War in Film, Television, and History: The War Continues

The battle continues…especially here at Film & History. To our faithful readers, I'd like to welcome you back (and to all new readers, I say welcome for the first time!) to the second half of this year's volume (36), our special double issue focusing on the topic of "War in Film, Television, and History." As I mentioned in the last issue, film and television have often been intimately connected with war and history, as evidenced by the extensive film, media, and print coverage connecting these subjects that have placed war and its myriad elements at the center of their narratives. War and the fighting man continually seem to draw viewers on both the large and small screens. With U.S. and coalition forces still serving and fighting in many parts of Iraq, and with the escalation of conflict in Israel and Lebanon (and the Middle East region in general) seeming increasingly likely to draw involvement from the military might of other countries to help end the violence, perhaps there is no more appropriate time than the present to take a close look at the cinematic representations of war.

This issue continues our own "March of Time" begun in 36.1, picking up at the end of the Second World War, where we left off in the previous issue, and running through much of the remaining half of the twentieth century. Together, the four articles included discuss a number of films created during this period that deal with war-related events running the gamut from D-Day to the emergence of Cold War ideology to the Vietnam conflict. (Alas, though we wanted to include a piece on Korea, thus hitting every major U.S. "war" before the end of the Cold War, journal space and the strength of these four articles simply did not allow us to do so. Nevertheless, there are still plenty of goodies for all of our war "fanatics" included in this issue!)

However, as a special treat for our readers, and in recognition of the service of two distinguished members of the field of film and television studies, before these articles we have included two encomia. The first recognizes the many contributions of Don Staples and the second those of Frank Manchel. The Staples' piece, written by his colleague at the University of North Texas, Ben Levin, provides an interesting collection of comments and stories about the exploits of Don Staples, some from the man himself, and many more from the people whose lives he has touched. What is perhaps more fitting, though, at least for this issue of Film & History, is Staples' discussion of his time serving in the U.S. Navy and his assignment as liaison officer to John Huston during the making of the film, Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison in1957.

Apparently, 1957 was the year for military service for our honorees, as Denise J. Youngblood notes that it was in that year that fellow University of Vermont professor Frank Manchel enlisted for active duty in the U.S. Army (and then the Reserves) before fully embarking on his career in film studies. We here at Film & History are proud to honor these two men in our pages, especially as their stories of service set the stage for the following four articles.

First in our special in-depth look at war in film, television, and history this time around is an entry that ties together the past and the present (or, rather, the recent past): Robert Brent Toplin's examination of the Second World War on film, "Hollywood's D-Day From the Perspective of the 1960s and 1990s: The Longest Day and Saving Private Ryan." In this piece Toplin discusses a number of interesting similarities and differences concerning the creation, themes, and reception of these two films, both of which were blockbuster war films created by well-established directors during their respective time periods. In particular, Toplin notes how The Longest Day (1962) faced the complaint from many critics that its battle scenes of the invasion on the beaches of Normandy seemed unrealistic, as "[h]undreds of extras fell...