How Hollywood influences our Views on what is War

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How Hollywood Influences Our Views on What War Is
Movies have a great contribution on what people consider the world to be and more so on painting the historical progression of various aspects of life. War movies have become very common among Hollywood films ever since the gulf war and the World War II. The role of these movies was and still is to sensitize the public about the nature of war and the effects that war has on every individual. War movies have also worked perfectly in inspiring patriotism and morale among the people during and after wars. Mixed arguments, however, exist regarding how the Hollywood film industry has influenced the public on what war is and how these films can be used in a better way to promote peace and unity in different nations. Cinema is believed to mirror the prevailing society and so about seventy percent of what people know war to be has been shaped by the film industry. Hollywood has also worked in various ways to distort the truth about what is war, thus influencing the public falsely (Trafton 69). All in all, the influence of the film industry on what people believe war to be cannot be disputed. Both the negative and positive perceptions have helped to build the society into what it is today.
War movies glamorize the act of war rather than revealing the true nature of war to influence patriotism and moral people. Most of the war movies display the American soldiers as patriotic courageous people who work through every intricacy to bring victory to their nation.

However, what these films do not show the people is the real mess that war creates and the dangers that the soldiers who engage in the battle face every day (Katafias 10). Although this approach of glamorizing war has worked to promote unity and encourage people to show vigor while handling issues in life, it has also distorted the truth about what war is by turning the events into proud occurrences. Most of the soldiers fighting the wars argue that they are displeased with the display of glamor in Hollywood war films because there is nothing to be proud of in war (Riegler 175). Although the film industry has tried to bring the accuracy of war into cinema, it is hard, almost impossible to bring out the whole truth of a real battle into the film. As a result, Hollywood has managed to give the public a false sense of war causing many young people to enlist.
War movies influence thoughts of hatred, aggression, and violence. The films depict the other people fighting the war as villains and not soldiers defending their country. In other words, they display the other team as the enemy and not patriotic in some way. Most films are not concerned with the accuracy of the war details, thus making it hard for the movies to mirror the true state of the society in relations to war. The Hollywood films display war in a biased way only reflecting an individual’s opinion rather than the situation on the ground (Upton 172). Every filmmaker produces a war movie based on his or her own beliefs. The propaganda on war movies fails to capture the emotional toll that war has on everybody. Moreover, the one side show fails to capture the true justice or lack of it thereof that war brings to the society.
Hollywood displays war as an act of sacrifice where people give up own happiness for the greater good. The Casablanca movie, for instance, helped in justifying why the American government engages in war (Harris 73). In other words, movies have managed to display war as a necessary evil towards a greater agenda. The midnight clear movie tried to display the fright that soldiers experience in war, thus trying to bring a balance into the effects that war has on soldiers. However, regardless of the movie industry efforts to display the accurate condition of war, it is impossible to paint the true picture of what goes on in war zones.
Combat is hard to get on film for obvious reasons and sometimes re-enacting the true nature of combat in the film can be detrimental to the film industry. Even on mainstream media, war is displayed as a magical spectacle and not the horrific and devastating event. Therefore, it is impossible for the film industry to capture the true sense of war in a movie, but the Hollywood industry has tried to use different aspects of what is believed to be a war to promote patriotism, hope, and morale among the people (Critchlow and Raymond 108). After the Sahara movie in the nineteen forties, many people enlisted to show their patriotism and courage on the battlefield. Americans have been able to appreciate the need for the nation to participate in war because of the pride that the film industry associated with winning battles and wars. Hollywood has done a great job in inspiring people during war times, but in the future, it is important for the industry to try to employ honesty and truth to some extent in order to display the true picture of war to the society.

Works Cited
Critchlow, Donald, and Emilie Raymond. Hollywood and politics: a Sourcebook. New York: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Harris, Mark. Five came back: a story of Hollywood and the Second World War. Edinburgh: Canongate, 2014. Print.
Katafias, Francesca. Hollywood & media portrayals of veterans who suffer from post traumatic disorder. Senior theses and capstone projects 38.1 (2015): 1-17. Print.
Riegler, Thomas. “Through the legend of Hollywood: the depiction of terrorism in American movies”. Perspective on terrorism 4.2 (2010): 171-183. Print.
Trafton, John. The American Civil War and the Hollywood war film. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016. Print.
Upton, Bryn. Hollywood and the end of the Cold War: signs of cinematic change. Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014. Print.