This. Grave of the Fireflies is the most depressing and convincingly anti-war movie I’ve seen.
There’s next to no depiction of battle, nor of soliders fighting. It focuses entirely on the effects on the innocents caught up in the conflict. It’s anime, but the mature, well produced kind.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Born on the Fourth of July. I remember seeing this movie before I left to basic training. It seriously made me rethink about my enlistment into the military. I was very unfortunate because I went to Ranger School and became a medic (meaning that my chances of seeing combat where increased by a factor of 10). I’m grateful I didn’t see any combat, and my primary reason for joining was for a 100% college tuition waiver. I was lucky that my enlistment ended before any major conflicts.
Born on the Fourth of July just represents the reality of war in pure horror. That being said, many just don’t realize how much Hollywood glamorizes war. Military life is not easy, especially in combat units. It’s incredibly physically demanding and mentally you can lose yourself in the military mentality. However, I meet a multitude of military officers who were converted libertarians that exposed me to the truths of liberty.
Grave of the Fireflies it is. I cried for almost a week , just so shattering. No other films mentioned here come close to Grave for emotional impact. Amazingly But I guess its justifiable since they bombed Pearl barbor. Thats the logic on film boards for the death of those wonderful children. Whats the Menecken line about human stupidity.
Another point about Grave of the Fireflies, it’s based on the author’s experiences during the time, and is in many respects a true story. I think that was what pushed it over the top for me. It’s not some overblown story, wagging it’s finger at you that WAR IS BAD. It’s a fictionalized account of the writer’s own experiences, and in some ways an apology to his sister.
“They deserved it because of Pearl Harbor.”
Have anyone who says that watch this movie and let them say it again with a straight face.
Oliver Stone movies are powerful statements against the Vietnam War. You can forget about his being a Democrat or the maker of ‘Wall Street,’ and focus on ‘JFK,’ ‘Platoon,’ and as the guy above me pointed out, ‘Born on the fourth of July.’ Brilliant works. Personally, my favorite is ‘JFK.’
Grave of the Fireflies is an excellent antiwar movie. You win this thread.
The thin red line succeeded in showing the horrors of war. Showed the Japanese being actual real people.
i’d like to add the messenger (2009). it’s a telling reminder to where interventionism ends up.
300. The Hellenic Era was terrifying.
I consider Waltz With Bashir (2008) to be the one best anti-war films. Some of the scenes are completely mesmerising…
At the moment I’m reading Catch-22, which has a pretty damn explicit anti-military/anti-bureaucracy massage too.
I love all of Oliver Stone’s work. I know he wants people to “re-think” socialism or whatever he said, but, out of all of his interviews I’ve seen, he actually seems like a pretty reasonable person. I feel like he’d actually be able to have an honest conversation about economics/politics instead of someone like Bill Maher who seems pretty stubborn in his views.
The above movie was more of a statement on how ivory tower Hollywood understands little of the violence it glorifies in cinema…rather than an anti-war movie. Good choice though haha!
'Grave of the Fireflies is an excellent antiwar movie. You win this thread.
I have never seen it but reading the plot from wiki, it sounds like a carbon copy of what many Tokyo children went through at the end of the war. Many turn into thieves or ‘gutter children’ who were neglected by the survivors because they were seen as dirty criminals. Very depressing.
Apocalypse Now without a doubt. It depicts not only the horror and futility of Vietnam, but illustrates how we were trying deliberately not to win it.
No Man’s Land isn’t antiwar. It’s pro-interventionist.
to marko:
i didn’t get that message. to me it exposed the hypocrisy of the “peace-keeping” mission. but it’s been a while since i watched it.
Anything depicting war depicts the horrors of war.
It pokes fun at the UN intervention for being inefficient and surrounded by red tape. Exactly the line of argument used to bring about a US led NATO intervention in its stead.
i saw the film’s exposure of inefficiency and cynicism of the u.n. peacekeepers as a disendorsement of their function.
what politicians made of u.n. ineptitude is a different matter, surely not the fault of the director. tanovic’ anti-war credentials, to my mind, were boosted in his 2009 film, triage.
