War Movies: The American Battle in Cinema

The Birth of Cinema, silent Civil War films, and The Great War. The relationship of the gun/camera, and defining the anti-war film. The Birth of a Nation (1915), The Big Parade (1925), Wings (1927), and All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

The Second World War. The power of cinematic propaganda and how film began to define the memory of war for Americans. Sergent York (1941) Bataan (1943), Casablanca (1942), A Walk in the Sun (1945) and Twelve O'Clock High (1949)

The Korean Conflict, the Cold War, nuclear fears, and the Vietnam War. The rise and fall of the studio system and the cultural shift in the country. The Steel Helmet (1951), The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), The Longest Day (1962), Dr. Strangelove (1964), The Green Berets (1968)

The Vietnam war on film, the Reagan Years, the Gulf War, and the return of the Civil War and World War Two narratives. How war films have both the power to heal the country of it's past, but also perpetuate concepts of violence, nationalism, and false masculinity. Apocalypse Now (1979) , First Blood (1982) , Platoon (1986), Top Gun (1986), and Saving Private Ryan (1998).

9/11, the war on terror, conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. The shifting technologies of warfare give new visions on the screen and what war films say about our country's future. Black Hawk Down (2001), The Hurt Locker (2008), Inglorious Bastards (2009), Letters from Iwo Jima (2006),), Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and American Sniper (2014).