Anti-war films typically argue that war is futile, unjust, a loss for all involved, only serves to benefit few in society (usually anelite orruling class, or thestate), makes people do or support things they normally would not (such ashomicide ordiscrimination), is extremely costly both in money and lives, or is otherwise undesirable for those fighting it, the target audience, or everyone in general. To illustrate their point, anti-war films often present theeffects of war—such as destruction, suffering,war trauma,casualties,war crimes, war's impacton the environment oron children, or the excesses of war—in a negative manner. Though many anti-war films make this negative depiction explicit and clear for the audience to understand, some are more subtle in delivering their anti-war messaging (such as making the ostensibly good side as brutal as their enemies), or may useparody andblack comedy tosatirize wars and conflicts.
Within this category of anti-war films that choose to de-emphasize the actual battlefield conflicts of war, some films specifically focus on communicating pacifist ideologies by emphasizing war's devastating effects on innocent civilians and the lands in which war is waged.[1] This niche of anti-war films often utilizes visceral imagery that confronts viewers with the tragic realities of war's presence in beloved main characters' lives, such as by depicting main characters' homes being decimated by war bombs, main characters being forced to contend with the uncomfortable, off-putting presence of soldiers in their city, and characters dealing with the emotional toll of witnessing war's violence in their own life or the lives of their loved ones.[2] According to film researcher Lindsay Smith, by forcing viewers to see war through the lens of its devastation on beloved fictional characters, these anti-war films make it accessible for audiences--regardless of their knowledge or experience with war's effects in the real world--to empathize with war's victims since emphasizing the human costs of war can make its violence feel more real and personal.[2]
Anti-war films have sometimes been accused ofanti-Americanism by theAmerican right wing.[3] These accusations can be somewhat attributed to the fact that there are definitive examples of modern anti-war films that are specifically motivated by criticisms of American militarism in particular rather than the violence of war as a whole.[1] One such prominent example isHowl's Moving Castle, a Japanese anti-war film made by pacifist Hayao Miyazaki as a direct criticism of the Iraq War,[1] which was a war waged by US-led forces in Iraq as part of America's ongoing War on Terror in response to 9/11.[4] Miyazaki declared that he expected and intended forHowl's Moving Castle to fail with American audiences due to its direct critique of America's military actions in Iraq,[5] thus framing the film as seemingly un-American in its anti-war commentary.[2]
Several filmmakers and critics have been quoted as stating that "there is no such thing as an anti-war film",[3][6] first attributed toFrançois Truffaut. This school of criticism argues that cinema is inherently "an inadequate medium through which to convey the horrors of conflict" and that any such portrayal of combat and violence will always glorify warfare on some level, even if only through thedeath of the author.[3] Supposedly failed anti-war films in this regard includeFull Metal Jacket andSaving Private Ryan; The former was decried as "another goddamnrecruiting film" bySamuel Fuller, while the latter was criticized byToby Miller as legitimizing the United States as the military savior of the world.[3]
^Variety Staff (1 January 1948)."The Boy with Green Hair".Variety.Through this parable about the unconscious cruelty of people to what is different, and the need of tolerance, runs another theme, that of anti-war preachment.
^Scholz, Anne-Marie (1 April 2008). "The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) Revisited: Combat Cinema, American Culture and the German Past".German History.26 (2):219–250.doi:10.1093/gerhis/ghn004.ISSN0266-3554.
^Bergan, Ronald (20 November 2014)."Mike Nichols obituary".The Guardian. Retrieved14 January 2017.Nichols made the mistake of reshaping Joseph Heller's bitterly satirical novel of the second world war into an overly arty anti-war movie.
^Bradshaw, Peter (18 May 2004)."Fahrenheit 9/11: Cannes 2004 review".The Guardian.The Bushes and the Bin Ladens: passionate anti-war film is a tale of two families
^"War Movies: Fort Graveyard (1965)".Apple Podcasts.Kihachi Okamoto's Fort Graveyard (1965) is a curious war film. It is both a serious anti-war film and something of a comedic farce.
^Robinson, J. Dennis (2007)."Go Tell the Spartans is Vietnam Classic".SeacoastNH.com.Drawn from Ford's own experience as a war correspondent for The Nation, it has become the "overlooked anti-war classic" that kicked off a genre in January of 1978.
^Baumgarten, Marjorie; Kupecki, Josh; Davis, Steve; Monagle, Matthew; White, Danielle; Jones, Kimberley; Savlov, Marc; Whittaker, Richard (25 May 2018)."Chronicle Recommends: War Movies".The Austin Chronicle.In the pantheon of anti-war movies there's nothing quite as sublimely weird as this Vietnam-era take on mercenary World War II G.I. Joes slogging deep behind enemy lines in the hope of stealing a ton of Nazi gold.
^"Screening Kelly's Heroes".Museum of the Moving Image. 2017. Archived fromthe original on 6 December 2021. Retrieved17 January 2021.In this anti-war WWII caper, Clint Eastwood's titular tight-lipped ex-lieutenant and his merry band of misfits hear about Nazi gold stashed in a bank behind enemy lines in occupied France, and go AWOL to steal it.
^Baker, Robin (2020)."Damn the War! Maudite soit la guerre".British Film Institute.Made just before Europe exploded into chaos, this neglected classic of anti-war cinema is both deeply human and devastatingly prophetic.
^"German Poets and Musicians Come to UT March 26".The University of Tampa. 22 March 2012.He made his film debut in 1970 in the film o.k., a West German anti-war film directed by Michael Verhoeven.
^Levy, Emanuel (9 September 1996)."Pretty Village, Pretty Flame".Variety.Pretty Village, Pretty Flame is one of the most audacious antiwar statements ever committed to the bigscreen.
^Gardner, Lyn (20 March 2008)."Paul Scofield".The Guardian.Resisting other offers, he played a cameo in Peter Brook's anti Vietnam-war movie Tell Me Lies (1968)
^Ebert, Roger (4 November 1983)."Testament".Roger Ebert."Testament" may be the first movie in a long time that will make you cry. It made me cry. And seeing it again for the second time, knowing everything that would happen, anticipating each scene before it came, I was affected just as deeply....The film is about a suburban American family, and what happens to that family after a nuclear war.... And the last scene, in which she expresses such small optimism as is still possible, is one of the most powerful movie scenes I've ever seen.
^Edelstein, David (6 April 2003)."Film; One Film, Two Wars, 'Three Kings'".The New York Times.Three Kings is not the first anti-war movie in which opposing soldiers have recognized themselves in one another before pulling the trigger
^Schwarzbaum, Lisa (13 October 2000)."Movie Review: 'Tigerland'".Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved14 January 2017.And here's his best, most vigorous, least tarted-up work in years — an affecting, old-fashioned, antiwar story
^Carrozza, J.L. (25 November 2006)."Under the Flag of the Rising Sun (Review)".Toho Kingdom.Under the Flag of the Rising Sun is an absolutely superb and highly engrossing, haunting and powerful anti-war film
