Book description
Film moves audiences like no other medium; both documentaries and
feature films are especially remarkable for their ability to influence
viewers. Best-selling author James Brady remarked that he joined the
Marines to fight in Korea after seeing a John Wayne film, demonstrating
how a motion picture can change the course of a human life-in this case,
launching the career of a major historian and novelist. In Why We
Fought: America's Wars in Film and History, editors Peter C. Rollins and
John E. O'Connor explore the complexities of war films, describing the
ways in which such productions interpret history and illuminate American
values, politics, and culture. This comprehensive volume covers
representations of war in film from the American Revolution in the 18th
century to today's global War on Terror. The contributors examine iconic
battle films such as The Big Parade (1925), All Quiet on the Western
Front (1930), From Here to Eternity (1953), and Platoon (1986),
considering them as historical artifacts. The authors explain how film
shapes our cultural understanding of military conflicts, analyzing how
war is depicted on television programs, through news media outlets, and
in fictional and factual texts. With several essays examining the events
of September 11, 2001, and their aftermath, the book has a timely
relevance concerning the country's current military conflicts. Jeff
Chown examines controversial documentary films about the Iraq War, while
Stacy Takacs considers Jessica Lynch and American gender issues in a
post-9/11 world, and James Kendrick explores the political messages and
aesthetic implications of United 93. From filmmakers who reshaped our
understanding of the history of the Alamo, to Ken Burns's popular series
on the Civil War, to the uses of film and media in understanding the
Vietnam conflict, Why We Fought offers a balanced outlook- one of the
book's editors was a combat officer in the United States Marines, the
other an antiwar activist-on the conflicts that have become touchstones
of American history. As Air Force veteran and film scholar Robert Fyne
notes in the foreword, American war films mirror a nation's past and
offer tangible evidence of the ways millions of Americans have become
devoted, as was General MacArthur, to “Duty, honor, and country.” Why We
Fought chronicles how, for more than half a century, war films have
shaped our nation's consciousness. Peter C. Rollins is Regents
Professor Emeritus of English and American Film Studies at Oklahoma
State University and is former editor of the journal Film & History.
He is the coeditor of numerous books, including Hollywood's Indian: The
Portrayal of the Native American in Film. John E. O'Connor is professor
emeritus of the Federated Department of History at New Jersey Institute
of Technology and Rutgers University. He is also a founding editor of
Film & History and the coeditor of several books.
