While some war movies serve as painful reminiscences, others seem unpleasantly prescient of ominous things yet to come. Written by Milwaukee authors Glen Jeansonne and David Luhrssen, War on the Silver Screen: Shaping America’s Perception of History (Potomac Books) neither extols the glories of battle nor lavishes praise on military accomplishments but takes a historical perspective on representative films depicting recent world conflicts. In fact, this little volume is one of the most precise yet concise examinations of international conflicts during 20th- and 21st-century history. Its 200 pages serve as a mini encyclopedia in their painstaking examination of significant historical and political events of recent times.
While correctly asserting that films can influence how we perceive and remember world-shaking events, the authors do not always distinguish which films do a better job than others. For example, the poignancy of the waste of war in All Quiet on the Western Front had a more shattering impact on audiences than Stanley Kubrick’s excellent but coolly detached, cynical examination in Paths of Glory. Aesthetics are deemphasized in favor of history, but this is not necessarily a bad thing in a volume as comprehensive as this one. Sometimes the authors have a tendency to make too fine a point on the historical antecedents. The enduring fame of Lawrence of Arabia has less to do with the veracity of its depiction of Arab-Turkish conflict than the sheer visual splendor of David Lean’s magnificent sweeping desert panorama.
War on the Silver Screen’s World War II segments include the legendary Casablanca and the enduringly popular Best Years of Our Lives while ignoring such lesser combat films as Sahara and Bataan and passing over Saving Private Ryan with a quick name check. The book’s Cold War section surveys an odd assortment of films that remain memorable beyond their historical context and have become classic by sublimating their thematic agenda into a more universal dramatic profile. The eerie and stunning Manchurian Candidate remains dramatically awesome and gripping beyond its reference to brainwashing. Who can forget that Parnassus of evil in Dr. Strangelove who would bury the survivors of nuclear war in mine shafts in Kubrick’s magnificent satire on the foolishness of politics at their most absurd.
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As film historian David Thompson recently pointed out, and Jeansonne and Luhrssen reiterate at their book’s conclusion, the accelerated contemporary media landscape, including the onslaught of 24/7 news coverage, obviates our preoccupation with war films. In the digital age, even the word “film” has become an anachronism. And yet we continue to watch the great films of the past, and remember our history through them.
War on the Silver Screen is an objective, sometimes coolly detached chronicle of many of the war films that have played a part in cinematic history. It may prove to be an invaluable reference for the film historian and promises to be well-thumbed-over by interested readers.
