The Age of War Films

Believe it or not, the writers at Beantown Lifestyle might have an opinion or two on topics other than sports. Once in a while, we like to articulate thoughts on other matters. Sometimes, just sometimes, they make sense.

This particular idea is something that I've kind of always thought about but never put pen to paper, so to speak. I grew up watching old black and white WWII films with my dad, and slowly my tastes evolved from watching John Wayne running around with seemingly unlimited ammo to the more shockingly vivid battle wounds depicted in modern war films (although Sands of Iwo Jima will always be a favorite).

When I was a kid, war movies were coming out every year and I remember my dad going to see them and telling me about them, but saying I wasn't old enough to see them myself. They were too violent, too bloody, too scary. I remember thinking, "Why do they have to make them so violent and realistic? Just because they can, doesn't mean they have to. Kids want to watch war movies, too."

Over the years, I grew my DVD collection and began including the same films that I wasn't allowed to see when I was younger. These movies grabbed my love of history with a penchant for action and harnessed me in over and over again.

I haven't bought too many DVDs lately, and there haven't been too many films I have seen worth buying. Then recently, someone said, "Man, there hasn't been a good war movie out in years." I just smiled and agreed.

Then I thought for a moment. There hasn't been a good war movie out in years.

So I did a little research and I was pretty surprised at the results. Here is a list I've compiled of some of the best "modern" war movies:

1995: Braveheart
1997: Rough Riders
1998: Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line
2000: Gladiator, The Patriot
2001: Black Hawk Down, Enemy at the Gates, The Lost Battalion, Band of Brothers
2002: Windtalkers, We Were Soldiers
2003: Tears of the Sun

It's a good list of some great movies, all the movies that I watched growing up. Look closer at the dates, though. Thirteen of the best war movies ever made were released in a span of 8 years.

Sure, some have come out since then, but not like this. They were pretty staggered before this timeline, and they've been staggered since. All the most popular war movies everyone loves, like Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, and Black Hawk Down came out within a few years of each other.

And what since? A few good ones come to mind, like Defiance, Act of Valor, and The Hurt Locker. If you say Jarhead, go eat a sandwich. You're crazy when you're hungry. But none of these movies are full out war films like the ones on this list.

There are a few possible reasons for this. Coincidence? Maybe. I take a quick look and see that many of the "big name" actors of the time all had to make their big picture war film: Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks, Russell Crowe, Bruce Willis, and Nicholas Cage.

The supporting casts for these films is perhaps even more impressive: Matt Damon, George Clooney, Orlando Bloom, Josh Harnett, Heath Ledger, Rick Schroder, Adrian Brody, Sean Penn, Woody Harrelson, Jude Law, Joseph Fiennes, Eric Bana, Ewan MacGregor, Tom Sizemore, Tom Hardy, Tom Berenger and more. Basically everyone and their mother wanted to be in a war movie during this time.

And don't forget Dale Dye: the guy who seems to be in every war movie ever created.

So it seems far more than coincidence.

Films have a symbiotic relationship with society and culture: they both shape and are shaped by what people believe, care about, think about, and how they act.

Let's call this period in which all these films came out "W-Era." War films, especially the realistic ones like these, can be controversial and oftentimes upsetting for people during times of war. People see explosions and guns and blood on the big screen and they get upset, understandably so, when they imagine their own sons and brothers and neighbors and friends overseas doing the same thing. So these films tend not to come out during times of conflict.

Examine closer: the Persian Gulf war ended in 1991. The conflict and disaster in Somalia (which Black Hawk Down is based on), occurred in 1993. So, just before this streak of war films came out. Then conflict happened again following the terrorist attacks of 2001, with wars in Afghanistan and then Iraq. "W-Era" ended just before the conflict in the Middle East.

So all of these war movies came after an overseas conflict, and before another. Is that coincidence? I hardly think so.

But why haven't many war films come out since? I'll even be as bold to say the Golden Age of war movies is over (Okay- that's a stretch.) But seriously, hardly any war movies have come out since then and none of them on the scale as those from "W-Era." I hope directors start making new ones soon, but we may never again see a stretch of high quality, epic war movies come out like that again.

But, maybe that's a good thing.