Blog # 8

The war film is a film genre concerned with warfare, usually about naval, air or land battles, sometimes focusing instead on prisoners of war, covert operations, military training or other related subjects. Sometimes they focus on daily military or civilian life in wartime without depicting battles. Their stories may be fiction, based on history, docudrama or occasionally biographical. When women aren't in war films, there is a totally different set of sexual dynamics. But women do have bigger roles in some of the war films.

A war film is usually dominated by males almost looking like a male world. When a women does enter a war film, she is usually just an object of want and desire. It is also almost always at least two or more men that want her and it usually ends in a fight. They don't seem to argue over the sexual competition but rather exchange while enjoying a homosocial relationship. Some of the war films that show this are What Price of Glory?, Hot Shots!, and Casualties of War.

Another thing that women do by being in a war film is that they pose threats to the men. Just having a wife on the screen, introduces an emotional element that is usually realized in terms of the man's essential vulnerability. Some examples of this are Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo and Air Force. There are very emotional farewells and it brings more emotion into the plot of film.

The biggest reason why women are in war films would have to be that they draw a whole new audience. Most women are not into just men war films. When you bring a woman into the film, it's not just a war film but its a love story at the same time. This makes the film more feminine and brings more interest and attention the women.