Irregular War via Film

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In its inception, the “war film” and its creators have played prominent roles in, inter alia, setting political agendas, advocating policies, constructing images of the enemy other, defining civilization, manufacturing consent for or opposition to war, recreating and reproducing race and gender stereotypes. Most Americans, and likely citizens of other countries, will learn of wars not through formal studies of a conflict but through the cinematographic depiction of them. Unfortunately, despite the pervasive influence of film and other forms of popular culture, mainstream political science has generally considered these cultural artifacts unworthy of serious inquiry. This course departs from this intellectual position and contends that film can be an important medium through which we can understand international politics but, equally important, think critically about how films facilitate such understandings. This course begins with an overview of the essential practices and significant “languages” that film makers and writers use to create meaning through film. Learning the “grammar” of films will enable students to become more cognizant of how war and related concepts are portrayed in the popular culture they regularly consume and the understandings of those war such films facilitate. In this course, students will construct original arguments about how specific films create, reinforce or destabilize predominant views of war generally and specific wars in American society. To do so, we will closely study the ideas which are embedded in films as well as the techniques which film directors and writers use to convey a message or argument. After providing a foundation on how one reads a film, each of the subsequent twelve classes will examine a kind of conflict through the lens of at least two films that represent very different points of view. While the films are the most important “assignment,” I provide several readings intended to inform the student about the conflict depicted in the film. Topics covered in this course will include British and European colonial wars in Africa and Asia; the Vietnam War from the optics of French, American and Vietnamese citizens; the anti-Soviet war in Afghanistan; The First American Gulf War of 1991; the War on Terrorism; Peacekeeping and Peace-enforcing missions; the use of drones; intelligence failure; nuclear deterrence as well as a reflection upon race and gender in constructing heroism. At the end of this course, students will no longer be interested in watching films passively. They will find themselves talking back at the screen and with each other about the shenanigans or feats of genius in film whether it is the music that accompanies a scene, the choice of a landscape, or the kind of shot depicted. Because this course relies upon films that depict a variety of brutalities, it may not be for everyone.