For me it is the classic 1971 “Johnny Got His Gun.” The film depicts a young man who survived The Great War only to have lost his arms, legs, eyes, ears, and nose to a mortar blast. Not knowing whether he is dead, alive, or just dreaming, he lies bedridden trying to communicate his last wish: to be shown to the world so they may see what mad consequences war brings
Duck Soup
The Americanization of Emily
All Quiet on The Western Front,
MASH
Paths of Glory
Dr Strangelove
also Platoon?
I prefer films that are more truthful and don’t exagerate war. If one cannot see the reasons against war in films such as “We Were Soldiers” then they won’t see them any other way. I like the last scene on the battlefield:
“And the end will be the same… except for the numbers who will die before we get there.”
Though not specifically about war, I always thought Legends of the Fall had some really good anti-war sentiment, particularly from Anthony Hopkins’ character. In fact, the entire movie is filled with libertarian, anti-state rhetoric.
Its not a movie, but Valkeria Chronicles does a decent job of showing how warfare interferes with people’s lives. Almost every major ‘good’ character was doing something else but end up having to fight off the invasion from the ‘evil empire’
Fail Safe (1964) for me.
That’s actually what made me like that movie when I’d otherwise dismiss it as some purple melodrama. Good actors, good roles, good themes made it worthwhile, especially the anti war and anti government rhetoric. I especially like how the Tristan character goes from being some kind of untouchable force at home to seeing wholesale slaughter and how it personally impacts him and leads to him getting lost for quite some time. I also like the more nordic theme of fate in that movie. It’s not about good or bad karma but more a ‘shit happens’ and this is how they dealt with it theme. You never get the idea in that flick that the world is perfectable. Quite the contrary, and the Tristan and Susanna characters strongly argue against trying to make people who don’t fit the mold do so by force.
As for my choices, I’d list 'em as such:
Apocalypse Now: I’ve heard a few vets criticize its authenticity so I’m not sure how it holds up on that front, but as a modern interpretation of Heart of Darkness and its themes, it’s superb.
Starship Troopers: Great message, war makes fascists of us all.
One I can’t stand in this context: Saving Private Ryan. I’ve heard it referred to as an anti war film and the battle scenes are definitely enough to put you off your lunch, but the movie itself does more to glorify the (unneessary) ‘sacrifice’ of so many people in my opinion than scare them away from it. It’s got too much of The Greatest Generation vibe going for it to be truly critical of war and comes off way more pro war in my opinion.
None.
Depictions…
Barefoot Gen
No Man’s Land
“All Quiet on the Western Front”
Dulce et decorum est pro patria more.
“…the horr-or…the horr-or…”
I liked the original theatrical version of Apocalypse Now better than the Redux. The original had a long segment of music and nepalm that ran through the credits and was quite mesmerizing.
All Quiet On the Western Front is a great example for this topic but I think that the book was much more graphic and realistic than the theatrical presentation.
For me, The Red Badge of Courage had more effect on screen than the book did, though.
Do any of you know of any film which contrasts a just, ie defensive war, against an unjust one? Being anti-war doesn’t make you a pacifist.
I just remembered “Grave of fireflies”. It it very sad and beautiful. I’m suprised it hasn’t shown up in this thread yet.
Do any of you know of any film which contrasts a just, ie defensive war, against an unjust one? Being anti-war doesn’t make you a pacifist.
I think you would have to go into a bit more detail, as it seems that every non anti-war film deals with this ex: Spartacus, Braveheart, Star Wars, many many Westerns, etc
Merry christmas (Joyeux noel) is pretty much the most poignant anty-war film I’ve seen.
Downfall is always good. The theme isn’t necessarily anti-war, but it makes Adolf Hitler seem like a human. I feel like many people see him as some kind of comic book character that couldn’t possibly come to power in ‘modern times’, so it’s interesting to humanize the war.
EDIT: I’ll add Brothers because, while it’s a drama film, it’s really anti-war too. And the guerilla fighters in Pan’s Labyrinth always make me happy.
i second scineram’s nomination, “no man’s land”, and would add another danis tanovic film, “triage”. i also liked the israeli anti-war films, “waltz with bashir” and “lebanon”.
“full metal jacket” i think could be considered an anti-war film. brilliant.
to brian anderson:
totally agree. i have a soft spot for “merry christmas mr lawrence”, and the old john boorman classic “hell in the pacific”. kubrick’s “dr. strangelove” is a must-see as has been noted already.
i loved “pan’s labyrinth” too, but tend to discount a lot of the movies that feature the spanish civil war, as they are prone to make the franquistas too arch, and glorify the communists’ heroic struggle. i can’t think of one spanish film that gets the balance right.
i’d also recommend, given the present war-on-terror, pontecorvo’s 1966 classic “the battle for algiers”.
clint eastwood’s double-set “flags of our fathers” and “letters from iwo jima” are also anti-war, in my opinion.
i saw “stop-loss” and “the hurt locker” as having an anti-war message.
The Americanization of Emily is my favourite, after that Xiu Xiu. Stalingrad, the one about the siege from the point of view of the civilians is worth the time too. Lust, Caution about Sino-Japanese war is a different kind but I recommend it also.