War Films and American History

Catalog description

In this course, we will explore how visual representations of war in various media and genres have influenced, challenged, and, in ways, transformed national identity and citizenship in the United States. As such, the course should make clear that war films do more than tell stories and entertain audiences. Films convey the social values and the mores of the period in which they are produced and address attitudes not only toward war, but also toward topics closely associated with war, such as the morality of fighting, the justness of war, the definition of heroism, and the responsibility of the individual to exhibit ethical behavior.