FILM 502: THE WAR FILM
GENRE, MILITARISM, AND PERCEPTION
Emory University, Spring 2012
Seminar: Tuesdays 3-6 pm // Rich 103
Screening: Thursdays 8-10 pm // White Hall 207
INSTRUCTOR
Dr. Tanine Allison
tanineallison@gmail.com
tanine.allison@emory.edu
Office: 225B Rich Building
Office Hours: Wed 9:30-11:15 am & by appt.
Course Description
This seminar will serve as both an overview of the war film genre—its particular
conventions, meanings, and cultural significations—and a wide-ranging investigation into the
intersections of war, the military, globalization, and perceptual and imaging technologies. As
Paul Virilio’s pioneering theoretical work shows us, both war and cinema work by, and work on,
perception. This course explores the overlapping developments of cinematic and military
technologies, including virtual reality systems, medical imaging, aerial surveillance, simulation
games, and computer graphics. Through theoretical readings, we will also examine how
Hollywood and other filmmakers have visualized the various wars that America has been
involved in during the twentieth century. We will examine issues such as propaganda, race and
gender in war, the body and the cyborg, the atomic bomb, and war video games.
Texts
Required
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War and Film, by James Chapman (UCP, 2008)
The War Film, edited by Robert Eberwein (Rutgers, 2005), abbreviated TWF below
Hollywood and War, The Film Reader, edited by J. David Slocum (Routledge, 2006),
abbreviated H&W below
Regarding the Pain of Others, by Susan Sontag (Picador, 2003)
War and Cinema: The Logistics of Perception, by Paul Virilio (Verso, 2009)
Additional readings will be provided electronically, marked below with *
Recommended
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Film/Genre, by Rick Altman (BFI, 1999)
War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, by Manuel de Landa (Swerve Editions, 2007—
not at bookstore because out of print, but can find online)
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Why We Fought: America’s Wars in Film and History, edited by Peter Rollins and John
O’Connor (UP of Kentucky, 2008)
Assignments
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Discussion questions/topics submitted to me via email by 2pm on Tuesday (please send
to my gmail account); vocal engagement with class discussions
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Presentation in class relating to that day’s readings—overview of topics covered,
connections you found particularly fruitful, clip(s) from exemplary texts
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Midterm Essay (8-10 pages)—Short essay developing an argument that relates theoretical
readings with films and media relevant to the course.
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Final Research Paper (about 20 pages)—Essay researching a topic of your choice related
to the subject matter of the course. May be an expansion/revision of first paper.
Schedule
Week 1: WHAT IS GENRE? WHAT IS THE WAR FILM GENRE?
Thurs 1/19: The Sinking of the Lusitania (Winsor McCay, 1918), December 7th (Gregg
Toland/John Ford, 1943), Band of Brothers (HBO miniseries, episode 1, 2001)
Tues 1/24: Genre and Hollywood, by Steve Neale—selections (“Part I”); Film/Genre, by Rick
Altman—selections (“…Film Genre,” “Conclusion,” “Appendix”); American Cinema/American
Culture, by John Belton—selection (“The War Film”); War and Film, by James Chapman—
selection (“Introduction”); Hollywood and War: The Film Reader, pg. 1-30 ("General
Introduction" by Slocum and "War Films" by Neale)—required textbook available at the
bookstore.
Week 2: Class and screening cancelled
Thurs 1/26: No screening
Tues 1/31: No class
Week 3: MILITARIZATION AND THE LOGISTICS OF PERCEPTION
Thurs 2/2: Images of the World and the Inscription of War (Bilder der Welt und Inschrift des
Krieges, Harun Farocki, 1988, 75 min.) + clips
Tues 2/7: Preface and Ch. 1-4 of War and Cinema; “Experiences of Modern Warfare and the
Crisis of Representation” (Huppauf, H&W)
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Week 4: THE WAR MACHINE
Thurs 2/9: Come and See (Idi i smotri, Elem Klimov, 1985, 136 min.)
Tues 2/14: Ch. 5-7 of War and Cinema; Chapman, Ch. 2
Week 5: WORLD WAR I AND THE RATIONALIZATION OF SLAUGHTER
Thurs 2/16: Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957, 88 min.) + clips
Tues 2/21: “The United States’ Film Industry and World War One” (DeBauche, H&W); “War
on Film: The American Cinema and World War I, 1914–1941” (Isenberg, H&W); “War and
Cinema: Interpreting the Relationship” (Sorlin, H&W); “All Quiet on the Western Front: The
Antiwar Film and the Modern Image of War” (Chambers, H&W); “The Greatness and
Continuing Significance of All Quiet on the Western Front” (Kelly, TWF)
Recommended: All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930); Wings (William
Wellman, 1927); “The Spanish-American War in United States Media Culture” (Castonguay,
H&W)
Week 6: HOLLYWOOD’S MILITARY UR-NARRATIVE: WORLD WAR II
Thurs 2/23: Destination Tokyo (Delmer Daves, 1943, 135 min.)
Tues 2/28: *Ch. 2-3 of Power and Paranoia, by Dana Polan; “World War II and the Hollywood
‘War Film’” (Schatz, H&W), “Will this Picture Help to Win the War?” (Koppes and Black,
H&W); “The World War II Combat Film: Definition” (Basinger, H&W); “Hollywood and the
World War II Conversion Narrative” (May, H&W)
Week 7: POWER AND PROPAGANDA
Thurs 3/1: The Fighting Lady (U.S. Navy, 1944, 61 min.); Excerpts from Triumph of the Will
(Triumph des Willens, Leni Riefenstahl, 1935, 114 min.)
Tues 3/6: *NOTE: Tino Balio talk at 4 pm
“Leni Riefenstahl’s Contribution to the War Effort” (Doherty, H&W); “War, Film, History:
American Images of ‘Real War,’ 1890-1920” (Klingsporn, H&W); “War as a Way of Seeing”
(Roeder, H&W); * “Why We Fight and Projections of America: Frank Capra, Robert Riskin, and
the Making of World War II Propaganda,” by Ian S. Scott (in Why We Fought)
Recommended: Star Wars (George Lucas, 1977), Starship Troopers (Paul Verhoeven, 1997)
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Week 8-9: WORLD WAR II AT THE NEW MILLENIUM
Thurs 3/8: Saving Private Ryan (Steven Spielberg, 1998, 169 min.)
Tues 3/13, Thurs 3/15: No class—Spring Break
Tues 3/20: Chapman, Ch. 1; “Seriously Spectacular: ‘Authenticity’ and ‘Art’ in the War Epic”
(King, H&W); “In the Combat Zone” (Young, H&W); “Saving Private Ryan and American
Triumphalism” (Auster, TWF); *”Bleeding Bodies and Post-Cold War Politics: Saving Private
Ryan and the Gender of Vulnerability,” by Sarah Hagelin
Recommended: The Thin Red Line (Terrence Malick, 1998); Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott,
2001), Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola, 1979); “Auterism and War-teurism: Terrence
Malick’s War Movie” (Polan, TWF); “The New War Movies as Moral Rearmament: Black
Hawk Down and We Were Soldiers” (Doherty, TWF)
MIDTERM ESSAY DUE FRIDAY MARCH 23 VIA EMAIL
Week 10: THE MILITARY-INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX
Thurs 3/22: Why We Fight (Eugene Jarecki, 2005, 98 min.)
Tues 3/27: *Introduction and Ch. 1 of War in the Age of Intelligent Machines, by Manuel de
Landa
Recommended: Why We Fight series: Prelude to War et al. (Frank Capra, 1942)
Week 11: ATOMIC CINEMA
Thurs 3/29: The War Game (Peter Watkins, 1965, 48 min.); Excerpts from White Light, Black
Rain: The Destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki (Steven Okazaki, 2007)
Tues 4/3: Regarding the Pain of Others; *Atomic Light (Shadow Optics), by Akira Lippit
(excerpts)
Recommended: Dr. Strangelove (Stanley Kubrick, 1964)
Week 12: REPRESENTING VIETNAM
Thurs 4/5: Catch-22 (Mike Nichols, 1970, 122 min.)
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Tues 4/10: *Dispatches by Michael Herr (excerpts); “Film and the War: Representing Vietnam”
(James, H&W); “Vietnam and the New Militarism” (Ryan and Kellner, H&W); “Do We Get to
Lose This Time?” (Modleski, TWF)
Recommended: Platoon (Oliver Stone, 1986); Full Metal Jacket (Stanley Kubrick, 1987);
Dogfight (Nancy Savoca, 1991); “Represented in the Margins: Images of African American
Soldiers in Vietnam War Combat Films” (Woodman, TWF)
Week 13: MILITARISM AND MASCULINITY IN THE 1980S
Thurs 4/12: Rambo: First Blood Part II (George P. Cosmatos, 1985, 96 min.)
Thurs 4/17: Chapman, Ch. 3; “Make My Day!: Spectacle as Amnesia in Imperial Politics”
(Rogin, H&W); “The Reagan Hero: Rambo” (Jeffords, TWF)
Week 14: IRAQ/AFGHANISTAN: NEW NARRATIVES OF WAR
Thurs 4/19: Generation Kill (HBO miniseries, 2008)
Tues 4/24: “Passions of the Real, Passions of Semblance” (Zizek, H&W); “Techno-Muscularity
and the ‘Boy Eternal’” (Boose, H&W); “The Gulf War Did Not Take Place” (Baudrillard,
H&W); “A Cultural History of War Without End” (McAlister, H&W); * “The War Body as
Screen of Terror,” by Renuka Gusain
Recommended: The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008); Restrepo (Hetherington and Junger,
2010); Armadillo (Janus Pedersen, 2010)
Week 15: MODERN WAR GAMES
Thurs 4/26: War video games: Call of Duty, Battlefield 3, etc.
Tues 5/1: *“All But War Is Simulation: The Military-Entertainment Complex,” by Timothy
Lenoir; *Joystick Soldiers, ed. by Huntemann and Payne (excerpts); *Real Wars on Virtual
Battlefields, by Stefan Werning (excerpts)
Recommended: Battle Los Angeles (Jonathan Liebesman, 2011); Act of Valor (opens Feb. 24,
2012)
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