y, there are some similarities between war films of then and now. For example, William Wyler’s Best Picture winner The Best Years of Our Lives (1946) portrays the struggles of three ex-veterans of WWII to readjust to family and social life. Like Steven Spielberg’s compassionate remake of The Fighting Sullivan’s (1944), Saving Private Ryan (1998), some Hollywood war films then and now were meant to compassionately evoke the real horrors of war experienced by those willing to sacrifice their lives for others. We will now look at a variety of films turned out by Hollywood that deal with WWII and conflicts like the Gulf War. In so doing we will be searching for similarities and differences that reflect changing socioeconomic and geopolitical concerns. A conclusion will address what factors are most responsible for this shift in purpose and perspective in Hollywood ”war” films.
The geopolitical concerns of U.S. government and society in the 1940s were radically different than those of the U.S. government today. While films are still used as propaganda by the U.S. government, in the 1940s the nation was much less divisive over war policy. Having yet not experienced the fear of the bomb, the racial divisions of the 1960s, and presidential scandals like Watergate, 1940s culture took most of Hollywood war propaganda at face value compared to more cynical, jaded and suspect audiences of today. So, too, conflicts like WWII were much more galvanizing in their impact on American patriotism than say the Gulf War. Because of this a slew of films during the 1940s helped to turn the enemy into an “evil” “other”, while highlighting the need for patriotism, courage, and sacrifice among Americans. Different films help to propagandize different aspects of the impact of war on society. Films like David O’Selznick’s Since You Went Away (1944) showed the sacrifices many women were asked to make in order to assure American i...