The Movies Go to War: 
    		 World War 1 through Desert Storm
  Home Films Syllabus and Readings

Assignments and Grading

Contact

GRC 311 = AMS 315 = STS 311
  Decorative Movie Poster Composite
This page was last updated: 10 July 2006
Website maintained by: webmaster
[Accessibility Information]
[website established July 15, 2004]

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.