Be it books, movies, documentaries, or even music. I feel like I have people around me whom wish to fight violence with violence, with mentalities like “we should just counter-invade and show them who’s boss” or “I’m not afraid to fight for what I believe in”, showing a clear intent against an “enemy”.
“The enemy” is such a dehumanizing perspective, and only breeds further animosity. I wish for them to see that we all manage to find justifications for our actions, but that doesn’t make it worthy of just any sacrifice.
I recently saw the Norwegian movie Max Manus, which is about real events during WW2.
Tap for spoiler
He survives, but with almost none of his friends, and after the war he struggles with alcoholism and nightmares for the rest of his life.
It left me with a feeling of despite “victory”, many people paid with more than just their life. And this is the feeling I wish others to feel, just for a bit, and ponder if “doing the right thing” really is the best thing.
No one should want conflict, and I wish to emphasize just how much we really should try and avoid warmongering. I’ve seen uncensored videos from modern wars, been in the military, had a great grandfather who fought in WW2 (who also struggled with nightmares and PTSD until his natural death), and all of it makes me dread the potential of the horrors that happen to everyone involved in an armed conflict, especially the innocents and the kids…
So, any suggestions for media that conveys this in a way that makes one really reflect?
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Godzilla Minus One does a great job at showing post WW2 Japan, and the effect the war had on the Japanese people.
I haven’t watched it, but They Shall not Grow Old (2018) (TMDB) may also be of interest.
A user review says it takes a neutral position, and while it shows negative consequences, it also shows people liking comadery etc. So not sure if it would serve your goals in particular.
1984
Das Boot, it is the classic movie about German Uboats from the perspective of the Uboat crew.
It does not glorify, it does not condemn, but the one thing that stays with you is the feeling of futility.
They did all the terrible and heroic things, cheered at hitting convoys, let allied seamen drown because of their orders, escaped again and again, showed fanatism and self-reflection, panic and comradeship, and in the end, when they come back to their home base, it just doesn’t matter.
spoiler
As they arrive, half-afloat, battered, relieved and enthusiastic about being home, while a marching band plays in the background, they get hit with an air raid. Bombs fall, all die, only the narrator (war reporter) survives to tell the tale. All for nothing. All of it completely futile.
Must give that another watch. Absolutely incredible flick.
Edit: actually just ordered the Bluray. Less than a tenner. Can’t wait.
The Anime Grave of the Fireflies (AniDB) is a heart-wrenching telling of the impact and consequences of war.
Come and See (TMDB), a 1985 soviet anti-war film. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ve seen it mentioned multiple times as significant or exceptional, heart-wrenching. (Looks like other comments mention it as well, as expected. :P)
I’m a bit disappointed I can’t recall much else right now, and of different kinds than just the misery of war. Two other anime pop into my head, but the aspects asked for aren’t a major part of them.
There are many videos and reports of Ukraine military defense operations that can show what combat realistically looks like. Even for the righteous, it’s a harsh situation. Moral superiority does not help much when you’re sitting in trenches, in the situational, practical aspects at least.
A Soviet anti-war film sounds intriguing, especially considering the times. I’ll definitely give that a watch. Grave of the Fireflies has been on my list for ages as a Studio Ghibli film, so I guess it’s about time for that one too, thanks.
When it comes to real footage, I’ve seen too much. It’s what still sits with me, the gut-wrenching despair people are exposed to, and the lifelong nightmares in active development. There are videos I’d like for certain people to see, but I’m unsure whether it’s a good idea or not to show them. NSFL content is something I generally don’t share unless I’m completely confident it will have a constructive reception. Hence I ask for common media instead, that is thought provoking on a less risky level.
I’m so scared to play that game. I also am very much not willing to engage in real warfare, so, I guess it’d be preaching to the choir… But yeah…
Was scrolling through to see if this was posted yet. Such a hard game, emotionally and mechanically. I’ve never managed to get very far through it before everything goes wrong and my characters start dying horribly (Which is entirely the point).
It’s a really good portrayal of the civilian toll of war I think.
Was about to comment about watching that and then realised I was thinking about Land of Mine, but that is also a film I would suggest.
The Unknown Soldier is quite well made and high budget war movie by Finnish standards and it does nothing to glorify war.
Empire of the Sun is a film about civilians caught in a war zone.
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a collection of short stories about the Vietnam War. It shows the exhilaration, the terror, the cruelty and hardship of living through a war. It definitely doesn’t glorify conflict.
My War Gone By, I Miss It So, by Anthony Loyd, is a firsthand account of the Bosnian conflict of the 90s. It is ugly and brutal, and the author tries to give an honest presentation of his own state of mind at the time.
Black Hawk Down (the book, not the movie), by Mark Bowden, is a fairly thorough account of the incident in Mogadishu in 1993. Bowden did a lot of research and describes the political background that led to the UN and US presence in Somalia, and all of the mistakes that led up to the helicopter being shot down and what happened after. He interviewed many of the military personnel who were actually involved and recounts the events from several different perspectives. And as the Wikipedia article says:
Bowden simultaneously manages to capture the siege mentality felt by both civilians and the US soldiers, as well as the broad sentiment among many residents that the Rangers were to blame for the majority of the battle casualties.
This is a very realistic presentation of what combat is like, framed inside the perspective of the overall military operation. Bowden doesn’t shy away from describing the mistakes in decision-making, but also does a fair job of describing how lack of information or bad information leads to bad decisions in the moment which result in people dying for no good reason. He definitely doesn’t glorify the conflict. My overall impression after reading it was “I hope I never have to be involved in anything like that”.
And finally, Alice’s Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie, is a song about the draft.
if you wanna end war’n’stuff ya gotta sing loud
The Things They Carried is so beautifully written. The story On the Rainy River, about a young man struggling with whether to avoid the draft, had this which has stuck with me:
If the stakes ever became high enough - if the evil were ever evil enough, if the good were good enough - I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comfortable theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.
Echoing Alice’s Restaurant. It’s funny too.
New bar trivia team name: The Group Dubya Bench
MAS*H the 1970 Robert Altman film is a dark comedy following battlefield surgeons in the Vietnam war. Based off a semiautobiographical book with a similar premise taking place during the Korean war.
Essentially the surgeons try to keep themselves sane in an insane environment by playing practical jokes and generally making light of the darkest situation imaginable.
Defcon: Everybody Dies
That game has actually been studied by scientists, because it changes people’s attitudes towards nuclear weapons.
The game literally is about using nuclear weapons to win.
How does it look? It isn’t overly grotesque. There are no melting faces, no devastated landscapes. Nothing. It’s just a minimalist map of the world.
You might hear that and think that it’s a pro-war game. But it actually has the opposite effect on players.
How can it be? Simple. The game is accurate in how swiftly it all ends if there is a nuclear war. And by playing it, that truth is engraved into players’ intuitions.
“Would you like to play a game?”
Interesting suggestion! I’ve heard about this game, and my initial thoughts were exactly as you described, so maybe I should try it out indeed.
Also thanks for linking a study!
2000 meters to Andriivka
It follows the Ukrainian push through a narrow strip of woodland to a town that has been destroyed by the war.
The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On.
Click for summary/spoilers
Kenzō Okuzaki was conscripted to fight in WWII and the experience radicalized him against the Japanese government. He deliberately attempted to get himself shot by Allied forces but was captured instead. After the war, as the years passed, he became worried that the younger generation was growing up unaware of the horrors of war and the atrocities that their government had committed, and so would be prone to repeating the mistakes of the past. He became desperate to do something about it.
Okuzaki brazenly defied norms about politeness and drove around in a car covered in slogans, shouting out of loudspeaker that the emperor was a war criminal. The film focuses on his attempts to track down elderly veterans and get them to record testimonies in front of a camera, specifically investigating allegations that Japanese soldiers resorted to cannibalism in New Guinea. Of course, people generally aren’t particularly thrilled about a stranger showing up to relitigate old war crimes and interrogate grandpa about The Things We Don’t Talk About. There are times when Okuzaki even gets involved in fistfights with people over it.
After collecting testimony from a bunch of people, he comes to the conclusion that a colonel was responsible for the war crimes, and he decided to kill him over it. However, when he arrived at his house, he only found his son, who he shot and injured instead.
Okuzaki is a complicated and problematic figure but in some ways that makes the film all the more unsettling and challenging. Shooting someone for just for being related to a war criminal is pretty indefensible, but Okuzaki was broken by the war he wanted to avoid repeating (the decade in solitary confinement probably didn’t help either). He wanted to remind people of the horrors of war, but it’s because of what the war did to him that he had become maladjusted and prone to violence (although it’s worth noting that a lot of his protests had been nonviolent, and had gotten him jail time). I think there’s a natural inclination to look at things like this in the abstract, to ask, “how for is it justifiable to go in pursuit of a good cause?” but the film pushes us to consider the psychological, human aspect of this traumatized killer trying desperately to create a world where people like himself would not be created.
I think most even slightly accurate war movies don’t really glorify the war bit. Two recommendations.
There is a film A24 distributed last year called Warfare that follows a very accurate telling of a single operation of a platoon in Ramadi. It is pretty grim, but really gives a sense of just how brutal it can be for a small group. A lot of movies show slaughter at scale, like beaches of Normandy. That is always fascinating and dark too, but it slightly diminishes the struggle of the individuals. This does not.
Another recommendation is Tora! Tora! Tora!; an absolute classic from 1970. This movie shows you many of the mistakes and oversights, big and small that led to the Pearl Harbor attack being so crippling. Aside from huge ship and air guns there aren’t many guns. I think many people would enjoy it at the moment because it shows the USA on the rout.
Haven’t seen Warfare, but would definitely second Tora! Tora! Tora!, it’s a magnificent film.
Some episodes of Star Trek do this well. Off the top of my head, “The Drumhead” is a great example of rejecting fearmongering and witch hunting “The Enemy”.
The Lord of the Rings is (among many other things) a book about how the common man deals with the trauma of war.
