Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi

How Hollywood Turns Military Defeats into Moral Victories
1. Auflage 2016
ISBN: 978-1-138-81956-6
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 160 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 245 g

Last Stands from the Alamo to Benghazi examines how filmmakers teach Americans about the country’s military past. Examining twenty-three representative war films and locating them in their cultural and military landscape, the authors argue that Hollywood’s view of American military history has evolved in two phases. The first phase, extending from the very beginnings of filmmaking to the Korean War, projected an essential patriotic triumphalism. The second phase, from the Korean and Vietnam Wars to the present, reflects a retreat from consensus and reflexive patriotism. In describing these phases, the authors address recurring themes such as the experience of war and combat, the image of the American war hero, race, gender, national myths, and more. With helpful film commentaries that extend the discussion through popular movie narratives, this book is essential for anyone interested in American military and film history.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wetta, Frank

Novelli, Martin

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Geschichte einzelner Länder Amerikanische Geschichte
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Besondere Kriege und Kampagnen

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction: “The Very Thought of Losing”

1 “Do this Mean What I Think it Do?”

John Wayne’s Alamo (1960)

John Lee Hancock’s Alamo (2004)

2 “Are You Calling Me a Liar?”

They Died With Their Boots On (1941)

Little Big Man (1970)

3 Alamos of the Pacific

Wake Island (1942)

Bataan (1943)

Back to Bataan (1945)

They Were Expendable (1945)

Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

4 “We’re Supposed to be Angels of Mercy”

Corregidor (March, 1943)

So Proudly We Hail! (September, 1943)

Cry “Havoc!” (November, 1943)

5 “The Misfortunes of My Retreat”

Northwest Passage (1940)

Gung Ho! The Story of Carlson’s Makin Island Raiders (1943)

6 Planes Roaring, Voices Singing

Command Decision (1948)

Twelve O’Clock High (1949)

7 Pork Chop Hill is in North Korea Now

The Steel Helmet (1951)

Pork Chop Hill (1959)

8 “Go Tell the Americans”

Go Tell the Spartans (1978)

We Were Soldiers (2002)

9 “Narrowing the Aperture”

Black Hawk Down (2001)

Lone Survivor (2014)

13 Hours: The Secret Soldiers of Benghazi (2016)

Conclusion: “It is Here that We Lie.”

Filmography

Further Reading

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Frank J. Wetta is Lecturer, Department of History and Senior Fellow, Center for History, Politics, and Policy, Kean University. He is co-author of The Long Reconstruction: The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory (2014).

Martin A. Novelli teaches film and history at the University of the Arts, Philadelphia and at Kean University. He is co-author of The Long Reconstruction: The Post-Civil War South in History, Film, and Memory (2014).