![]() ![]() That means no films about the experience of returning from war ( Coming Home, The Best Years of Our Lives, First Blood) or of civilian life during wartime ( Mrs. Each offers a vision that asks viewers to consider and understand the experience of war, be it in the trenches of World War I, the wilderness skirmishes of Civil War militias, or the still-ongoing conflicts that have helped define 21st-century warfare.Ĭompiled as Sam Mendes’s stylistically audacious World War I film, 1917, hit theaters, this list opts for a somewhat narrow definition of a war movie, focusing on films that deal with the experiences of soldiers during wartime. Another director, Sam Fuller, once offered a quote that doesn’t necessarily contradict Truffaut’s observation but better explains the impulse to make war movies: “A war film’s objective, no matter how personal or emotional, is to make a viewer feel war.” The films selected for this list of the genre’s most essential entries often have little in common, but they do share that. Maybe the ultimate purpose of a war movie is to let others hear the force of these stories. A World War II film made in the midst of the war, for instance, might serve a propagandist purpose than one made after the war ends, when there’s more room for nuance and complexity, but it also might not. War movies reflect the artistic impulses of their creators, but they also reflect the attitudes of the times and places in which they were created. So, like other inescapable elements of the human experience, we tell stories about war, stories that reflect our attitudes toward it, and how they shift over time. It’s a lot to ask, especially since war seems to be baked into human existence. Is it true that movies glamorize whatever they touch, no matter how horrific? And if a war movie isn’t to sound a warning against war, what purpose does it serve? Even if Truffaut’s wrong - and it’s hard to see his observation applying to at least some of the movies on this list - it might be best to remove the burden of making the world a better place from war movies. Lee Ermey, the real-life drill instructor who played the same in Full Metal Jacket, Swofford offered a remembrance in the New York Times with the headline “ Full Metal Jacket Seduced My Generation and Sent Us to War.”) In Anthony Swofford’s Gulf War memoir Jarhead, Swofford recalls joining fellow recruits in getting pumped up while watching Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket, two of the most famous films about the horrors of war. Every film about war ends up being pro-war.” The evidence often bears him out. For example, some films claim to be antiwar, but I don’t think I’ve really seen an antiwar film. Asked why there’s little killing in his films, Truffaut replied, “I find that violence is very ambiguous in movies. Speaking to Gene Siskel of the Chicago Tribune in 1973, Francois Truffaut made an observation that’s cast a shadow over war movies ever since, even those seemingly opposed to war. Ermey developed his own method of acting, and it served him well, and it all started with Full Metal Jacket.Photo-Illustration: Vulture and Courtesy of the Studios Every role since Full Metal Jacket has had a twinge of Sergeant Hartman to it, certainly the military roles such as Sergeant in Toy Story, and Hiles in The Frighteners. Ermey has stated as much, that he was simply playing the drill sergeant the way a drill sergeant was. The beating seems to have affected Lawrence for the better at first, before he ultimately suffers a complete mental breakdown after graduation, killing both Sergeant Hartman and himself.Įrmey's role in Full Metal Jacket is clearly inspired by his time in the Marines. This led to the beating of Lawrence one night by his fellow cadets. It is Lawrence's continued blunders that cause Hartman to institute mandatory punishment on all the cadets anytime Lawrence messes up. Doling out insults to the cadets that are still quoted today, and catching the eye of a particular cadet named Lawrence, whom he unleashes his harshest rhetoric and punishment on. Sergeant Hartman is showcased in the first half as the incredibly foul-mouthed and overwhelmingly harsh drill sergeant. The second half of the film chronicles the cadets time during the war in Vietnam. This war epic is split into two very different halves, the first half of the film showcasing cadets going through boot camp lead by Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by Ermey. ![]() Widely considered to not just be Ermey's best role, but one of the best Vietnam War movies ever. A year before Mississippi Burning, Ermey had his breakout role in the classic Stanley Kubrick Vietnam War film, Full Metal Jacket. ![]()
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