The history of war films is relatively new when compared to war books. The war film genre which is concerned with motion pictures of warfare e.g. naval, air or land battles began during WWI. By the time WWII started, the content of the war films and movies dramatically increased. These WW2 movies covered most aspects of the battle including, prisoners of war, covert operations, military training and battle field news. Dramatized Hollywood war movies exploded onto the silver screen during this WWII period. Said to be the best war movie ever made was ‘To Hell and Back’ starring Audie Murphy. It was quite unique in that Murphy who is the most decorated soldier in US History acted himself in the movie. Over recent years the scope has widened. Many movies are documentary based like ‘Lost Diggers of Fromelles’ or based on truth movie like ‘Saving Private Ryan.’ You may like one type or the other; however, the key factor always is that storyline revolves around military life during the war and or after the war.
Many of the war movies focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles. Now, point is, not all war movies are based on actual wars i.e. many stories may be fiction. Some others may be based on history, docudrama, biographical, or even alternate history fiction like ‘Inglorious Bastards’. Inglorious Bastards is an attempt to rewrite the history of the Second World War.
War movies or war films are aplenty; however, one unmistakably film that leaves impression on all minds is ‘Apocalypse Now’ starring Martin Sheen and ‘Godfather’ fame Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall. This 1979 American epic war film was set on the Vietnam conflict. Directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola, ‘Apocalypse Now’ is considered a landmark in the history of war movies; particularly, the helicopter scene.
In fact, ‘the Vietnam War’ was perhaps the first battle that captured the popular imagination of people around the world. Particularly, the extremely redolent narratives came out of the conflict and a large number of war films were made that were inspired from the conflict Several Hollywood movies showed the subject from 1970s to now. The best Vietnam War movie in recent years was ‘We Were Soldiers’ starring Mel Gibson. Like Vietnam War movies, there are several writers who portrayed the war in their fiction and non-fiction books.
For instance, ‘Chickenhawk’ by Robert Mason is one of the best publications that portray the war as it took place; he was a helicopter pilot who used to fly over Vietnam War fields and drop GIs. He had firsthand experience of the war, and well equipped to depict as it happened. Thus, his narration is his first person story telling which is unlike the research based battle books wherein the writer talks with the war veterans and scripts the events.
You may also read another conflict book Michael Herr's ‘Dispatches’ which provides an extensive coverage of Vietnam War. It is reportage as Michael was embedded journalists who covered the war from the warzone.
