War on the silver screen : shaping America's perception of history PDF
Preview War on the silver screen : shaping America's perception of history
War on the Silver Screen This page intentionally left blank War on the Silver Screen Shaping America’s Perception of History glen jeansonne and david luhrssen Potomac Books | An imprint of the University of Nebraska Press © 2014 by Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska Acknowledgments for the use of copyrighted material appear on page vii, which constitutes an extension of the copyright page. All rights reserved. Potomac Books is an imprint of the University of Nebraska Press. Manufactured in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Jeansonne, Glen, 1946– War on the silver screen: shaping America’s perception of history / Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen. pages cm Includes bibliographical references. isbn 978-1-61234-641-0 (pbk.: alk. paper) isbn 978-1-61234-642-7 (pdf) 1. War films—United States—History and criticism. 2. History in motion pictures. I. Luhrssen, David. II. Title. pn1995.9.w3j35 2014 791.43'6581—dc23 2014025858 Set in Garamond Premier by Renni Johnson. Designed by N. Putens. Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction ix 1.World War I (1914–1918) 1 All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) Paths of Glory (1957) Lawrence of Arabia (1962) Gallipoli (1981) 2.World War II (1939–1945) 28 Casablanca (1942) Saboteur (1942) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) Twelve O’Clock High (1949) Patton (1970) Schindler’s List (1993) Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) 3.The Cold War (1947–1991), including the Korean War (1950–1953) and the Vietnam War (1955–1975) 82 The Manchurian Candidate (1962) From Russia with Love (1963) Dr. Strangelove, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964) and Fail-Safe (1964) Apocalypse Now (1979) Charlie Wilson’s War (2007) 4.The War on Terror (2001–) 143 United 93 (2006) The Hurt Locker (2008) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012) Notes 165 Bibliography 179 Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge Elizabeth Demmers, our original editor at Potomac Books, for believing in the project. Paul McCo- mas, Mary Manion, and Steve Spice shared movies and ideas during the writing of the book. John Jahn was tireless with editorial as well as copyediting suggestions. Earlier versions of the essays on Charlie Wilson’s War,United 93, and Zero Dark Thirty originally appeared in Milwaukee’s weekly newspaper the Shepherd Express and are used with permission. vii This page intentionally left blank Introduction Movies about wars have done more to stamp the wars’ images in the American psyche than the reality of those wars themselves. Who can ponder the moral consequences of neutrality in the face of Nazism without remembering Casablanca, the heroism of bomber crews with- out Twelve O’Clock High, or the morass of Vietnam without Apocalypse Now? This book examines the often indelible impressions left by the fic- tional stories told on film. For better or worse the movies have shaped the American imagination more profoundly than the printed word. Since 1917 the United States has almost constantly been at war or anxious over the prospect of war. Wars, past and present, have seldom been far from the minds of Americans, and movies have often helped define the public’s attitudes toward them. Some of these wars have seemed straightforward, with clear objectives such as “making the world safe for democracy,” ridding the world of dictators, or repelling imminent threats to the homeland. Some have been more muddled and have provoked mixed emotions because their goals were ambigu- ous and their resolutions less definitive. For nearly a half-century the United States fought a Cold War, punctuated intermittently by the eruption of “limited” hot wars in Vietnam and Korea. The nation fought proxy wars, propaganda wars, and a war on terror. Movies have registered the public’s varied feelings about these conflicts and have defined the ways we remember them. All Quiet on the Western Front captured the futility with which many Ameri- cans regarded World War I, and most films on the subject since then ix
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