It is the basis for exploring a series of existing problems. Why did we fight? Why do people join the army? What happens next? Is war just? Was it worth it in the end?
Apocalypse Now (1979)
The battle behind Francis Ford Coppola's surreal war movie is well documented: nightmarish years of filming; Star Martin Xin's heart attack and recovery; A giggling press corps sharpening knives for an epic turkey. Coppola will laugh to the end. Most of the words of modern war pictures come from this great war movie. This is an opera tragedy with Vietnam as the background, which is shaped by the roaring helicopter blades, Wagner explosion, purple smoke and Joseph Conrad's colonialist fantasy Heart of Darkness. Fans of such an important Godfather director in the 1970s know that this is his last fully realized work; The connoisseur of the war movie regarded it (rightly) as his second all-out masterpiece.
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
With the glorious road in 1957, Stanley Kubrick issued one of the most incisive anti war statements in the war movie. Obviously, the world has not received the news. So thirty years later, he decided to speak out for the imperialists behind him. Moving from World War I to Vietnam, Kubrick not only described the terror on the battlefield - he condemned the whole war machine itself. It is no accident that the first half of the war movie is set in basic training, which is more terrible than the subsequent explosion and firefight. Like the soldiers themselves, desensitization is the key. Once you gaze into the eyes of Vincent D'Onofrio's tortured Private Pyle, who has reached the time and space hole at the end, the more brutal atrocities in the militarized conflict seem like walking in tulips. Of course, until you are forced to see "enemies" in their eyes.
Army of Shadows (1969)
In 2006, the cold blue portrait painted by Jean Pierre Melville for the French resistance fighters was rediscovered in 2006. It was usually used to dig out the lost classics, which provided a good case of honor for the wanted criminals. The secret room beating and driving gun shooting triggered a film about the sacrifice of spies, which is mainly about dialogue. Melville's reputation before has always stayed on the cold and remote gangster photos, such as Le Sa moura ï (1967), but it is a revelation to see his canvas expand to the national political field. What was the reason why the film was initially ignored? The fashionable French critics thought it was too pro Gaulle to ignore. What happened around
Fires on the Plain (1959)
This straightforward description of the collapse of the Japanese imperial army in 1945 was initially given the green light by the great Darong Film Studio because people mistakenly thought it would be a war movie. And, to be fair, if you observe carefully, there is at least one actual combat scene. However, in general, director Kon Ichikawa faithfully put the former soldier Sh ō hei Ō Oka's novel portrays a broken soldier suffering from tuberculosis who trudges wearily in a hellish landscape. Critics at that time believed that it was a vision too dim to digest, but it later evolved into an anti war classic, full of bright humanity and dull wit. The Charlie Chaplin style lens of a pair of worn military boots sliding from one foot to the other, like any lens on the screen, is an amazing metaphor for the influence of war degradation.
MASH (1970)
Robert Altman's classic comedy is sugar coated: it appears with TV programs, boring laughter and Alan Alda. But to consider the real subversion of this war movie, you just need to compare it with another elephant war drama that was staged in the city in the same week of 1970: Barton tells about a misunderstood genius of slaughter, and the gloomy defense of bastards - charging. MASH has no battle scenes. It really ended with a climax and funny football match. Surprisingly, both films come from the same studio, 20th Century Fox. But by abandoning the traditional script of Kobayashi Radner and inspiring his ensemble performance, Altman designed a new on-site process, which will change American satire forever. This was the first real movie in the 1970s.
Empire of the Sun (1987)
Today, Christian Bell has become famous: he has been nominated for an Oscar for many times (and won the award with "The Fighter"), Batman, etc. But when he made his debut at the age of 12 in Steven Spielberg's surreal World War II Shanghai drama - 4000 other children were eliminated from the role - all his talents were there. His character Jim is obsessed with fighter planes and sees his detention camp as a playground. He was still unable to shake off his fear, and by the end of the war movie, he had lost his innocence.
Dunkirk (2017)
You may already know the result of the evacuation of Dunkirk, France, in May 1940, but the power of Christopher Nolan's painful dramatic re creation lies in its attempt to achieve real success, rather than making it feel like another war movie. Instead, there is a sense of unease that a strange event unfolds in an unknown way, and that the local people may have experienced it. Dunkirk is naturally awe inspiring and alienating.
