The Aesthetics of War Movies

IdleRich

IdleRich

IdleRich
"Red Badge of Courage
and
Naked & the Dead
and
Gravity's Rainbow (a stretch? i think not)
and uh...
Dog Years (Gunter Grass)
Catch-22
and Slaughterhouse Five"
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Good list. Dog Years is a weird book. Reminds me, I must read The Tin Drum.

"and then there's Melville's Army of Shadows or whatever it translates to"
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Yeah, really fucking tense film. Another one that isn't a war film as such - I mean, yeah it's all about two sides of a conflict but it's not a straight trenches type thing with explosions and stuff. I think that I'm realising how narrow my definition of a war film is.
 
craner

craner

Beast of Burden
I loved Army of Shadows: every slow second of it, pitch-perfect. Saw it at the NFT, what a treat! Have been meaning to buy the BFI dvd ever since.
 
padraig (u.s.)

padraig (u.s.)

a monkey that will go ape
can't believe I forget this one - Hombres Armados - an amazing film, one that anyone even remotely interested in Latin America should watch. certainly the best thing John Sayles has ever done.

for books

La Muerte de Artemio Cruz - more the history of Mexico in the first half of the 20th century but like that history it is defined by the Mexican Revolution & the aftermath thereof

The Quiet American
 
M

mistersloane

heavy heavy monster sound
Watched David Lean's 'In Which We Serve' recently (they've got a 10 disc box set in HMV Oxford Street for 20 quid, London-dissenters) and I guess I'm in a fragile mood but I just wept all the way through it, was taken aback at how good it was. Totally made me see why my mum used to go on about Noel Coward (wrote, directed, acted, composed the music) was so great. It's kindof a film I think you shouldn't miss, that good. Surprising.

Plus as a fervent um, not pacifist but anti-war person - refused to join the corps at school, all that - it's the first film I've ever seen that, if I was another person, in another time, I would have signed up immediately. Effective propaganda, I guess.
 
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