Ten TV Shows And Movies That Taught Me Something About War
by Megan Smith

I'm lucky. I've never had to serve in a war or known someone close who's died in one. Even though I learned the facts and figures of war in school, the impact of war I learned from television and the movies. In honor of Memorial Day, this post is about what I've learned about war.

Tenko - (British TV Series: 1981-1984) This landmark series was about a group of British, Australian and Dutch women captured during the Japanese invasion of Singapore at the start of WWII and then spent the next three years in a POW camp. The characters were fascinating, the life and death struggles were harrowing and it was the first time the brutality of POW camp life, especially for women, hit me full on.

Courage Under Fire - (Film: 1996) This underrated movie stars Denzel Washington and Meg Ryan. It's about a Lt. Colonel veteran of the Gulf War (Washington) investigating the death of Karen Walden (Ryan), in order to determine her qualification for a posthumous Medal Of Honor. The questioning of the surviving crew members of her downed helicopter results in different accounts of her death, causing the Lt. Colonel to eventually uncover a terrible secret. This to me was one of Meg Ryan's best roles and it was the first movie I'd seen that showed a woman in such realistic combat. It co-stars Matt Damon and Lou Diamond Phillips.

A Town Like Alice - (British/Australian TV Mini-Series: 1981) Based on the novel by Nevil Shute who also wrote the post nuclear holocaust novel, "On The Beach," this is a love story set in Japanese occupied Malaysia during WWII. He's Joe Harmon an Australian POW (Bryan Brown) and she's Jean Paget a British captive (Helen Morse). It was this series that made me understand some of what it must have been like to try and survive the hell on earth that was a death march.

Legends of the Fall - (Film: 1994) Most people remember this movie as the breakout film for a youthful Brad Pitt. What was more memorable for me however, was a scene set during WWI where one of the characters is trapped and killed in barbed wire on the field of battle. There's a Sting song called, "The Children's Crusade" and part of the lyric includes the line, "They're trapped on the wire, and dying in waves." I never understood that line until this movie, and I've never forgotten it.

Friendly Fire - (TV Movie: 1979) This TV movie starred Carol Burnett, in a rare dramatic role, and Ned Beatty as parents of a son killed in Vietnam. After being given evasive answers about how their son died, it's discovered that he died from friendly fire. Forgive me for being young at the time, but this was the first time the concept of someone in a war being killed by someone from their own side ever occurred to me.

Saving Private Ryan - (Film: 1998) The first twenty minutes of this film, the landing on Normandy Beach during WWII, have to be the most realistic scenes of war ever filmed. If you see it in a movie theatre, it's almost more than a viewer can bear. Intense doesn't even begin to describe it. It's inescapable for us, as it was for those young soldiers. I remember thinking after the movie was over, I didn't know how anyone could survive such an experience and then live out the rest of their lives "normally." How do you ever shop at a grocery store, how do you ever have a picnic, how do you ever sleep through the night again after such a horrifying experience? I still don't know.

Danger UXB - (British TV Series: 1979) The world of "Danger UXB" was a revelation to me. Starring Anthony Andrews, the series followed the progress of bomb disposal units in England during WWII. From the most rudimentary techniques of disarming bombs to trying to disarm bombs that were specially designed with booby traps meant for bomb disposal officers, this excellent series showed an aspect of WWII I knew absolutely nothing about. Sometimes the bombs were in the middle of a London schoolyard, sometimes on the roof of a private house. Wherever they were, the men of the bomb disposal units had to determine how to either detonate or disarm them safely so life for civilians could get back to "normal."

The War - (TV Documentary Series: 2007) Ken Burns' documentary "The War" is a monumental work that brings WWII to life in a comprehensive way. It's an examination of four American towns and the experiences of their soldiers. It's told with authentic war time footage, much of which has never been seen before.

The Killing Fields - (Film: 1984) This film tells the true story of American journalist Sydney Schanberg (Sam Waterston) and local photojournalist Dith Pran (Academy Award winner Dr. Haing S. Ngor) as they try to cover the rise of the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia. With the fall of the Cambodian capital Phnom Penh, Schanberg, a writer with New York Times escapes with the help of Pran, but Pran is forced to stay and fight for his own survival. The second half of the movie follows Pran and his encounters with "the killing fields." My most vivid memories of this movie are the shots of rows and rows of skulls Pran discovers as he tries to evade capture.

The Diary Of Anne Frank - (Film: 1959) I read the book as a kid, saw the movie and the real Anne Frank house in Holland as a teenager and I'll never forget any of them. What more is there to say?

The Newreels Of The Bombing Of Pearl Harbor And The Television Coverage Of 9/11. These images of course were not a TV show or a movie, they were all too real and I felt the need to add them. One happened before I was born and the other did not. They were both declarations of war, the only difference being on 9/11, the soldiers weren't in uniform, they were in business suits and pumps. They didn't carry guns and grenades, but briefcases and handbags. They worked at coffee pushcarts and in restaurant kitchens and on fire trucks and in police cars. But for me, that terrible day, they were all soldiers. And don't let anyone tell you that day wasn't a day of war.

Finally, here's a video that commemorates women who serve in the military, as bravely as the men, but often with many more challenges. We all owe them and the men who serve with them a debt of thanks on this Memorial Day.


Other Links:

Military War Movies And TV Shows: A very thorough list with descriptions.
Reading While Black: A post about Spike Lee's criticism of Clint Eastwood's movies "Flags Of Our Fathers" and "Letters From Iwo Jima."
Herstory: A post about women in the military and the need to curb harassment and assault.


Megan Smith is a BlogHer Contributing Editor covering TV and YouTube and she'd like to see war become a thing of the past. Megan's other blogs are Megan's Minute and Video Runway.

Submitted by Megan Smith (view blog) on Sun, 05/25/2008 - 23:18

Comments

 

A Town Like Alice

I had no idea it was a BBC series. I wonder if I can get it on VHS or DVD somehow.

Thanks Megan. I'm surprised by how many from this list I haven't seen.

~Denise
BlogHer Community Manager

Flamingo House Happenings

Submitted by Denise on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 03:34
 

It's Available On VHS

Hi Denise,

It is available from Amazon third party sellers on VHS. All of those copies are used but if you can get one that's "like new," the quality should be pretty good.

I saw a DVD version listed at another site, but I'm certain it's a bootleg of questionable quality. You might do better going with Amazon.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 04:23
 

Must try and find Tenko

I don't believe I ever saw it, and it's the only footage from your list that I haven't seen.

There was also Playing For Time, a great movie about women in a German POW camp. These women were all musicians and were allowed to survive by performing for the officers.

Debra
A Stitch In Time
Deb's Daily Distractions

Submitted by debra roby on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 05:56
 

Amazon Has It But It's The PAL Version

Hi Debra,

Amazon sells the "Tenko" DVD but it's the PAL version that won't play in the United States. You might have to try Ebay, but just make sure it's US compatible.

I remember "Playing For Time" and you're right, it was an excellent TV movie starring Vanessa Redgrave.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 07:37
 

Interesting topic...

I've not seen several on the list, and would like to see them at some point.

Guess my view of war came by way of nightly images from Vietnam. Somewhere post dinner we would be watching the nightly news, and day after day came stories from Vietnam, gruesome stories and images that for a young mind indoctrinated me in the ways of our world.

Images that lasted are of the child running naked, the gun to a soldier's head, and... five just returned home caskets draped in American flags, this against the backdrop of a clear blue sky, as they sat on the tarmac not 4 miles from here.

My sister knew several of those fallen soldiers, she worked with them. Part of a National Guard unit, their vehicle hit a mine and took them out. One of them lived less than a half mile from here. I was barely a teen. This... was nuts.

We saw what napalm could do. We didn't hide the dead by banning such pictures on their return. War was shown in all its incredible inhumanity.

Now, now it is more video gamish. And we don't wish to traumatise the population, so we ban the images of bodies returning home. We sanitise the news coverage, and we even sanitise the treatment. Soldiers can be mistreated for months, denied access to care, and then when someone finally gets wind of it, our leaders feign surprise and outrage.

I've studied war a good deal, as one might expect someone who co-majored in 20th century European history might.

Guess for me movies and television refined my opinion, gave me some other ways at looking at all of this, but I will add my own, the books and miniseries of Herman Wouks The Winds of War, and War and Remembrance. For novels/film showing the impact of a world at war, that did much to really bring it all home.  

 

 

nelle

Submitted by nelle2nelle on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 08:01
 

It Is Nuts

Hi Nelle,

I was spared many of the television images from Vietnam. We only had one TV in the house and my Mom limited my TV watching.

The horrors of war have obviously touched you and your family very deeply and I'm so sorry for that.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 08:58
 

In a way...

surely for my then 18 year old sister, who worked with those soldiers.

Yet no one I know was lost to the war. My uncle served 3 tours there, and fortunately made it through unscathed (physically.)

It tears at my soul to see people being slaughtered because the rest of the world has not figured out how to get along.

I've spent a lot of life learning and contemplating that issue, and it never ceases to amaze me how we cannot learn the lesson.

We get all fired up because some nation 7,000 or so miles away might do something nasty to us one day. Motivated by someone who found a way to attack us in an unconventional way, we let our judgement be clouded by opportunistic politics, let our military be put to use beyond what was logical (Afghanistan.) And now we set here once again a nation divided, with 4,000 lost to the insanity, and countless more unseen who will carry the physical and emotional marks for the rest of their lives.

I wonder what it would take to put stronger tests in place, measures that would make leaders think twice before committing the nation to war. And I wonder if there is any sort of national desire that we do this. Probably not. And thus... there will be a whole lot more of writings that lament future losses and insanity. 

 

nelle

Submitted by nelle2nelle on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 09:30
 

Would Women Do A Better Job?

I was telling my uncle about this post today and what he said was if the world were run by women, there would be almost no war.

I'm not so sure I agree wiith that, but I'm willing to give it a try.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 14:51
 

The first answer

I'd toss out would be a simplistic 'probably.'

The fact is, overall our opinions are skewed differently than the opinion of men overall. Polls tend to show a gender divide, but those matters of degree, not total divergence.

Society, and I'm about to toss in the p word here - patriarchy - has a way of vetting  those who rise to lead such that they work within a very narrow overall framework. Change is not easy, and it takes extraordinary circumstance to affect any change that is a dramatic change of direction. 

Think of how Hillary took great pains to show she could be CiC, when I'd like to see an open move to a new approach where war is seen as failure, where we expend even a fraction of the resources on acheiving and maintaining peace that we do in preparing for the possibility of war.

I think back to JFK, to those days in October 1962 when I crouched in a school hallway, got on my knees and covered my head with my interlocked hands. I think of the nun who  was charged with our care, and her statement that it was possible there would be missiles flying by the end of the day.

And I think of how much much later, well into adulthood, of learning that on that very same day in 1962, the entire presidential cabinet voted to attack. One person said no, and that person was JFK.

That is what I would like to see in a leader, someone with the courage to go after peace.  

 

nelle

Submitted by nelle2nelle on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 18:22
 

May I recommend "Over There"

There were only 13 episodes, but it's an amazing look at the current Iraq war through a lens from the beginning of the conflict.

We can only imagine how the series might have progressed as the war went on. It's a serious loss that it didn't.

Liz Rizzo

I blog at Everyday Goddess.

Submitted by Liz Rizzo on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 10:29
 

I Never Saw "Over There"

Hi Liz,

I remember hearing about the show, but I never saw it. Here's a Wikipedia link with more info about this FX series.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 05/26/2008 - 14:47
 

One perspective

I was an officer in the US Army Corps of Engineers from 1985 until 1990. I later served in the Missouri National Guard for 13 years. I haven't been deployed in a combat zone but I spent 3 years stationed in Germany during the Cold War.

I've spent quite a bit of time thinking about war and violence. I studied Tae Kwon Do in college and study Goju karate now. I've come to the conclusion after studying violence for many years in a number of forms that as a problem resolution technique it is very nearly useless.

As a young officer, my greatest fear wasn't that I would be killed in combat. After all, I had volunteered for this and I thought I was fairly well trained. My greatest fear was that I would make a bad decision which might result in the death of soldiers under my command.

I would add to your list the film "We Were Soldiers" starring Mel Gibson, Madeleine Stowe, Greg Kinnear and Sam Elliott. Then read the book by Harold Moore and Joseph Galloway.

I would also, although these aren't tv shows or films, recommend the song "Trenches" by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers from his "Blues for the Lost Days" CD. And (most especially) the song "And the Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by The Pogues from their "Red Roses for Me" CD (and then read up on Galipoli on wikipedia).

Jim Heivilin
MAJ, USAR, EN

Submitted by heivilinj on Tue, 05/27/2008 - 10:28
 

Some Good Additions

Hi Jim,

Thanks for the additions to the list and your valuable insights.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Wed, 05/28/2008 - 04:11
 

MOVIES, TV and WAR

What a great idea to offer these! I love that you included Courage Under Fire. I have long admired it and been surprised that it didn't get more attention.

THere are some others that I would add (among many:

Upstairs, Downstairs (PBS via the UK) and all the accompanying WWI material.  I can still see the Battle of the Somme and Army hospital segments in my head all these years later.

Under Fire - Nick Nolte and Linda Hunt - about creporters overing a war/revolution.

REDS - Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. Includes dramaticscenes of WWI and of the Russian Revolution.

The Deer Hunter - impressionistic and combat/POW scenes that are hard to watch but a wonderful look at the impact of the Vietnam war on soldiers and on the homefront.

Thanks for the chance to think about these. If I were a teacher I would SO use films like these to teach history.

Cynthia Samuels, Partner
Cobblestone Associates, LLP
Blog and Media Strategies and Content Development Online and on Television
http:dontgelyet.typepad.com/dontgeltoosoon

Submitted by Csamuels on Thu, 05/29/2008 - 11:05
 

Thanks For The Additional Movies and Shows

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks so much for adding to the list. 

I agree with you about "Courage Under Fire."  After renting it a couple of years ago, I remember being surprised I hadn't heard more about it when it was out originally.

I've never seen all of "Upstairs/Downstairs," but one of these days I hope to get around to it.  "Under Fire" sounds interesting as well, I'll have to add that to my "to see" list.

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Fri, 05/30/2008 - 08:44
 

A little late

Sorry, I'm a little late to the party, but I wanted to add my 2 cents.  There are two shows that I watched with my family that really brought the tradgedy of war home to me:

M*A*S*H - although this was ostensibly a comedy, it showed the true horror of war as casulties came through the hospital.  It also showed the human effect of being surrounded by such violence while being far from home and loved ones.  

China Beach - another series set at a hospital and R&R center,  this also protrayed the sickening effects of war on those who are wounded, emotionally and physically.

Submitted by Absurda on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 13:11
 

Two Very Good Additions

I only watched a few episodes of M*A*S*H---it wasn't my kind of comedy---but it was definitely a high quality show.

"China Beach" was another one I only watched intermittently, but once again, a high quality show.  It also starred Dana Delany and Marg Helgenberger, two actressses who've done very nicely for themselves since. 

Megan
BlogHer Contributing Editor, TV/YouTube
Megan's Minute
Video Runway

Submitted by Megan Smith on Mon, 06/02/2008 - 16:47
BlogHer

© Copyright 2008 BlogHer | Terms of Service