Steven Spielberg’s 1998 picture Saving Private Ryan, which focuses on a group of US soldiers during the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944, has also attracted vastly different interpretations. The film opens with indelible scenes of death and destruction which led some critics to conclude that it was anti-war because it shows that war is hell. "Of course every war movie, good or bad, is an anti-war movie,” to the director told Newsweek magazine around the time of Saving Private Ryan’s release – an exact inversion of the quote attributed to Truffaut.

But to others Saving Private Ryan is anything but an anti-war movie because it demonstrates that war is valid. Toby Miller, author of Global Hollywood 2, believes the picture let America proclaim its righteousness. “It’s a legitimisation of the idea that the United States is the last great saviour of humanity – that’s the claim it makes.”

Eye of the beholder

Clearly all filmmakers are at the mercy of the audience when it comes to how their films will be interpreted. “The last author of the film is the audience – at the cost of the director’s intentions,” says Sheril Antonio. From this it follows that somebody who enjoys viewing the spectacle of war may not be so inclined to see the darker, ugly side of combat in an anti-war film. “Any person who glorifies violence and shooting and killing people may only see that aspect of the film and celebrate that aspect of the film, they may not appreciate it as a cautionary tale,” she says.

The mere fact that a screenplay could be interpreted as anti-war can affect its chances of getting studio backing. Conservatives routinely criticise ‘liberal Hollywood’ for making films with themes they perceive as anti-American and anti-military. So within the industry there can be a reluctance to take on anti-war projects – or produce films that could be construed as critiques of contemporary conflicts – lest they be seen as unpatriotic or demoralising for US troops in harm’s way.

Some academics think Hollywood is just too tame and look elsewhere, particularly to the independent sector, for strong critiques of conflict. “It’s no mistake that the war films that interest me for delivering very strong anti-war and anti-violence messages have been produced outside the purview of the Hollywood movie industry,” says Dennis Rothermel.

Every day newspapers and websites bombard us with stories of contemporary wars and conflicts – realities that can appear rather abstract. Even if anti-war films are imperfect, even if they can glorify combat, they still possess the power to make us view war differently and gain insight that reporting can’t give us. A strong anti-war film can make us pause and reflect more deeply on war’s horrific nature, the young men and women who fight in our name, and how they may suffer amid the senselessness of it all.

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