Anti-War Films

[Big Magilla]

I think most war films are essentially anti-war films. I mean, who the hell in their right mind would actually WANT war?

Most, if not all, war films made during World War II, whether made by Hollywood, Britain, Russia or Germany or any other country involved in the war, were propaganda films made to boost the war effort for their side. If you look at my admitedly incomplete list you will notice there isn't a single film made between the outbreak of World War II until several years after the war ended. Nurse Edith Cavell was made before Hitler invaded Poland.

Films made immediately ater the war, while more realistic than those made during the war, continued to stress the nobility of the men who fought in the war. While there have since been major Hollywood films made criticizing certain aspects of the war (the upcoming Flags of Our Fathers being a notable example), no film has ever suggested that the war itself from the allies as a whole acted less than nobly.

That has not been the case with films questioning the American particpation in Vietnam. Nor will it be the case with films about the Iaq War once it's over.

[OscarGuy]

Corporations, dictators and religious nutsos.

[anonymous1980]

I think most war films are essentially anti-war films. I mean, who the hell in their right mind would actually WANT war?

[criddic3]

Can you really categorize Glory as an anti-War film?

[rain Bard]

The 1919 version of J'Accuse!, directed by Abel Gance (who later made Napoleon) is the earliest that comes to mind, but I'm sure there are other earlier ones, especially if you don't restrict the choice to feature films.

Whether it's any good or not, I can't say for myself, having only seen brief clips. But on imdb it's the second-highest-rated Gance film, with a 7.91 score.

[kaytodd]

I am going to have to hunt down a DVD of Johnny Got His Gun to rent. I read the novel in junior high school and saw it during my freshman year of college and both works affected me greatly. I haven't thought about it in years. I haven't noticed it on TV very often and have seen it only a few times. The thoughtlesness and casual cruelty of th officers toward the men under their command was shocking and the scenes in the hospital make my skin crawl whenever I think about them. Not a masterpiece, but very powerful.

[Big Magilla]

1921's Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and 1925's The Big Parade were two earlier hugely successful anti-war films.

I wouldn't classify Wings as anti-war. While it doesn't shy away from the horrors of war, it spends most of its screen time glorifying the use of airpower in war.

Other anti-war films include 1933's The Eagle and the Hawk, 1937's Grand Illusion, 1939's Nurse Edith Clavell, 1951's The Red Badge of Courage and The Steel Helmet, 1952's Forbidden Games, 1955's Bridges at Toko-Ri, 1957's Paths of Glory, 1958's The Young Lions and A Time to Love and a Time to Die (by Quiet author Erich Maria Remarque), 1964's Dr. Strangelove, 1966's La Guerre Est Finie, 1969's Oh! What a Lovely War, 1970's M*A*S*H and Catch-22, 1971's Johnny Got His Gun, 1978's Coming Home, 1979's Apoclaypse Now and The Tin Drum, 1981's Gallipoli, 1986's Platoon, 1989's Born on the Fourth of July, Henry V and Glory, 1992's A Midnight Clear, 2001's No Man's Land and 2005's Joyeux Noel.

[Damien]

The 1920s -- despite the "Roaring Twenties" appellation -- was a decade of xenophobia and reactionary attitudes, and isolationism ran high. Accordingly, there was a great deal of anti-war sentiment in the United States, as people questioned what the Great War had been fought for. John Ford's Four Sons (1928), The Dawn Patrol (1930), The Enemy (1927) and, to some degree, The Big Parade (1925) have anti-war themes, and I'm sure there are many other pacifistic silent films with which I'm not familiar.

[Greg]

I haven't seen Wings, the first Best Picture winner; but, I read where it is considered to be an anti-war film.

[OscarGuy]

I just watched the wonderful All Quiet on the Western Front for the first time and was wondering if anyone knew the history of Anti-War films. Was this the first anti-war film? was it the first anti-war film that was any good?