In the Wake of Desert Storm: A Consideration of Modern World War II Films

Hodgkins, John

doi:10.1080/01956050209602842

Cited by 6 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…12 Meanwhile, John Hodgkins and others speak of how both the televised (first and later) Gulf War, and Spielberg's repurposed World War Two film are most overtly concerned with showcasing cutting edge American technology-be it military or video related-and both want to keep audiences riveted to violent encounters, whose ultimate outcomes are already apparent for all to see. 13 Yet of course, outside the Hollywood mainstream and various film scholarship debates, at times there is a very different cinematic story and reflexive aesthetic being produced.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Pandemic War Narratives: Case studies of Quo Vadis Aida? (2020), All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Brereton

2023

isia

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War tends to polarise national and global conflicts as encapsulated by the phrase, 'you are either with us or against us'. There is further danger of knee jerk reactions at such times, including the present, towards unconditionally funding long-term military security hardware and dedicating scarce resources that are badly needed for more benevolent projects, including equitable redistribution of resources, not to mention the challenge to move away from fossil fuels in our climate crisis. These tensions are evident on recognising European dependence on Russian oil and gas, which unfortunately is helping to fund the ongoing Ukrainian war. This paper will explore how a sample of more contemporary wars and national conflicts have been dramatised on film since the pandemic. Focusing specifically on three contrasting approaches to the tragedy of war and its effects on citizens and soldiers: from an insider's personal response to the massacre in the Balkans during the 1990s in Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020), to the reworked conventional World War One classic All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), before finally coming full circle with the big budget Hollywood celebration of aerial war heroics in the sequel Top Gun: Maverick (2022). Sample textual and contextual analysis will be used to explore how such war narratives have become repurposed, both from an insider soldier's perspective and also through a rejuvenated cinematic war framework, as contemporary audiences strive to cope with ever-increasing crises and conflicts facing the planet, having recently endured a global pandemic.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Post-Pandemic War Narratives: Case studies of Quo Vadis Aida? (2020), All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Brereton

2023

isia

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“…Phrases like "altar of freedom" and "God"s on our side" are bandied about with regularity … At one point, Captain Miller even refers to a squadron of P-51s as the "angels on our shoulders." … In Spielberg"s vision, U.S. troops are on a holy crusade that will end only when the evil despot, Adolf Hitler, has been unseated (Hodgkins 2002, last accessed on 05/06/2005).…”

Section: The Greatest Generation 15 and The Notion Of Sacrificementioning

confidence: 99%

Visual consumption, collective memory and the representation of war

Godfrey

Lilley

2009

Consumption Markets & Culture

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to ongoing discussions that turn around the connections between visual representations, war and the military, and collective memory. Conceiving of the visual as a significant force in the production and dissemination of collective memory, we argue that a new genre of World War Two films has recently emerged that form part of a new discursive "regime of memory" about the war and those that fought and lived through it, constituting a commemoration as much about reflecting on the present as it is about remembering the past. In particular we consider three explicit mediated memories that contribute to this project. First, we argue that these films seek to reaffirm a (particular conception of a) US national identity and military patriotism in the post-Cold War era by importing World War Two as the key meta-narrative of America"s relationship to war in order to "correct" and help "erase" Vietnam"s more negative discursive rendering. Second, we argue that these films attempt to rewrite the history of World War Two by elevating and illuminating the role of the US at the expense of the Allies, further serving to reaffirm America"s position of political and military dominance in the current age. And third, that these films form part of a celebration of the generation that fought World War Two that may accord them a position of nostalgic and sentimental greatness, as their collective spirit and notions of duty and service shines against the foil of what might frequently be seen as our own present moral ambivalence.

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“…Much academic research (e.g. Hodgkins, 2002;Kendrick, 1994) has analysed CNN's video reportage of the Desert Storm operations during the Persian Gulf War in 1991 as the best example of issues arising from embedded journalism and changing newsroom pressures (Reese, 2011). Described as "war as infotainment" (Kellner, 1992), the images produced during operation Desert Storm seemed to promote a patriotic "good" versus "bad" narrative, veiling the war's cultural and political complexities to fulfil the opinion, commentary and video imagery needs during 24-hour coverage.…”

Section: Literature Review: War Conflict and Journalistic Work In Thmentioning

confidence: 99%

Using social media in the news reportage of War & Conflict: Opportunities and Challenges

Sacco

Bossio

2015

JOMI

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Based on interviews with Swiss journalists who specialise in war and international reportage, this article investigates the extent to which social media impacts on reportage of war and conflict. The interviews examine journalists' perceptions of the threats and opportunities posed by use of social media in reporting conflict, by investigating how journalists position themselves and their practices within this new media ecosystem. In particular, the interviews explore whether challenges to professional journalism encountered in previous studies of reportage of war and conflict are overcome by the use of social media. It explores if social media can mitigate the effects of military and government restriction of information, changing newsroom dynamics and issues of audience engagement in reportage of conflict. The findings highlight that in the context of war and conflict, the dynamism of social media creates opportunities for fast news dissemination, pluralised voices in reportage and extended audience reach. However, reporters must also negotiate the complexities that fast, multi-medium and multi-sourced information create for reportage, especially in terms of the verification and contextualisation of information. Thus this article argues that although social media adds dynamism to journalistic environments, this dynamism also brings new levels of complexity to journalistic practice that professional media workers must negotiate.

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In the Wake of Desert Storm: A Consideration of Modern World War II Films

Cited by 6 publications

References 5 publications

Post-Pandemic War Narratives: Case studies of Quo Vadis Aida? (2020), All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Post-Pandemic War Narratives: Case studies of Quo Vadis Aida? (2020), All Quiet on the Western Front (2022) and Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Visual consumption, collective memory and the representation of war

Using social media in the news reportage of War & Conflict: Opportunities and Challenges

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