The War Film (review)

Robert Eberwein's anthology delivers on its promise to examine the contents and aesthetics of war films from the vistas of genre, race, gender, and contemporaneity. The Civil War and twentieth-century conflicts through Desert Storm are covered in this collection of previously published essays, preceded by the editor's splendid introduction. Twenty-three photos enhance the volume's appeal, and, with two exceptions, articles are followed by secondary source notes.

The book's first section addresses the generic features of war films. Andrew Kelly uses All Quiet on the Western Front as a vehicle to illuminate the chief properties of the antiwar movie. Jeanine Basinger argues that Bataan's diverse combat unit founded a whole bevy of propaganda motion pictures produced during World War II. Dana Polan urges a "need to recognize a different kind of generic consciousness at work in contemporary filmmakers" (p. 15).

Race is the topic of the second section. Robert Burgoyne explains how Glory reflected nationalistic ideas, and Michael Rogin explores anti-Semitism and racism in Home of the Brave. The failure of Vietnam War films to depict the real participation of blacks in terms of their actual numbers in combat is bemoaned by Brian J. Woodman. Only in Hamburger Hill are "black characters . . . allowed to discuss how their race handicaps them in this war," he avers (p. 109).

The third section deals with gender. Guerric DeBona sees The Red Badge of Courage's virility linked to the studio coercion exercised on the film's producer due to the 1950s Cold War atmosphere. Susan Jeffords describes the Rambo body of First Blood as a metaphor for "Ronald Reagan's own achievement of the hard-body imagery that would typify his presidency" (p. 144), offsetting the "body of the Carter presidency, the body that was unable to defend its country" (p. 142). Tania Modleski scrutinizes Coming Home and Dogfight, preferring the latter for its woman's viewpoint on war and the soldier's mind. Furthermore, Yvonne Tasker praises the female portrayals in Courage Under Fire and G.I. Jane for demonstrating that manly attributes are not monopolized by males.

The final section utilizes film as historical metaphor. Mimi White discerns inklings of 1970s feminism in Rosie the Riveter and Swing Shift while Albert Auster believes the patriotism and victory of World War II's Saving Private Ryan acted as "a perfect anodyne to the somewhat equivocal glory of the low-key American victories in the Cold War and the Gulf War" (p. 212). Finally, Thomas Doherty wonders how future movies will handle 9/11.

The War Film features sophisticated and insightful scholarship, is interdisciplinary in perspective, and is assembled in a handsome and convenient package. Yet a jargonistic tone in places will limit its appeal. The general reader would find "moral chiaroscuro" (p. 74), "symbolic repertoire" (p. 79), "transgressive" (p. 172), and "teleological superiority" (p. 201), among other esoteric terms, inscrutable. In addition, the text is less than comprehensive. Native Americans are absent, and America's allies and enemies, for the most part, are ignored.