Contextualization Of The War Genre In The History Of Hollywood

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Contextualization of the war genre in the history of Hollywood

Introduction

The war gender is one to which the films and series that focus their history in wars, usually taking as a central point the battle between two nations. But they do not focus on any type of wars, but on those that occurred in the twentieth century, because this genre is delimited by its historical coordinates. If they treat previous conflicts they are usually categorized as historical cinema or, simply, adventures, and if they treat imaginary wars, they will be qualified as science fiction movies.

Developing

Starting from this point we can analyze the war journey in the history of Hollywood as follows:

The war and its consequences have always been subject to the interest of filmmakers, either to make their films propaganda the powers involved in world conflicts quickly warned the capacity of cinema as an ideal means for the spread of messages, and used itAs a diffuser source of ideas and a weapon of psychological manipulation, or quite the opposite, so that they transmit an antibelicist message by reflecting the viewer to raise awareness about destruction, in every way, which entails a war.

If we go back to the beginning of the cinema, when this was still silent, we found movies that addressed these warlike themes as David W did. Griffith with the controversy the birth of a nation, which tells the most important events of the creation of the United States of America, as a beginner, since he had to experiment with new techniques. In the 20s there were already better finishes that constituted the basis of the genre, such as weapons on the shoulder, by Charles Chaplin, where an American soldier of the 1st World War defends the front with his companions, or the great parade, of KingVidor, from which they highlight the aesthetics and the way of dealing with the post -war issue with a pacifist tone showing its consequences.

When the sound cinema arises, in the 30s, two great films that marked the cinema appear: without news on the front, by Lewis Milestone, mythical antibahic film that reflects the feelings, sensations and disappointments of a group of young students sent to the frontIn World War I (adaptation of the homonymous novel by German writer Erich María Remarque), and goodbye to arms, by Frank Borzage, which is articulated around the relationship between an American soldier and a nurse from England. Both located their history in World War I, a scenario that would become the location par excellence of the films of this era.

This first block of films can be included in a first division within the war genre, from 1915 to 1933. It is characteristic of these films a strongly pacifist message due to the great disorder that meant the entire event of World War I.

The second division within this genre would be formed by those films produced in 1945 to 1968, with a message of patriotic encouragement due to the satisfaction of having won the Second World War and having defeated Nazism. In fact, the American war filmography of World War II established the fundamental model of the war genre.

During this time the American war cinema was the one that achieved a more effective manipulation, in propaganda terms, probably because they had an impressive availability of economic means and film production thanks to the studies that had been consolidated in the era prior to the Second Warworld. This was also facilitated by the advantage that North America had over the other combatant powers, since its territory was many kilometers from the war zones, safe from direct attacks, with exception, of course, of the perpetrated by theJapanese fleet against Pearl Harbor base. 

This advantage clearly favored the production of films without setbacks or limitations, and Hollywood did not miss it. Thus, he made an idealized soldier model as if he were a hero to encourage youngof the seven seas, by Edward Ludwig, among many others. Almost all the big stars joined the cause, being John Wayne, Humphrey Bogart and Errol Flynn the most committed to such a task.

conclusion

They adapted the history and war acts conveniently, and sometimes they even falsified them to raise patriotism to the need for the American population to join the struggle. From here comes the image of the American soldier mentioned above: brave, fair, romantic, impeccable, honest, respectful, heroic, selfless, athletic and physically graceful. On the contrary, the enemy was presented as a vile and treacherous being, never worthy of compassion or mercy. In this way, propaganda was justified: self-justifying its own actions in response to the attack of the enemy, which is demonized.

Some of the films used for this purpose were the following: focused on Nazi ideology we found the children of Hitler, by Edward Dmytryk, Hitler’s Madman, by Douglas Sirk and The Hitler Gang, by John Farrow, which presented Nazis officers as Nazis asbeings devoid of morals and feelings. On the other hand, the Japanese enemy was portrayed so that his non -European ethnicity added to the betrayal of the attack on Pearl Harbor made the existing racist feelings increase. In films such as Guadal Canal, from Lewis Seiler or return to Bataan, by Edward Dmytryk, Japanese soldiers were shown as beasts, torturers, treacherous and physically unattractive 

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