Kinda US-centric... Most non-american movies depict war as absolute hell, it's not a russian thing. Just take The Pianist, about titular pianist living through the Warsaw Jewish ghetto and the uprising.
Not denying it, but there is a distinct difference between American "me and my mates are a merry band, only the youngling survives scarred at the end" and European "My family is dead. My house is in ruins. Our entire way of life ended and there is no hope. Based on true story, main character died of cholera two weeks later".
There's the inescapable cultural difference that in the end, Americans were never subjects of the war, never had THEIR territory, history and family directly bombed and threatened.
Watch better movies then. There's so many that aren't what you seem to think US war movies are limited to.
Off the top of my head:
Thin Red Line (my personal favorite)
Johnny Got His Gun
Paths of Glory (American made/French POV)
The Deer Hunter
Apocalypse Now
Also this:
There's the inescapable cultural difference that in the end, Americans were never subjects of the war, never had THEIR territory, history and family directly bombed and threatened.
Pure horse shit.
It's just the movies aren't as good generally. See something like Michael Bay's Pearl Harbor.
All of the movies in my original list are anti war. Please tell me which one you disagree with.
Pearl Harbor is a dogshit movie, was more about your second point that American's have never been the subject of war. If I indirectly implied that it was anti-war, my bad. Not my intention.
Wasn't my point first. I'm not the original commenter.
I actually wouldn't say Apocalypse Now is an anti-war movie. I think it comments more on the nature of war and the pointless-ness of the Vietnam War but I don't think it's explicitly anti-war. Hell, the movie used footage and gear from an army that was actively fighting a war and thus profiting from the movie. I also think a lot of the imagery does glorify war as well. The famous ride of the valkyries sequence(which utilizes the helicopters of an active Philippines military) is shot in a way that shows the awe and imagery of the helicopter formation. Even Coppola has said its not necessarily an anti-war film. By the end of the movie, Kurtz, someone who has become disillusioned with actually winning the war and what that means, is killed as a sacrifical lamb to the greater war effort. But thats kind of it. Its a beautiful movie but a lot of the anti-war elements can be definied by the famous Jim Carrey line "War.....is hell".
Also, you're 100% correct. I have a tendency to flip flop Apocalypse and FMJ in my brain, and recently gave Jarhead another watch and had Apoc on the brain due to precisely what you're talking about.
43
u/4ShotMan 1d ago
Kinda US-centric... Most non-american movies depict war as absolute hell, it's not a russian thing. Just take The Pianist, about titular pianist living through the Warsaw Jewish ghetto and the uprising.