There are many Hollywood movies that are set during war time. No matter how realistic it might look to your eyes on the screen, even if it has 3D or special effects, it is not the same experience as it is on the battlefield.
First things first, although some war movies are based on true stories, some are fiction. Movies often exaggerate and romanticise events and actions in order to attract more audience.
“The only way to recapture the experience of war on film is to put a machine gun behind the screen and gun down the audience.” [Norman]
This quote has a lot of meaning behind it. The emotions and feelings that soldiers experience on the battlefield will never be able to be portrayed through any movie or book, unless it is real life.
This screen capture of a war movie is from “Saving Private Ryan” (1998). This movie is often referred to being the closest depiction of how a fight on the battlefield would actually be like. Movies do not show some very important moments a soldier experiences like when soldiers are wet, cold, and hungry. They cannot physically make the audience experience what the soldiers were feeling, when there are seconds until they either die or by chance stay alive. The feeling that they realise that they signed a 90% chance of death. Sometimes soldiers regret going to war in the last moment, but it is too late. Some soldiers would be proud and determined to fight for their country or their cause. Movies do not get these emotions forward most of the time.
“Hacksaw Ridge” was one of my favourite movies that I have watched so far. The movie is not old and made me feel empathy and shock of how terrible war actually is, but it never made me think that I knew how it actually is. Yes the movie shows a battlefield, soldiers dying, soldiers injured, camps, ditches, and guns, but it does not show their emotions in the depth of them. The feeling between life and death is one of a kind, which you cannot experience without having a weapon pointing at you.
No matter how many movies you watch, and no matter how much you think you know what war is like, you never really do unless you have been there. Do you know how it feels like to die if you only watched someone die? No
Ello Tomi,
The points made in the article are highly accurate and I agree with it to full extent. The emotions cannot be conveyed through a movie. It was a perspective I had not thought about yet i understood it right away. Overall, it was a great article
Thank you for sharing this Tomi. I agree with your points, that a movie can only go so far in terms of conveying an experience. I am intrigued to watch Hacksaw Ridge to see if my reaction is the same as yours. Perhaps with a diverse audience, no film can ever hope to affect everyone in the same way?