Analysis Of The Movie ' The Thin Red Line '

Penned during two distinctly disparate eras in American military history, both Erich Maria Remarque's bleak account of trench warfare during World War I, All Quiet on the Western Front, and Tim O'Brien's haunting elegy for a generation lost in the jungles of Vietnam, The Man I Killed, present readers with a stark reminder that beneath the veneer of glorious battle lies only suffering and death. Both authors imbue their work with a grim severity, presenting the reality of war as it truly exists. Men inflict grievous injuries on one another, breaking bodies and shattering lives, without ever truly knowing for what or whom they are fighting for. With their contributions to the genre of war literature, both Remarque and O'Brien have sought to lift the veil of vanity which, for so many wartime writers, perverts reality with patriotic fervor. In doing so, the authors manage to convey the true sacrifice of the conscripted soldier, the broken innocence which clouds a man's first kill, and the abandonment of one's identity which becomes necessary in order to kill again.

“Iron Road” has successfully shown why Chinese workers came to Canada in the 1880s as well as the challenges they confronted. Most of the film’s storyline occurs in China, where it uses the point of view of a Chinese peasant called Little Tiger, to display the daily struggles of the Chinese. The setting is full of war and destruction, thus destroying many farms resulting in famine and poverty. This has resulted in peasants having insufficient funds to support themselves and making them live in unsanitary living spaces. As a result, this gave the workers more reason to move to Canada as there was also better income and resources there. However, once they arrived in Canada, they discover that the conditions there weren’t as good as they thought. Although they had a better income than they did in China, there was a lot of discrimination, dangerous working conditions and horrible living spaces. There was worse pay for the Chinese workers and they had to do the most life-threatening jobs like working with explosives as well as working on the side of a cliff with no harnesses. Throughout the film, “Iron Road” has used the setting, characters and point of view of a Chinese peasant to show that there were horrible conditions and chaos in China, as well as the racism, dangerous working conditions and poor living space the peasants faced in Canada.

War has existed for arguably as long as mankind, and many people have seen the effects of war. Although it is very hard for the average civilian to understand the full effects of war, there are many authors and filmmakers who are able to use both their experience and fine techniques to help give a small glimpse into the world both during and after war. Films and texts such as the short story “Sandcastles Overseas”, and the movie American Sniper show the various types of loss that soldiers face both on the battlefield and after through the use of vivid details, and pathos. Although both of these texts are very effective in showing the loss faced by soldiers, the novel Going after Cacciato by Tim O’brien is the most powerful in portraying the

The horrors of war are never far away from us, even if we're miles away from where the fighting's at. Every day we're exposed to it and that exposure has created a mental disconnect between the violence and the aftermath. Suffering most of all are the veterans of war— pretty much any war— whose lives are irrevocably changed as a result of military service. In an attempt to make the difficulties of post-war life more understandable, director Price James and writer Darren Cullen's short film Action Man: Battlefield Casualties parodies eighties toy commercials in order to tell the realities of veterans' lives. These faux-commercials both entertain and educate with their interesting visual look as well as hyper-realistic depictions.

The Red Convertible is a story about the relationship that two brothers share before and after the eldest goes to war. In the beginning of the story we meet the brothers, Henry and Lyman. It then becomes apparent that the younger of the two, Lyman, is the narrator. (Erdrich 103) Lyman worked his way up to owner of a restaurant and Henry worked at a Jewel Bearing Plant. Not long after, Henry recieves his two weeks pay after being laid off from his job at the plant and Lyman has been given an insurance check after his restaurant was destroyed by a tornado. (Erdrich 104) One day, the brothers decided to leave the reservation that they lived on and go to Winnipeg. While they were there, they stumbled upon a car that was for sale. Neither of them had intentions of buying a car, but they saw a car and fell in love with it. Between the two of them, they had just enough for the red Olds and gas to get home. (Erdrich 104) Throughout the following summer, they traveled to all sorts of places in it. It was a chance for them to bond and possibly the last enjoyable time that the two would share together ever again.

People who have never experienced the war portray it as “grotesque.” (O’Brien 77) They’ve never truly listened to the soldier's stories, Tim O’Brien is able to find beauty within the “awful majesty of combat.” (O’Brien 77) The metaphor comparing the “trace rounds” to “brilliant red ribbons” illustrate the war in a completely different light. (O’Brien 77) The respect for “the fluid symmetries of troops” shows the organization of the war and the training and preparing that the troops do to serve our country and protect Americans. (O’Brien 77) There is beauty within these individuals and their stories of why they decided to risk their lives to protect us. Tim O’Brien’s simile comparing a “bombing raid” or “artillery barrage” to “a killer forest fire” or “cancer under a microscope” explains the “aesthetic purity” within the war. (O’Brien 77) Tim O’Brien puts the war into an idea that his readers can understand, he proves it’s possible to find beauty even in a

Contrast is an integral part of everyday life. Without contrast, everything becomes one-dimensional and bland. In a traumatic experience, such as during a war, the very nature of it creates and amplifies these contrasts within the human spirit. Timothy Findley’s The Wars is an excellent example of how contrast is created. Some examples of these contrasts are kindness and cruelty, courage and cowardice, but the most important contrast created by Findley in the novel is the one between loyalty and betrayal.

War is a serious topic that has been around for as long as anyone can remember. Heller’s novel, is a comedy about soldiers during WWII. Yet, when observed closely, these “comic” scenes are actually quite tragic just as most things related to war are.

In this essay, I will discuss how Tim O’Brien’s works “The Things They Carried” and “If I Die in a Combat Zone” reveal the individual human stories that are lost in war. In “The Things They Carried” O’Brien reveals the war stories of Alpha Company and shows how human each soldier is. In “If I Die in a Combat Zone” O’Brien tells his story with clarity, little of the dreamlike quality of “Things They Carried” is in this earlier work, which uses more blunt language that doesn’t hold back. In “If I Die” O’Brien reveals his own personal journey through war and what he experienced. O’Brien’s works prove a point that men, humans fight wars, not ideas. Phil Klay’s novel “Redeployment” is another novel that attempts to humanize soldiers in war. “Redeployment” is an anthology series, each chapter attempts to let us in the head of a new character – set in Afghanistan or in the United States – that is struggling with the current troubles of war. With the help of Phil Klay’s novel I will show how O’Brien’s works illustrate and highlight each story that make a war.

N.Cull’s assessment of the film Saving Private Ryan in that it portrays “a realistic depiction of the lives and deaths of G.I’s in the European theatre in World War II” is an accurate one. Director Stephen Spielberg brings to the audience the “sheer madness of war” and the “search for decency” within it. That search ends for a group of soldiers whose mission it is too save Private Ryan. Although the film shows horrific and realistic battle scenes along with historically

In the movie Dunkirk, directed by Christopher Nolan, there is a key scene that conveys three of the most important themes in the film. The movie Dunkirk is about WW2 soldiers stuck on the beach of Dunkirk after being told they will not be rescued. Some soldiers try to make a pier, and some sit on the beach watching the ocean. The three themes shown in this scene are the realities of war, survival, and despair. The techniques used to convey these themes are facial expressions, wide shot camera angles, dialogue, composition, colours and non-diegetic music.

Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan is arguably one of the finest masterpieces for a war film. Spielberg took another approach when he directed this film. Unlike most war films, which have a more patriotic theme to them, Spielberg implicated a “Survive at all costs” ideology for his audience members. Spielberg’s unique tactics and tactics depict this same ideology throughout the entire film, which coincides with my own through a perspective of individualism.

Thin Red Line consisted of multiple narrators discussing the battle narrative and varying characters’ perspectives especially in the sequences that we watched. We are participating in the film during this war sequence with the camera often on a track following behind the soldiers or with a Steadicam but the reality is a handheld shot like we are running in the woods like a solider or we are following the action. Other camera angles include single POV frames of soldiers and what they are experiencing at that moment. Especially when the battle begins the American soldiers have a heightened sense of sounds such as bullets whizzing by their heads in the fog. These moments in the battle give a sense of fantasy disembodiment and derangement for the soldiers during the chaos of the battle. When the shots are firing there is a sense of chaos to the audience with the jump cut shots that attempt to fill in the viewer of all the madness.

This single close up, in combination with the prevailing medium shots, is highly effective in illustrating the directors overall purpose - to show the audience the harsh realities of war, displaying the shock of those involved to us as the viewers. We realise how bad the conditions were during this event, and how draining and painful it must have been for all involved. The audience feels sympathy for the men, for the hardships they faced, and for their clearly evident

Spielberg’s Saving Private Ryan has been credited as being the most accurate war recreation film in history. It is the winner of five Academy Awards including Best Director for Steven Spielberg. Like Jaws, the opening scene has perfect equilibrium, calm at both the beginning and the end. Another thing this opening scene has in common with Jaws is the under water camera, and there are also shots from the killer’s point of view – in this case, the shooters’. In addition to this, they both end with calm water; a common theme in Spielberg’s openings. At the beginning of the scene, there is a long shot of a war cemetery; this drives home the seriousness of the war and just how many people died as it is very easy to forget the sheer number of people who were murdered during the war. The extreme close up on the eye of an old Captain Miller (Tom Hanks) gives the audience a feeling of connection with the character and lets them know he is going to have an important role within the film. During the fight scene the camera angles are wild movements and a handheld camera is used to give the effect of a person running as though it is from one of the soldiers’ point of view as this is likely to be something like what they would have seen and experienced. There are many visual effects such as one boat being set on fire with the soldiers still