Hollywood's creation of what is real in a War story

When a person looks at a film about war, there are numerous things that strike the mind, namely; the quality of the movie in terms of realism, the gory details that are shown, the moral dilemmas as are depicted and the larger than life characters. There is also the idea of showing heavy masculine roles and the age old idea of Hollywood of “fighting the good fight” inside of the film. But is this a true war story?

A simple fact which is shown over and over is that when it comes to Hollywood only the good guys win and, since we; the audience buy into most of what we see showing on screen, those good guys end up being Americans. People within the industry almost never let the facts of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster. They really do not discuss this simply because it is not what the majority of filmmakers do. We all see the movies and look at the American soldiers doing what is ‘moral’ and ‘right’ even when they do evil, they always end up doing something that creates absolution. Not to say that many films do not address the fairy tale ideas in the films, but such films are almost never readily accepted with the viewers. They still look for their heroes and our villains. And the Hollywood studios continue to win everything alone. Remember Steven Spielberg's D-Day spectacular Saving Private Ryan? Someone; namely the screenwriters simply forgot that 72,000 British and Canadian troops were also involved in that victory.

What the films show are stories that attract the viewers and show them some of the things that happen, but end up with a story with a lovely fairy tale ending. Audiences never see war as something as acceptable facts such as; accepting the fact that people are going to send their sons and daughters to die. No way, the majority of filmmakers never let the absurdities of history get in the way of a box-office blockbuster.

In the majority of major motion pictures, the heroes that are seen are more than other times, larger than life characters and follow a fixed formula most times. Tom Pollard spoke of this formula in his piece “The Hollywood War Machine,” where he describes the heroes as:

1. A group of professionals with a life and death mission.
2. Comprised of different personality types essential to success.
3. Are cool, stoic and yet exhibit courage and a sense of morality.

With the likes of a formula such as this, there is no such thing as a true war story.

As O’Brien said in his article, How to tell a true war story, he mentions the facts, “In many cases a true war story cannot be believed. If you believe it, be skeptical. It is a question of credibility. Often the crazy stuff is true and the normal stuff isn’t, because the normal stuff isn’t necessary to make you believe the truly incredible craziness. In other cases you can’t even tell a true war story. Sometimes it’s just beyond telling.”

With O’Brien showing you that the truth is something which is not depicted and Pollard giving a formula, one can easily see that there is not such thing as a true war story, there is only the story that a scriptwriter and a filmmaker decides to show us.

In O’Brien’s article “The Things They Carried” he mentions about war. “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is thrilling; war is drudgery. War makes you a man; war makes you dead.” That is a summation of what war is and what it can be based on binary oppositions. Of the many people who try to create a true war story, none ever got it right. Many came close just not right.

One of the closest depictions of the human element in a true war film would happen to be ‘The Thin Red Line.’ This film does not possess a clear beginning, middle or end and the progression is a fairly loose one. The story revolves on the characters and their voice over showing what is happening to each one as the story goes. We only see some soldiers in conversation about the brutality of war and while others stroll aimlessly trying to sort out their emotions. Quite contrary to most of the war films made and in specific about WW2, The Thin red Line doesn’t hold back to show human suffering and death from what it really is. The direct combat with the enemy combined with obstacles and moments of success have always been the indispensable elements of a combat film. Moreover, it is also very common to see American soldiers burning down villages, collecting ‘war souvenirs’, like the teeth of the Japanese soldiers or carrying photos of their wives or loved ones and even playing cards in their free time.