I titled this "film 1" in case I blog again about film, but who knows if I will. I'm kind of enjoying sharing a few thoughts randomly right now, even though I'm not sure if it is what we are supposed to do here. But, seeing as how this is a film class, I probably ought to talk about film in at least one blog.
One thing that I have noticed is that we have watched a whole heck of a lot of war films. Okay, maybe only 2 in class, but I feel like it has been more- especially with my friends this semester. And the more war films I watch, the more I feel they are all the same. America is entrenched in deep horrific warfare against some faceless evil. We are the good, they are the bad, and we must fight to win- we must fight for glory. Blood, guts, sweat, and tears pour forward until I'm not sure I can take the cinematic jumble anymore. But with this comes the underlying internal struggle within the few main characters who question the point of the war, and how their involvement adds to or takes away from the meaning of their life.
I get it- battle is crazy, intense, gory, and emotions are wild and high- but how many movies do we need to watch before we understand this? How much money does Hollywood need to pour into the industry so that we as viewers can get the same message in a different way. Call me a cynic, or overly critical, but I think all these films are the same after a while. Yes, they are done differently, some present the message more artistically than others, but when I walk out of the theater with the same "war is horror, men struggle to find meaning, but in the end the learn more about themselves and become stronger because of it.... unless they die, but they died in peace" message I just stop caring. What I want to see is something different- something spectacular- or perhaps something that shows war as boring, where soldiers sit around a lot, and some never see a battle. I realize this doesn't make for award-winning drama, and wouldn't pull in numbers to the box office, but those messages are just as important aren't they?
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