About War Films recently spoke to Gary Nelson, a veteran, a former historian for the 113th Wing, D.C. Air Guard, and a screenwriter with his son, Glenn (currently deployed to the Middle East).  As a historian, Gary has a strong view about war movies and their frequent deviations from history. 

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What are your top 5 war films and why? 

The Longest Day.  While there was a great deal of historical inaccuracies in the movie, it was the first to show how overwhelming the effort was to get 160,000 Allied troops over the English Channel.

Zulu.  While it had many more historical errors, it brought to the viewer a battle that was (in context of the real facts) magnificently handled by two Lieutenants of the British Army fraught with overwhelming odds and complications.

Saving Private Ryan.  The story has been criticized for using the story of Fredrick Niland and exaggerating it into what became the feature length movie.  But the weight of what the film depicts in battle scenes goes beyond all of that.  It did show Omaha Beach as it really was, and the professionalism of American Military Officers, and occasionally the frustration the enlisted personnel dealt with.

Fury.  Just released, it did even better then Saving Private Ryan in terms of illustrating what goes into a war atmosphere.  Ambushes, taking casualties regardless of which side has superior firepower, coming to terms with killing.

  One could almost smell the stench of rotting bodies.  The greatest “contribution” was the special effects that depicted what it is like to be on the receiving end of enemy fire from tanks!

China Gate (1957) starring Angie Dickinson and Nat King Cole.  If anyone wants to experience a “social awakening” associated with a war film this is it.  Having been released in 1957 it was poignant in its depiction of racism and attitudes of the time while being set in Indo China (now Vietnam).  I saw the movie on TV for the first time in late 1972.  The Paris Peace Accords were 8-9 moths off and the USA continued to be embroiled in battles in the country.  One line from a mercenary fighting with the French was (remember now, 1957) was, “American does not want to get involved in Vietnam."  I nearly cried.  The only reason I was in the Air Force at that time was the Vietnam War and I wished he was right and stayed right.

What do you find that war films always get wrong?

Historical accuracy.  The younger amongst us reading this may not remember Dragnet and their infamous line, "Just the facts."  It amazes me that writers, directors, and producers, have to put their “thumbprint” on historical events.  Write a script, tell what happened, and then make a great movie around that foundation.  

What’s your favorite war to be depicted in war films?  

WWII.  I started reading on the subject when I was ten and have never stopped.  I am still learning. 

 

I write in About War Movies that war films used to be fairly patriotic but in modern war films (The Hurt Locker, Green Zone, Camp X-Ray, etc.) now they almost always show the U.S. as being morally compromised.   How is that evolution of war films due to the respective popularity of wars (which is to suggest Vietnam war films might often be about soldiers behaving badly because that war was unpopular, whereas the second World War was heroic) and how much of the evolution of war films has to do with a change in culture?

In my opinion given the totality of the circumstances films are getting better, and I get the impression that what I wrote about the “facts” is slowly being recognized by those that make such films today.  As for war being morally compromising, you better believe it.  Back in the day we took kids from the inner city, suburbs, countryside, and Ivy League campuses and told them to kill. That entails moral  compromising right there.  Today we have an All-Volunteer Military.  But the social conflict remains. 

What’s your opinion about the role of violence in war films?

War is violence.  If it is padded it should not be made.  Refer back to Saving Private Ryan, Zulu and Fury. 

What’s a great story from history that hasn’t been told in a war film?  Or at least, hasn’t been told well?

The Holocaust and the Resistance against Nazism and the Empire of Japan.  Not enough has been done to recognize the suffering and the courage.

Do you think that most war films on some level promote war unrealistically? (For example, some movies focus on the thrill of battle, but even war films that are supposed to warn against war by showing us its horrors, still use a sweeping instrumental score for the hero in the final scenes, but as we all know, in real life, there’s no slow motion shot, no musical score in the background when you die in battle.)

Good points made here.  The “music” of war should be the sound of battle, and not to be facetious at all, but there is no glory in war.  There are accomplishments such as defeating dictators and overwhelming terrorism.  Sacrifice will always be required.  And as for “epics” leave that to  Cleopatra and the like.

As a writer, how does your past appreciation of war films inform your present day literary efforts?  What are your inspirations?  What films motivated you to NOT emulate them?
My inspiration remains the human spirit thrust into horror of war.  War movies should inform in many ways, and they should never entertain.  Drama and comedy is for entertaining.  Military genre movies should be an awareness event without shoving personal opinions into them.