Melting Down the Armor: The Soldier Portrayed Through Cinematic History

Abstract

Since the beginning of this century, films have provided a visual account of the chaos and horror, as well as the glory of war. Some of the earliest films depicted the mythological nature of war and tended to sentimentalize the warrior as an invincible being. Over the course of cinematic history, a theme of disillusionment with war began to prevail. This paper seeks to examine how the fantasy of heroism was replaced by the harsh reality of war through the realistic cinematic interpretation of war. The humanist elements of our society had begun to question the madness of the ritual of war. Furthermore, the harsh reality of war has left emotional and physical scars that will last a lifetime for the soldiers who endured the ravages of battle. From the films Birth of a Nation (1915) to Apocalypse Now (1979), history through motion pictures began to chronicle this transition from the glorification of war to the theme of disillusionment.