Response to Class on 11/04

I have long considered myself a movie buff. I am nowhere near the level of a majority of my fellow students, and don't hold a light to any one of my teachers, but I can hold my own in certain types of movie knowledge. One of my favorite genres of film is the war genre. For so many reasons I love war movies. This is why I was thoroughly enjoyed the lecture in class titled "War as a Genre: The Combat Film."

The main concept we focused on for this lecture broke down the lecture's title into its two parts: War genre and The combat film, and described them in the semantic and syntactic approaches to each. I will define the terms, then I will talk about one my favorite war movies based on the concepts learned.

The first section is The War Genre: Semantic

There is a platoon leader (who is the father or mentor)

The recruit, "cherry," or grunt

and an Arena of Death

There is also a dehumanization aspect here which involves the war machine, the concept of "Us vs. Them," and the faceless, shadowy enemy.

The War Genre: Syntactic (Broken down into different time periods)

Post WWI movies

The futility of war

destruction of innocence

Post WWII movies

Celebrating glory and heroism

The ultimate sacrifice for country

Throughout all time periods

understanding and healing

The Combat Film: Semantic

The war machine

The Faceless, shadowy enemy

serve the platoon, squadron

Platoon is "family," squad leader is the "father"

Death and resurrection

The Combat Film: Syntactic

Celebrating glory or heroism

The ultimate sacrifice for country

Us vs. them

Team vs individual: United we are stronger

Through sacrifice, we can win the war

Now understanding the fact that when comparing these two, the combat film and the war genre, it is easy to see that there are overlapping characteristics of both.

The movie that I will use to demonstrate these concepts is Saving Private Ryan (SVP). As trendy and big as the movie is, its an amazing piece of cinematography that still awes me each and every time I see it.

In terms of the War Genre, as it is based in WWII. The concepts that are found in SVP are as follows:

For the semantic we have the platoon leader, who is played by Tom Hanks, acts as the mentor and the father figure to a group of young soldiers displaced from the comfy American homes to fight against the enemy. Even though many could be considered the grunt or the cherry, we will say the Matt Damon's character Private Ryan is the young recruit that is taken under the wing of the experience captain. The Arena of death is all over Europe as it stats on the beaches of Normany, and moves into France. For the syntactic, the war machine is the entire US military fighting during WWII. Throughout the whole movie you get the sense of the "US" as we are watching an emotionally charged, dramatic look into the life of soldiers during this vicious war, who are fighting against an enemy that we can not understand and are simply the people getting in our way and trying to stop us from attaining our ultimate goal.

The Combat Film:

Considering this repeats itself in several ways for the semantic and syntactic approaches compared to the war genre, I will only speak about the ones that do not overlap. For the semantic approach, there is also the concept of serving the platoon. When Ryan finds out his brothers are all dead, he decided that the best thing he should do is stay and fight with the only brothers he has left, his platoon mates. This platoon is his family and he decides to stick by them, even though he could have a free ticket home to his mother back in the U.S.

For the syntactic approach to the combat film, there is the concept of celebrating glory or heroism. This is shown in many ways, but one obscure reference to this concept in SVP is when some of the soldiers are talking, and one, being a sniper, imagines a clear line of sight shot from a mile away, taking out Adolf Hitler, and the war being over. Its said in a boastful way almost, a glorious thing it would be for this young man. Then there is the ultimate sacrifice for the country, where every one of the soldiers is over seas fighting for the freedom of their fellow countrymen. Private Ryan himself, as mentioned earlier, turns down a free ride home to stay and fight, potentially sacrificing his life for his new family and the cause. In the final battle we are shown a great example of the team vs individual idea, where each part of the platoon is given tasks to do in order to prepare for the oncoming battle. Together they all prep this little town in defense and together they stand protecting an important bridge. Throughout the process, as it happens in war, some soldiers are lost along the way, but due to their sacrifice and what they are able to do as a whole, they achieve their goal.