Anti-War Films

Posted on May 17, 2004 in Culture

“What’s interesting for me about Troy and the story of The Iliad is its the eternal question of the futility of war, the weariness of war, and a terrible sense of deja vu of what the Trojans faced and what we face today.”

– Saffron Burrows who played Andromache in Troy

Wolfgang Petersen is often cited as a maker of “anti-war films”. His movie Das Boot is frequently mentioned along with Gallipolli as one of two greatest of the genre ever made. I beg to differ in both cases. Gandhi is an antiwar film because it presents an alternative to violent unrest. Likewise, I will say the same of King Of Hearts, that wonderful story of an abandoned French town taken over by lunatics for a day. Even madmen know that war is hell and they gladly retreat to the asylum when the troops come marching in.

What’s wrong with Petersen’s take? Petersen’s characters profess to hate war. They make fun of their leaders and abuse those jingoists who think that their particular war is being fought for good causes. Consider how the crew of Das Boot torments the Nazi attache placed in their midst or how the returing captain in the film’s barroom scene sprays a beer fountain as he mocks Hitler. At the end of the scene, he and the captain who is to play a central role in the story go back to sea. They do their job of secretly prowling the North Atlantic for wayward freighters and tankers taking supplies to Britain. When they hear Americans crying to be rescued from the burning sea, the captain orders the crew below. “We just can’t take them on,” he says.

Consider, too, Gallipoli. It shows the sadness of losing comrades, but also celebrates stupid acts of violence such as the trashing of an Egyptian’s shop by Mel Gibson. Again, the soldiers do their job. They don’t mutiny. They don’t try to settle the conflict in a different way. When ordered to attack against the Turkish positions, they attack.

The theme of both films isn’t so much anti-war but anti-stupid-leaders who put people in impossible situations. Even if you don’t agree with the premises of the fight, the message of both goes, you still march where they tell you to march, charge when they tell you to charge, shoot who they tell you to shoot. The ultimate sin in both of these classics isn’t killing the enemy but getting killed yourself. Though they are powerful in making their statement against stupid commands, I won’t call them anti-war. Anti-cannon fodder, perhaps, but they are both a far cry from pacifism.