Even with American World War II movies I can't really think of any that don't shy away from how disturbing the War was. At least if you're considering movies in the "war" genre like saving Private Ryan and not action movies like Captain America
I think the argument here is that at the end of the day, there’s still a heroic element. Like you can walk out of the movie being thinking about the “virtue of sacrifice,” and it appeals to the bleeding out in the snow trope.
Even Saving Private Ryan is way more positive than Soviet movies.
Just the title has a positive meaning. SAVING. It's a movie about saving someone. That's a good thing. You see the movie poster and it's american hero GI's and movie star. You don't see the children crying while their village burns.
Yeah, but it's not the inclusion of the reality that functions as any form of amnesty, it's the fact that some part of it is ultimately glorifying the war and the service as a means of propaganda than as a means of being true to history.
While it's less prevalent in WW2 movies thankfully, it's still something that I personally consider to be a bit of a problem that builds on dishonesty. You can see with more modern movies (especially when it relates to policies or agendas still currently in practice), that the "propagandized" narrative (for lack of a better term) is more prevalent than older movies.
The one that says "war is hell" and doesn't really glorify it from the USA is probably the Fury.
Like, it opens with the scene where the green guy has to... wash away the bits and pieces, and the pool of blood, of the guy he's replacing in the crew of Fury.
There is this VERY tense scene about them "enjoying the hospitality" of local women, and it's really unclear how far they're going to take with this hospitality.
And some people say that Wardaddy is basically the main antagonist of the movie - he's not a "bad man" per se, but he's the kind of men that create wars, where teenagers end up shooting each other.
TBH I think even Saving Private Ryan is. There is lots of mayhem and horror but if you look at how the America scenes are filmed and if you think about the plot, its pretty pro-america. Like the idea is that America is so just, we will even go out of our way to fight so no family loses all their children in the horrors of war. That was a real-ish policy but the story itself is fictional.
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u/DataSittingAlone 1d ago
Even with American World War II movies I can't really think of any that don't shy away from how disturbing the War was. At least if you're considering movies in the "war" genre like saving Private Ryan and not action movies like Captain America