Formal Film Study: World War 2 Films

   

World War 2 is considered the worst human led catastrophe that occurred in history. With over 60 million people killed from the war, there's no doubt how this devastating era has influenced the film industry since right after the war to even this day. There are literally countless of movies and films portraying the Second World War in some way within the past 70 years especially from the U.S. Recently, I've watched three American films of the World War 2 genre: Schindler's List, The Dirty Dozen, and Letters from Iwo Jima.

As a fan of war films, especially WW2 films, I've seen a wide range and variety of these movies from different time periods and different countries. The thing about WW2 films in particular though is that you can see the style and message change throughout the decades. After the war ended around the 60's to 80's, most of the WW2 films were interestingly pro-war. This was to basically add to American patriotism and celebrate America's victory and triumph over this global conflict. However, it wasn't really until the late 80's into the 90's when WW2 started to become depicted as a more sorrowful and mournful tragedy that shouldn't be celebrated at all but rather send the message of anti-war. In fact, I'd say that it was Steven Spielberg who actually started this anti-war message/style in his WW2 films starting with Schindler's List. And to this day, I feel that his influence on the genre has changed the way WW2 movies are made compared with the ones made 40 or 50 years ago.

Major John Reisman

The first film I would like to talk about is The Dirty Dozen. This movie was made in 1967 directed by Robert Aldrich and based on the novel with the same name. The movie is about 12 convicted felons sentenced to incarceration, labor, or death who are given the choice to join and train for a top-secret mission just days before the D-Day invasion in France. Major John Reisman (Lee Marvin) is assigned to be in charge of training these men and lead this dangerous mission into German occupied territory. Because this film was made in the 60's, it tended to be more pro-war and give a kind of "Go America" vibe. I could tell because there tended to be a lot more comedic relief and the acting was not nearly as serious as more modern war movies. The special effects were pretty basic as they used controlled explosions and standard props for their weaponry and military equipment. It was definitely good enough to depict a realistic WW2 setting.

Oskar Schindler

Moving on almost 30 years later is Schindler's List directed by Steven Spielberg. This 1993 piece depicts the very wealthy Oskar Schindler (Liam Neeson) who is a German business man of the Nazi party. However, unlike the other nazis, Schindler used his power, status, and money to protect Jews from being abused and killed by the camps and nazi officers. I'm sure most of you have heard of this movie and have heard good things about it. Well I'm not surprised. It won 7 academy awards including best picture, best director, and best score. This movie, in my opinion, marked the anti-war genre for WW2 movies and Spielberg did a very good job of sending that message. Unlike the Dirty Dozen and Letters from Iwo Jima, there were no battle scenes in this movie but there was still lots of killing. The movie focuses more into the holocaust aspect of WW2 rather the military aspect which makes it very unique. It really gave a realistic and graphic perspective of Jewish persecution and massacres during this time. Liam Neeson (Taken) plays Schindler and plays the part perfectly. I'm surprised this isn't the first movie people associate him with because his acting was very impressive along with the rest of cast. They all made the mood of the movie very heart-wrenching. According to the Chicago Tribune, the way the movie was edited was particularly aimed to demonstrate the horror of helpless people at the mercy of authoritative power (Chicago Tribune Review). Surprisingly, Spielberg decided to make this movie in black and white instead of color which I believe makes the tone more serious and the mood much darker. It definitely makes the audience feel more nostalgic and reminisce more about the holocaust which is what I think Spielberg tried to do. If you haven't seen this movie, it's a classic, but it is very graphic and disturbing at some parts, which also happens to add to Spielberg's anti-war message.

   

General Tadamichi Kuribayashi

The final movie I watched was Letters from Iwo Jima. This movie was directed by Clint Eastwood as sort of sequel to his Flags of Our Fathers. Letters from Iwo Jima is a 2006 film portraying the Japanese perspective of the infamous battle of Iwo Jima island (interestingly enough contrasts Flags of Our Fathers which shows the American side). The movie follows the struggle of drafted Japanese soldiers and their highly respected General Tadamichi Kuribayashi (Ken Watanabe) defending a piece of their homeland for the first time in the war. Throughout the film, the characters of the movie are constantly writing letters to their loved ones back in the Japanese mainland about their experiences in the war. Eastwood does a spectacular job of showing the Japanese perspective of the war to sort of show that war affects us all even for our enemies. The acting is also very good with Ken Watanabe (Inception) playing his role as the general with passion and seriousness. By this point of the film industry in regards to WW2, the movies have shifted from anti-war to more reminiscing the events. They serve more to be memorials as piece of film instead of a political message. Here, Eastwood shows the cultural and environmental factors that led to the outcomes of battle and uses detailed and insightful character development to make the audience feel for the soldiers and their families regardless of which side of the war they were on. In terms of technology, it's clear that CGI has made the battle scenes much more realistic, eye-opening, and graphic to get a real representation of war for either side which definitely helps add to the mood of the movie.



What I noticed about these movies is that they all have different ways of depicting death and their intent of how the audience should react. In The Dirty Dozen, the battle scene clearly shows deaths on the American side and wants the audience to feel somewhat sorry and sad about it, but you can tell that's not a major focus. For example when one American soldier was shot by a sniper, it just shows him dying with some fake looking blood and poor acting skills. There wasn't any music to add any emotional effect, and the cut was only seconds not giving any time at all for the audience to feel anything for his death. This happens a lot throughout the movie because the director was trying to make the audience focus more on how Americans were winning the fight. In contrast, Schindler's List portrays death as the main strategy to scare and move the audience. There was one scene where Schindler goes to a field where the nazis are burning Jewish corpses into one enormous cremation. In this scene you see Schindler's utter disgust and despair as his reaction and shots of the bodies being tossed and burned makes the audience pay attention to how horrible this was. In Letters from Iwo Jima, the death scenes were much sadder too but they got to a more personal level. Schindler's List would take death on a large and populous scale to make the audience wrench, whereas Letters from Iwo Jima also did that and made the audience have an emotional connection with the main characters and then feel mournful when said characters would die. One example of a mass death was with the suicide scene where hopeless Japanese soldiers commit suicide in a cave based on their code of honor of death over surrender. This is probably one of the most powerful scenes of the movie with the same purpose and effect as the Jewish cremation scene. Then there is the personal death where one scene shows General Kuribayashi losing life lying next to Saigo, a loyal soldier who is holding him. After an exchange of beautiful dialogue about their final moments and Japan, the general shoots himself leaving Saigo to cry over his death and their defeat.

*WARNING: These videos are pretty graphic, so I wouldn't recommend watching for some viewers*

World War 2 is a very typical and predictable genre for movies. What I mean by this is that depending on which time period that movie was made, you can pretty  much already know what to expect. But personally, I really enjoy them. It's very interesting to see how the styles and editing changes throughout the decades and it intrigues me more that there always seems to be countless of stories about WW2 to make a movie about. I thoroughly enjoyed all three of these movies and I intend to continue watching WW2 films as one of my favorite genres.