GRC 311 = AMS 315 = STS 311
This page was last updated: 10 July 2006
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Overview
This
course will introduce some of the most famous war films, and some less
familiar ones, from the US and Europe-- from Grand Illusion through
Saving Private Ryan and Black Hawk Down. Each war has developed its
own kinds of war movies, from World Wars I and II, through the Korean police action,
the Vietnam conflict, Somalia, and Kuwait.
These films will be used to introduce how to "read" films
as part of cultural history and think critically about their content.
Scenes from each war will be compared to the "real history"
behind the film, to pose questions about how history can be written
and rewritten in films. Take a trip through cinematic battlefields,
to see how films have helped their audiences think about the roles of
the world's superpowers in world contexts!
Topics to be addressed include:
- cultural stereotypes of heroes, villains, and victims
- different countries and their takes on the same war experience
- the politics of war films
- rewriting history through war movies
- anti-war films
- documentary, docu-drama, mockumentary
- how to read point of view and cultural perspectives out of movies.
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