War Movies

[Oligo]

I have seen a lot of war movies made in different countries and I must ask: What's with the cheesy patriotic ethos that's filling all Hollywood war movies nowadays?

I mean I have seen finnish war movies and those really don't have any flag waving at all. The enemy (russians) are pictured as humans also and the characters mainly fight just to remain alive and to keep their buddies alive. So it is in war, I'd imagine, the flag waving is done mostly by civvies back home. At least so my grandfathers (both veterans) told me.

German war movies are just the same. Russian (post soviet) war movies and Vietnam-era Hollywood movies also seem to concentrate on the buddy-aspect of warfare, but also tell about the inhumanizing effect war has on people and about the lameness and ridiculousness of the reasons behind wars.

Soviet war movies are... well... let's just say filled with praise towards dying for the cause. Blah. Typical propaganda. Anyway, after seeing Saving Private Ryan, I can only say: WTF? I mean is the lesson of the movie: If you don't shoot all evil germans in sight, the one you let go (the machinegunner) will turn out to be some SS killer and slaughters all your buddies? The germans are also pictured as some Star Wars stormtroopers, faceless, evil. I also just despise all the flag waving in the movie. I mean really, the only ocassion you need to show a flag in war movies is when they cover up coffins with it.

I bet even typical front line U.S. soldiers in WWII just wanted to make it and their buddies to make it. I bet the flag waving was done by the REMFs, so why show this crap in a movie? Why change the concept that worked so well in the Vietnam-era movies?

[Longinius]

Because the audience loves it. Hollywood style pictures are mainly directed to the American audience. Americans are by nature (most of them) very patriotic and proud of their nation, its flag and the people. Especially those people that fight to preserve these things they love so much. That is why you see it in Hollywood movies.

The reason a Finnish war movie does not have these components is not that people in Finland are less proud of their heritage, nor are they less patriotic. It is simply not a part of their cultural heritage. They are not a nation of mixed cultures and people, they don't need flags or speeches to motivate or unite. They are allready united as a people.

[Oligo]

Oh crap. You're probably right. It must be because of their precious patriotism and nationalism. It's kind of scary, since patriotism and nationalism were the key ingredients to make WWII happen. It is very sad that the underlying message of the modern hollywood war movie is exactly the same as that presented by the soviet war movie. ***

And now with the terror issue... Sheesh, the wounded giant is flailing out.

I guess I have to stick to non-U.S. movies for my war entertainment. Too bad, since the Hollywood can stick so much dough to those productions it makes them visually spectacular.

[Hilandor]

indeed i also heard a film reviewer mention that after the sept 11 attacks, America have started to pump out war films so as to gain the "feel good" factor again with its citizens.

It shows the power of television and film.

[Oligo]

Argh. I can see the flood of films filled with True American Heroes ™ flooding the box office. And I used to like going to the movies. Now how can I get to a different planet?

[Pete]

lol

can you guys even imagine a russian, finnish, german or english (well..skip the english, they MIGHT do it) rambo...

a huge muscular german SS soldier running around at the frontline shooting arrows at the ruskies...

a russian built as a bear running around and strangling his nazi-foes to death....

a finnish angry looking guy runs around in enemy trenches poking his oversized knife into the commies...


and all that with patriotic music and a occasional slow motion clip of a flag waving in dramatic scenery..




hollywood should not be allowed to make warmovies, they simply cant resist making them overly patriotic....pearl harbour??.japanese were made to be "incompetent" in it, the japanese were shown as evil butchering fleeing civilians in pearl harbour...and when americans bombed tokyo you hear "only military targets, avoid damaging civilians" bs...

in real life, some 60 or so civilians died in pearl harbour...but in tokyo, hundreds of thousands in one raid alone...........



its sickening to watch american movies sometimes.



(only hollywood-flaming)

[R. Gerschwarzenge]

</span><table border="0" align="center" width="95%" cellpadding="3" cellspacing="1"><tr><td>Quote (Pete @ Jan. 21 2002,15:28)</td></tr><tr><td id="QUOTE">can you guys even imagine a russian, finnish, german or english (well..skip the english, they MIGHT do it) rambo...

a huge muscular german SS soldier running around at the frontline shooting arrows at the ruskies...

a russian built as a bear running around and strangling his nazi-foes to death....

a finnish angry looking guy runs around in enemy trenches poking his oversized knife into the commies...


and all that with patriotic music and a occasional slow motion clip of a flag waving in dramatic scenery..[/QUOTE]<span id='postcolor'>
A movie like that would be the B-movie of the century.

[Oligo]

I actually saw a soviet rambo-movie once. It was about a squad of speznaz wasting some CIA-supported guerrillas. It had a lot of soviet hymns in it for propaganda purposes, so it was quite a pain to watch. Funnily though, it didn&#39;t have a typical hollywood ending, because the leader of the squad got shot by one of the guerrillas. The final scene depicts the rest of the squad taking the news to the father of the squad leader. Coolly, the squad members don&#39;t even say anything, but the father begins crying, because he knows that they cannot be bringing any good news...

I guess the ending sort of vindicated that film.

[KingBeast]

Doesnt Dolf Lundgren (think thats his name) play a lot of those roles pete? Im sure ive seen him as a big muscular german or as a big muscular russian.
The films werent of the highest quality so i cant say as to whether they were hollywood or not though.

[Fenix83]

Lungren played only on pro-american (anti-commie) films.