ENGL 1100 003 War Movie Since You Went Away (1944)

Changsheng Zhang
Auburn University
ENGL -1100 – 003
Katherine Brewer
29 October 2017
War movies
Introduction
The generic definition of war films has always been met with problems, and in most cases, movies that are classified as ‘war films’ are not often set in combat. For instance, Since You Went Away (1944) is a story of the American home front that occurred in 1944 (Film Reference). While this movie is classified as war film, there are no fighting using conventional weapons, but fighting with the everyday battles of morale for individuals whose lives are affected indirectly. War Horse is a war film, but Spielberg, the director claims that there is nothing to do with war in the movie (Heller). A thorough classification of war films is required in order to identify such films and limit access to unsuitable audiences. War films have had significant negative impacts in the society and should be kept inaccessible to vulnerable populations. This paper provides an analysis of the effects of war movies in the society and explains how the perception of such films needs to change in order to encourage the audience to think differently to address the issue of violence and stereotyping.
According to Klassen analysis of American sniper (2014), which was directed by Clint Eastwood, the life of Navy Seal Chris Kyle is dogged by two contradictions. One of them being his heroic deeds of having killed 160 men as a sniper, which made him be credited in the US military history as a patriotic citizen and a selfless hero. On the other hand, this movie had critics who were against the US invasion of Iraq and the portrayal of Iraqis as savages and the US military as heroes. For the movie lovers, the whole idea of controversy is what made the movie successful though the war on Iraq was branded as aggressive patriotism. So much is left to be desired when analyzing war movies especially the moral concerns of why there should be a war. Much is not considered in the war against terrorism, which prompted the decision of the US to invade Iraq. A classic example is that of one the perpetrators of the 7th August, 1998 of embassies in Nairobi Kenya and in Tanzania. The culprits being Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, Emir of al-Qaeda based in Iraq. Kyle had to make tough choices between saving more American lives as compared to his family’s well-being.
Being a movie therefore, the American Sniper was meant to be a tribute to one man who fought selflessly and yet he had critics on the side-lines as they enjoyed their safety in irony. Sniper brings out the nature of some men who hailed in Iraq, but were not human based on how they mistreated/killed children to discourage other Iraqis from cooperating with the Americans. Such a man was known to many as “the butcher” who made it sound credible for Kyle to make his scathing attack on the evil men in Iraq. On the contrary, the same people who give Kyle food and shelter are the same people who keep guns and other ammunitions for the militants fighting against America. With this in mind, anybody watching the movie fails to see anything good in that country. The author clearly indicates the kind of life the veterans go through during warfare. The screenwriter of sniper had more t...