the world of war films, the most popular subjects are the Second World War and the American Civil War. War films are frequently classified according to their milieu, such as the Korean War instance. These tales could be of a fictional nature, a historical drama, or even a biographical nature. It has been pointed out by critics that there are parallels between the Western and the war film.

Countries such as China, Indonesia, Japan, and Russia each have their own distinct traditions of war film. These films are centered on their respective revolutionary battles, but they take a variety of styles, ranging from historical drama and action to romantic comedies set during the conflict.

Anti-war, humor, propaganda, and documentary are all examples of subgenres that are not necessarily unique from one another. There are also subgenres of the war film that are set in specific theaters, such as the Western Desert of North Africa and the Pacific during the Second World War, Vietnam, or the Soviet–Afghan War. Additionally, there are films that are set in specific domains of war, such as the infantry, the air, the sea, submarines, or prisoner of war camps.

The term war film does not necessarily have a strict definition; for instance, the American Film Institute refers to films to grapple with the Great War without making any attempt to categorize these films.

Since war films are essentially those that are about war being waged in the 20th century, with fighting sequences being the dominant focus of the narrative, the film critic Stephen Neale says that the genre is, for the most part, well defined and uncontentious. However, Neale points out that films that were made during the time period before to the First World War were referred to as war films. These films were set during the American Civil War or the American Indian Wars of the 19th century.

Jeanine Basinger, a professional film historian, has stated that she started out with a preconceived notion of what the genre of war films would be, specifically that:

What I was aware of in advance was something that was probably common knowledge among all members of our culture regarding World War II battle films. I was aware that these films featured a hero, a group of individuals who were of different types, and a military purpose of some kind. They are fought against the established adversaries, on the ground, in the sea, or in the air, and they take place in the actual fighting zones that were used during World War II. They comprise a large number of recurring occurrences, such as mail call, all of which are visually presented with proper uniforms, equipment, and iconography of battle.

Furthermore, Basinger views Bataan to be a perfect example of the World War II combat film, which is a film in which a diverse and appeared to be unsuitable group of hastily assembled volunteers was able to fend off a much bigger force of the enemy by their bravery and tenacity..

This conflict, which was the most expensive war in the history of the United States in terms of the lives of its citizens, has been the subject of or the backdrop for a great number of films, documentaries, and miniseries. It was D.W. Griffith's silent film The Fugitive, which was released in 1910, that is considered to be one of the earliest films to use the Civil War as its subject.

It was during the Spanish–American War of 1898 that the first war pictures were produced. The burial of the victims in Maine, the throwing of a blanket over a new recruit, and soldiers washing dishes were some of the short actualities that were included in the documentary film clips. These non-combat films were supplemented by reenactments of battle, such as Theodore Roosevelt's Rough Riders in action against the Spanish, which were staged in the United States from time to time.

When the First World War was going on, There were a lot of movies made on life during the war.

There were discussions about prisoners of war, covert operations, Preparation training for the military.

Documentary films on the war were created by both the Central Powers and the Allies.

It is also possible that the films were utilized as propaganda in countries that were neutral, such as the United States.

A film that was shot on the Eastern Front by an official war photographer and sent to the Central Powers was one of these documentaries, Albert K.

1915's Dawson: The Battle and Fall of Przemysl was published, depicting the Siege of Przemyśl, an unfavorable outcome for the Austrians, involving the reenactment of occurrences with soldiers serving as extras.

Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell, two official cinematographers for the British government, merged documentary and propaganda in their film The Battle of the Somme, which was released in 1916. The film's goal was to provide the general people with an understanding of what it was like to fight in trenches. The film had a significant influence on the audience's emotions, and a significant portion of it was shot on location at the Western Front in France. During its six weeks of showing in Britain, it was seen by around twenty million people, earning it the title of one of the most successful films of all time according to the film critic Francine Stock.

Despite the fact that the Finnish Civil War of 1918, which was fought between Whites and Reds, continued to be a contentious issue in Finland one hundred years later, Directors from a variety of countries have demonstrated their interest in the Spanish Civil War. For Whom the Bell Tolls (1943), a film directed by Sam Wood and based on Ernest Hemingway's novel of the same name, depicts the destined love affair between an American, portrayed by Gary Cooper, and a partisan, played by Ingrid Bergman, amid the backdrop of the American Civil War. The 168-minute epic picture which included vistas filmed in Technicolor and an orchestral score that was described as beautiful was a hit with both audiences and critics alike.

During the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 to 1953, Samuel Fuller's film The Steel Helmet was produced in 1951. This picture, along with subsequent films such as The Bridges at Toko-Ri (1954) and Pork Chop Hill (1959), raised questions about the way in which the war was being fought, as noted by the reviewer Guy Westwell.

Known in Italian as La battaglia di Algeri, the dramatic work of Gillo Pontecorvo titled The Battle of Algiers; Arabic: معركة الجزائر; La Bataille d'Alger is spoken in French, 1936) depicted the events that took place during the Algerian War (1954–1956).

The film was a co-production between Italy and Algeria, and it was shot on location.

In the tradition of Italian neorealism, it was presented in black and white newsreel format, and presents there is violence on both sides in an impartial manner.

A number of accolades, including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival, were bestowed upon it.

Very few films on the Vietnam War that were released before to the late 1970s really featured genuine combat; Dino Mustafić's Remake (2003), written by Zlatko Topčić, compares and contrasts the coming-of-age experiences of a father who lived in Sarajevo during World War II and his son who lived through the Siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian War.

According to Topčić, Instances from his own life served as the inspiration for the story.

a film from 2014 titled American Sniper.

Restrepo, which was released in 2010, and Lone Survivor, which was released in 2013, are two examples of films that have depicted the war in Afghanistan after 2001.

Britain was the country that produced the first popular Allied war films during the Second World War. These films merged the functions of propaganda and documentary for the first time.

The Films Division of the Ministry of Information was responsible for the production of a number of television shows and movies, including The Lion Has Wings and Target for Tonight..

The British film industry began to combine documentary techniques with fictional stories in films like Noël Coward and David Lean's In Which We Serve (1942)—the most successful British film of the war years

There were many different ways that documentaries were produced in the United States of America. General Marshall commissioned Frank Capra to create the propaganda series Why We Fight; the Information-Education Division of the War Department began by producing training films for the United States Air Force and the United States Navy; the United States Army produced its own documentaries through the United States Signal Corps, including John Huston's The Battle of San Pietro.

A Soviet Union (Soviet), too, acknowledged the propagandist potential of motion pictures, as a means of drawing attention to both German victories and atrocities.

Ilya Kopalin's documentary Moscow Strikes Back (Russian: Разгром немецких войск под Москвой, (literally translated The rout of the German troops near Moscow ), was produced during the Battle of Moscow, which took place between October 1941 and January 1982.

In it, individuals were shown assisting in the defense of the city, Stalin's speech that inspired the Russian people to fight,