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“War does not determine who is right – only who is left” (Bertrand Russell). Now think about this, what makes war justified? What makes it okay for people to kill each other? How do we get our image of war? In Hollywood, they make war seem cool and okay. In reality it's not.
Society even tries to influence the way that we view war. Each of the films we observed had similarities and differences about their conflicts and outcomes. If you compare the documentary, La Drang, the book Fallen Angels, or the Hollywood Blockbusters We Were Soldiers, and Black Hawk Down, it will become evident of what Hollywood does to these movies.
Every person has their own view of war, but for many it is the view that Hollywood portrays.
Both history and Hollywood continue to alter our perspective of war.
For one thing, they romanticize and emphasize the war and violence that takes place. In the Hollywood blockbusters they make the explosions and shooting seem so amazing.
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It even makes the viewer want to be in the movie. Also, all throughout history, the actions of these soldier's have been glorified. They are out there fighting for our country and nobody realizes the fact they put their life on the line to protect and fight for us. Many people consider them as heroes. Since individuals think of them as heroes, it sets the tone for everyone else too, altering the way they think about it. Political Propaganda is another way that alters the perspective of war. In the past political propaganda was used to influence the attitudes of communities toward one position of the issue. The propaganda would only show one side making it seem like the way to go. In the movies, they rarely ever mention what the reason for fighting is. They usually leave out the political part of the whole situation. Most likely because they do not think it is worth mentioning because all people care about with the movies is explosions. Looking back at all the ways our perspectives of war have been altered, it gives each of us a different way to think about it all.
The documentary of La Drang and the Hollywood blockbusters are two completely different ideas. In the La Drang documentary, people with war experience speak. They speak about how awful and horrible war really is. War is not something a soldier can forget after they have gone through it. Something that Hollywood cannot do is, reenact the loud noises of explosions, gunshots, and peoples screams. Both La Drang and the movie We Were Soldiers took place in Vietnam and Black Hawk Down takes place in a Somalian town. An example that most influences societies' perspective in all three of the films would be the mind set that Soldiers come back with. The emotion that is conveyed by the characters after the war is over makes us think, “How come time after time people are put through this?” Our society tries to influence our perspectives through these outlets because people will pay the most attention to things like these.
It is the easiest way to alter peoples perspective by showing everybody what its truly like.
In all three of the films and in Fallen Angels they all ended up in the same outcome. They all ended in a victory for the Americans. We Were Soldiers was made in February of 2002 and Black Hawk Down was made in December of 2001 about two months after 9/11. The battle of La Drang took place on November 14-18, 1965. We were Soldiers was a movie that was solely based off of the battle of La Drang. They tried to make it similar in which case, they did. On the other hand, Black Hawk Down did not relate as well to La Drang. It was more of an all action, normal stereotypical war movie. It showed much more romanticized explosions and more artillery being used. All films had their differences. All in all, they did manage to make the viewer feel what they were feeling by getting the emotion across wonderfully. As a viewer, I know that I was scared for them. When they lost someone, I felt sadness with them. I felt like I was there feeling what they were feeling.
Perspective is constantly changing for everyone. Everyone has a different perspective on things and our perspective of war is changing everyday because of influences from fiction novelists and Hollywood writers and producers. They have a large impact because it is one of the closest things to the actual truth, even if it may be romanticized. We believe and are easily convinced because many of us will not know what it is actually like to be in war. These films and Fallen Angels have helped to give a much better understanding on the different perspectives about war and the way that a story could be romanticized into something it is not. Having a perspective on war is how you see war, which is mainly influenced by what we see and read nowadays.
War on Screen: La Drang, Fallen Angels, We Were Soldiers, and Black Hawk Down. (2022, Apr 09). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/the-history-and-hollywood-s-perspective-of-war-in-la-drang-fallen-angels-we-were-soldier-and-black-hawk-down-essay
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