Press Action ::: Medium Cool, Cool Medium

Sunday, November 28, 2004

Medium Cool, Cool Medium

By Jordy Cummings

I am presently working on a book on popular culture and opposition culture, in particular, film and music, and how they have reflected dissent and even revolutionary insight. At present, I have finished my research stage, heavily influenced by the work of the great Marxist film historian Paul Buhle (author of a five-part history of the Hollywood blacklist.) Part of this project, however, entails asking readers to adulterate or comment on this here list, of the greatest antiwar movies of all time.

What is an antiwar movie? Is it simply a film that shows the horrors of war? That simply won’t do. There are plenty of films, think The Deer Hunter, that ostensibly show the horror of war, but leave the viewer believing in the altogether innocence of the guilty party. If one were against the Vietnam war, one found their views in The Deer Hunter, if one was for the war, one did as well. An antiwar film, on the other hand, can glorify war—say, people’s war in The Battle of Algiers (it served as an antiwar film to the French,) or even the simple battle to keep your buddies alive, such as in Platoon or All Quiet on the Western Front.

What makes the latter two films squarely antiwar is that through the experience of a small group of soldiers, one sees the class structure of the military, and how soldiers deal with knowledge of their unjust and criminal predicament. On the other hand, Full Metal Jacket is both a pro-war and anti-war film, because, like much of Kubrick’s work, it is an amalgam of realism and surrealism. Even Dr. Strangelove and the underrated Sydney Lumet film (recently remade for television) Failsafe represent the complete totality of antiwar cinema, since they honestly—if somewhat satirically—portray war’s ideologists, or in the case of Jacket, the fascism of military training. Unlike The Deer Hunter, however, these films can be described as squarely pacifist or antiwar, since the pro-war arguments are shown to be what they have always been—absurd. As is said in “Al Quiet on the Western Front,”

As part of the research project, I aim to create a database, online, of antiwar films, along with reviews and a forum to discuss them. These films can be organizational catalysts for the movement, reflection for the troops with whom I sympathize but don’t support and at the very least provide a conscious and valuable alternative entertainment, with the growth of DVD rental and downloadable film, to television. Though his methodology informs me to some degree, unlike Theodor Adorno I don’t believe everything the culture industry produces is inevitably polluted. For a detailed look at the methodology I use for selection, check Radical Hollywood by Paul Buhle.

Part of it as well has to do with developing and pushing a radical aesthetic that current filmmakers should pick up on, seeing the growth of an antiwar movement that comprises, by Michael Kinsley’s estimate (no radical) 47 million Americans. I doubt the big corporations would want to release these films, but large pseudo-indies and Canadian companies may well do so. Finally, in delineating why Deer Hunter is not an antiwar film, while Born on the Fourth of July may be an excellent story but suffers from miscasting so is not worth studying, as opposed to remaking...the antiwar movement can participate in building a participatory aesthetic for which to, as in the time of Shakespeare or even Costa Gravas, critically reflect on Imperialism while building a popular audience.

Antiwar films are now required from responsible artists. It is not enough for films that ominously allude to America’s current predicament (Mystic River‘s scene of a Patriotic parade covering for a nod between murderers) or, worse yet, truly antiwar films that artists are allowing to be marketed as pro-war films (Team America, Behind Enemy Lines.) American filmmakers need to enlighten the broadest degree of Americans, as well as speak to those who already oppose war. Jonathan Demme recently remade the Cold War liberal thriller The Mancurian Candidate as a meditation on Gulf War Syndrome, Capitalism, Imperialism and Civil Liberties. This is what responsible filmmaking should be, particularly since the film that was remade was, while brilliant, ostensibly in favor of the Cold War.

Here I list 20 or more films as a point of departure, many of which are my favorite antiwar films of all time. I would appreciate advice from readers about their own favorite antiwar films. (Note: At this point I am not including documentaries in my study.)

(In no particular order)

English language:

All Quiet on the Western Front (Lewis Milestone, 1930)
Medium Cool (Haskell Wexler, 1968)
Salvador (Oliver Stone, 1984)
Carla’s Song (Ken Loach, 1993)
Wag the Dog (Barry Levinson, 1997)
Coming Home (Hal Ashby, 1976)
Johnnie Get His Gun (Dalton Trumbo, 1971 - as shown in Metallica’s “One” music video)
Mash (Robert Altman, 1970)
Failsafe (Sidney Lumet, 1964)
Three Kings (David O. Russell, 1996)

World Cinema:

Grand Illusion (France - Jean Renoir, 1938 - this writer’s favorite movie)
Kippur (Israel, Amos Gitai, 1999 - shows the futility of IDF wars)
Pretty Village, Pretty Flame (Yugoslavia, 1996 - shows the totality of the Balkan wars as horror, but is rare in that it shows the Serb perspective as well as others)
Les Carbaneers (Jean Luc Goddard, France, 1963)
Notre Musique (JL Godard, France, 2004 - a Pro Palestinian masterpiece)
Salo - the 120 Days of Sodom (the best film about Fascism, Pier Paulo Passolini, Italy, 1975)
9/11/01 (omnibus – many directors, international, limited release but available on DVD/video - directors include Sean Penn, Ken Loach, Shohei Imaamura - all about 9/11 - all antiwar)
4 Days in September (Bruno Barretto, Brazil, 1996)
Divine Intervention (By the Palestinian Charlie Chaplin, Elia Suleiman, 2002)
Goodbye Uncle Tom (Prosperi/Massimi, Italy, 1971 - the best film ever made about the slave trade)