WAR Genre
By: Vivek Banapur, Janssen Pineda, Kevin Chong, Chris Chao, Edward Chang, and Paul Ndwula. 
War Sub-Genres
•	Action Combat		
•	Aerial Combat, Aviation
•	Anti-War 
•	Civil War
•	Historical 
•	Korean
•	Military 
•	War Comedy
Intro-What is a war film?
•	Film producer, writer, director, and World War II veteran Samuel Fuller, appearing as himself in Pierrot le fou (1965), declares that “film is like a battleground; love, hate, action, violence, death…in a word, emotion.”
•	A war film is a motion picture dealing with war either as the major action of the film or the background to the film’s action.  Though the general war films deal with combat and the preparation for fighting, the genre also delves into other situations like prisoner-of-war stories, spy adventures, and struggles in occupied countries.  

•	War films have been part of the cinema from early days of silent film, when the first studios pretended to shoot actual battles in real wars but actually staged them on the fields of New Jersey or the rooftops of NYC.  
•	The first war film to be documented was a 90-second propagandist effort - the Vitagraph Company's fictitious Tearing Down the Spanish Flag (1898), produced in the year of the Spanish-American War. It portrayed a faked, reconstructed version of the seizure of a Spanish government installation in Havana by U.S. Army troops, the removal of the foreign flag, and its replacement by the Stars and Stripes.

•	Early filmmakers steered away from making war pictures because of their enormous cost for extras - uniformed and equipped in massive battle sequences.  
•	 Anti-war films manipulated isolationist sentiment to keep America out of World War I.  
•	Woodrow Wilson, was elected based on the slogan, “He Kept Us Out of War,” asked Congress to declare war on Germany, prompting a stream of prowar films and terminating isolationist filmmaking activities. 
•	The Prowar feeling was so prominent that one producer, Robery Goldstein, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for making an anti-British film. 
•	 Hollywood producers did not recognize the box-office potential of propagandist war and anti-war films until the success of D. W. Griffith's influential Civil War epic, The Birth Of A Nation (1915), focusing on the effects of the war on two families- the southern Camerons and  the Northern Stonemans.  The film included semi-documentary, panoramic battle scenes and other historical events during the Civil War era. 

•	After World War I, Hollywood reverted to the pacifist neutrality during peacetime.
•	World War II brought forth in the film industry a multitude of anti-German and anti-Japanese war films. A significant number of films during the war dealt with life in occupied countries, notably This Land is Mine (1943), which takes place in France.  
•	The Korean War was too far away, too small, and too little-understood to produce many significant war films at that time, though it was responsible for an exciting yet thoughtful film about that struggle and war in general.  
•	But war at this point could be as much a source of comedy as tragedy as evidenced by Billy Wilder’s  World War II prisoner of war romp, Stalag 17 (1953).

•	The years after these wars produced the distance necessary to eschew nationalism and condemn war in general. Especially in light of the Cold War and the apparent madness of both world forces. The result of such attitudes were three classic antiwar films, like Dr. Strangelove or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. War was still a good subject for the spectacle despite the anti-war sentiment being strong.
•	The unpopularity of the Vietnam War did not hamper films such as The Dirty Dozen from having great success as long as they had nothing to do with the war in which US was currently engaged in.  
•	The Vietnam  War and its impact on this country had to be confronted when the conflict was finished.
Common War Themes
•	Heroism- It is hard to imagine the feeling of having to perform while under enemy fire knowing that your life may end at any moment. When duty calls, however, some are able to step up to the challenge and lay everything on the line.  Prominent heroic acts in war movies are too numerous to mention, but in Tropic Thunder it is evident when the squad saves Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller).  
Underdog
•	The underdog. The role of the underdog is a common war movie theme, just as it is in many dramas. In “Saving Private Ryan,” for example, the particular beaches depicted in the movie were some of the best defensives in real life, making the landing seem against all odds, even though in general the invasion was swift and successful. Throughout the movie the men face and overcome dangerous obstacles, seemingly outmanned and outgunned.
Cowardice
•	Cowardice is a common war movie theme to show men turning tail when the going gets tough. Cowards are often either portrayed as a member of the opposing force or showing weakness and “cracking.” A notable example is from “Saving Private Ryan” when Upham, hearing his fellow soldier losing a fight in an empty building, can’t bring himself to enter the situation and shoot the attacker.
Brutality of War
•	War is brutal and vicious, a common war movie theme. In “Platoon,” Michael J. Fox’s character refuses to take part in the gang rape of an innocent Vietnamese girl by his squadron, which becomes a central point in the movie.  
Race and Ethnicity
•	American identity was at risk in World War II, and it was the particular virtues of that identity, demographic transition.  
•	Combat films celebrate teamwork and this group is shown to consist of various ethnicities.  
•	By working together, they win the war, but history shows that blacks were segregated in World War I and in the Civil War. 
•	The racial tension was suppressed and this would have undermine the equality for which America was fighting for.
Femininity 
•	Women pose a variety of threats to men in war films. 
•	When women enter the male world, they are often shared objects of desire between two of more soldiers, who compete with one another. (Full Metal Jacket) 
  
Masculinity
•	In every war film, masculinity is put in a crisis, the toughness of a hero becomes an issue critical to both his survival and that of his fellow soldiers.  Drill sergeants in Marine boot camps repeatedly refer to young recruits as “ladies.” 
•	In Full Metal Jacket, boot camp becomes a course of instruction in masculinity, including a series of exercises in which men are forced to train while holding on to their own genitals. 
Iconography
•	Uniform
•	Guns
•	Fires/Explosions
•	Platoon
•	Battlefields

Plot Structure
•	The narrative structure has conflict break out within a group itself, in which the objective is questioned, leadership is questioned, and the war itself is often questioned. 
•	As the group advances, they encounter the enemy and certain members die. A final climactic battle-often a last stand, referred to as an "Alamo" or "A Little Big Horn"-takes place, which reveals the film's overall purpose.
•	The hero, who has usually had the objective forced on him, has to make a series of difficult (and unpopular) decisions. He sometimes survives (although most of his men don't), and he sometimes dies. 
Propaganda film
•	They used films as propaganda to show a message to the audience.
•	An example of this would be the film The Birth of a Nation, which set the stage for the future war films.
•	Shows the audience a glimpse of what is going on.
Hay’s Code
•	The Hay’s Code didn’t allow “intense violence” to be shown in movies.
•	With the removal of the Hay’s Code, War films were allowed to show the audience a better interpretation of what actually happened.
Top Actors in War Genre
Top Directors
1960’s Influences
•	Stanley H. Durwood
•	Father of the ‘multiplex’ movie theater in 1963
•	mall multiplex, two side-by-side theaters with 700 seats (Ward Parkway Center in Kansas City).
•	1963 four-plex
•	1969 six-plex with automated projection booths.
•	Helped AMC Entertainment the 3rd largest movie theater company in the nation.

•	Events that affected the film industry
•	1962 - Death of Marilyn Monroe
•	One of the major actresses
•	1963 - President John F. Kennedy's assassination
•	Was caught on video
•	1965 - Miniskirt made first appearance
•	Affected the general wardrobe
•	1969 - "Sesame Street" debuted on TV
•	Popular television show
Economical
•	1963 were the worst decade for the U.S. film industry.
•	(121 feature release)
•	1964  - 361 foreign releases in U.S. vs. 141 U.S. releases.
•	Movies came from abroad
•	Cheaper to make films abroad.
•	Ex. Britain
•	Studio take-overs 
•	Insecurities and financial difficulties
•	Taken in by multi-national companies

Technological
•	1962 - First TV broadcasts in color
•	It was popular and stole the audience of films
•	1959 - Barbie Doll
•	It set the ideal look. Influenced the upcoming actresses.
•	1969 - First Man on the Moon with Apollo 11 space flight
•	It widened the horizon. Encouraged more out of the box film plots.

James bond films
•	Made in Britain
•	It was a secret agent/spy adventure film
•	Highly profitable and popular film series.
•	Encouraged others to follow in their footstep.

•	Dr. No (1962), 
•	From Russia With Love (1963), 
•	Goldfinger (1964), 
•	Thunderball (1965), 
•	You Only Live Twice (1967), 
•	On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969),

Imitators
•	People wanted in on the success. Some examples-
•	The Silencers (1966)
•	Murderer's Row (1966)
•	The Ambushers (1967)
•	The Wrecking Crew (1969)
•	Our Man Flint (1966)
•	In Like Flint (1967)

Literary based films
•	Used literary works and history books for films.
•	Bought film rights for novels and literary works.
•	Ex. The Fall of the House of Usher (1960), The Pit and the Pendulum (1961), The Premature Burial (1962), Tales of Terror (1962), The Raven (1963), The Haunted Palace (1963), The Masque of the Red Death (1964), The Tomb of Ligeia (1964), A Raisin in the Sun (1961), To Kill a Mocking bird (1962), Romeo and Juliet (1968), Othello (1965), Chimes at Midnight (1966)
Sexploitation
•	Russ Meyer (known as the “King of the Nudies”)
•	-He was a soft-porn director
•	-Responsible for one of the first X-rated movie
•	Faster Pussycat! Kill! Kill! (1962) 
•	Vixen (1968)
•	Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970)

•	Some characteristics of it were:
•	Semi pornographic
•	Skin flicks
•	Descriptive titles
•	Featured big breasted woman
Top Directors of the 1960’s