War movie

File:Shooting of a scene from A bridge too far.jpg

Shooting of a scene of the movie A bridge too far. The movie shows how Allied troops fail at landing in the Netherlands, at Operation Market Garden, in 1944.

File:Wilhelminabrug Deventer.jpg

The bridge over the Ijssel in Deventer was used for the movie

File:All Quiet on the Western Front (1930 film) poster.jpg

Poster for the movie All Quiet on the Western Front, of 1930. This is an anti-war-movie.

A war movie is a genre of movie where a war or an armed conflict plays an important part in the movie. In most of the scenes, the actors, will play in a scenario, which is affected by war. War movies usually show modern wars; unlike other genres, which may show older conflicts. The first war movie was Sea Fighting in Greece, by Georges Meliès, of 1897. It is set in the Greco-Turkish War (1897). Documentaries about wars are not war movies.

War movies were often used to show how terrible war really is, and that peace is a better option. Therse are sometimes called anti-war-movies.

War movies have the following characteristics:

• The mix fictional and non-fictional elements (for example, a fictionnal story, in a real war). Even though everyone knows, that this story did not happen, a very similar one could have happened. Very often, the viewer knows what the parties in the war were, and how the war ended.
• The place where the movie takes place, and the kinds of weapons used have a big influence on the movie.
• There are two options: either there is one protagonist, who needs to go through some development, and prove himself; or there is a gorup of people, who need to find common traits and work together to be successful.

Usually, a part of the audience will idealize soldiers, and war. Very often, visual effects (stunts, explosions, etc) will be madde to look very realistic. This can make it difficult, keep a critical distance.

Examples

Successful war movies include:

• The Birth of A nation (David Griffith, 1915, American Civil War)
• All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930, First World War)
• For Whom the Bell Tolls (Sam Wood, 1943, Spanish Civil War)
• Paths to Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957, First World War)
• Die Brücke (Bernhard Wicki, 1959, Second World War)
• The Longest Day (Ken Ananika / Adrew Marton /Bernhard Wicki/Erich Maria Remarque, 1962, Second World War)- last War movier shot in black and white
• MASH (RIbert Aktmanm 1970, Korean war)
• The Deer Hunter (Michael Camino, 1978, Vietnam War)
• Apocalypse Now(Francis Ford Copola, 1979, Vietnam war)
• Das Boot (Wolfgang Petersen, 1981, Second World War)
• Platoon(Oliver Stone, 1986, Vietnam War)
• Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987, Vietnam War)
• Born on the Fourth of July( Oliver Stone, 1989, Vietnam war)
• Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998, Second World War)
• No Man’s Land (Danis Tanović, 2001, Balkan conflict)
• Black Hawk Down( Ridley Scott, 2001, Battle for Mogadishu in the Somali Civil War)
• Brotherhood (Kang Je-gyu, 2004, Korean war)
• Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima (Clint EastWood, 206,Second World War)
• American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014, Third Gulf War)
• Dunkirk (Christopher Nolan, 2017, Battle and evacuation of Dunkirk, Second World War)
• They Shall Not Grow Old (Peter Jackson, 2018, First World War)
• 1917 (Sam Mendes, 2019, First World War)