Discover Top Posts Tagged with #warvember

War November I: The Last of Mohicans (1992) - Recap: Part Two

What exactly is the Seven Years’ War?

This is the moment where I bemoan the American education system, yaddayaddayadda, we all know the deal. But OK, what exactly is it? We learn about it very little in primary schooling, since we focus more on the Revolutionary War most of the time. Which sucks, because this is the FIRST war that crosses oceans! Arguably, this is the first intercontinental war the world had ever seen!

See, as the kinda self-centered nation that we are...OK, the VERY NARCISSISTIC nation that we are, we only focus on the American campaign of this war, which was the French and Indian War. And that actually lasted 9 years, not seven. But this war not only involved England and France, but several other nations. Fighting with the British were the American colonies, the Holy Roman Empire, Portugal, and a bunch of territories that would eventually become Germany (Prussia, Brunswick, Schaumburg, Hesse). And against them with the French were the various Native American nations, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Austria, and India. Yeah, India!

In fact, this war was fought ALL OVER the goddamn place. As each empire attempted to spread their influence at lightning speed, battles were fought in most of North America, the Caribbean, ALL of Europe, Argentina, Senegal, India, Sri Lanka, and the Phillipines. Yeah, uh, this was a HUGE-ass war! And the ending results were monumental.

See, by the time the British won (which they did), they had accomplished quite a few things. France and Spain lost ground in the United States, with France losing BIG, and being pushed solely west of the Mississippi, losing Louisiana in the process. They also lost their territory in Canada, India, and much of the Caribbean. Spain gave up Florida as well, and India gave up the entire eastern region (Bengal) to the British Empire. Yeah. This is the war that gave the UK control over India. Which went...awesome...

The Seven Years’ War is a major part of world history, and should be known as well as any other by your average American student. What’s worse, arguably, is the fact that there are so few films that cover this conflict. Outside of adaptations of The Last of the Mohicans, I was able to find 21 films that cover the whole thing. The most famous of these are TLotM and the classic Stanley Kubrick historical epic, Barry Lyndon.

And yes, this is on my list...even though it’s 3 hours long.

Eventually. I’ll get to it eventually. Anyway, with all of that said, let’s get back to this story, shall we?

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

War November I: The Last of the Mohicans (1992) - Recap: Part One

Ah, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The Steel City of Bridges.

Home of the Steelers, Penguins, and Pirates! Historic center of the United States steel and glass industries! Birthplace of Heinz Ketchup and the Clark Bar! The first place where Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood ever aired, and where the first movie theatre opened! And of course, it’s the starting place of a conflict known as the French and Indian War. Sort of.

To fully understand this war, you gotta go back to the beginning of European settlement in the American colonies. See, once world was out about the New World, everybody looked across the Atlantic and wanted a thick, juicy piece of that sweet, sweet, delicious land. And by the time we reach 1754, tensions are high against the two European countries that tensions were always high between: the English and the French.

See, in 1753, the French decided to perch right on the confluence to two rivers in Pennsylvania, on a site that would later be Pittsburgh. However, there was already a British settlement there in the form of a trading post. In response, the Americans would build Fort Prince George, named after every Hamilton fan’s favorite British king. And since America did belong to him at the time, the American armies were ordered to kick the French the fuck OUT.

Lieutenant Governor of Virginia, Robert Dinwiddie, decided to send a force to finish and occupy the fort, as well as five more spots along the rivers in the territories. To lead this offensive, he sent a 21 year-old major who had recently had success in negotiating with a local Native American tribe. His name was also George.

George Washington is on one of his first big military missions. He’s sent to route the French out of English territory, and ends up going to to Williamsburg, Virginia to do so. The French have already taken off at this point, but the tensions have already risen to the point of escalation. Each side builds new fortifications in the region, with the English fortification erected under future Pittsburgh.

Washington ends up going after some of the French, they retaliate, and before you know it, THERE’S A WAR ON! Is it English or is it French territory? Well, technically, when you think about it...

Yeah, what about the Native Americans?

Even at this early pre-American point in our history, our relationships with native Americans were...not good, to say the least. At the Albany Congress in 1754, the British managed to formally ally with the Catawba, Mohawk, and Cherokee tribes. Which is good for them. Except for the fact that the French allied with the Abenaki, Wabanaki, Mi’kmawm Algonquin, Lenape, Ojibwa, Ottawa, Shawnee, and Wyandot (or Huron) tribes. And yeah...that was BAD for the Brits, because that’s a LOT of enemies to face.

And so, the stage is set. While war wouldn’t be officially declared until TWO YEARS LATER, the British have their 42,000 poised to fight the 10,000 of the French armies. And while you’d THINK the French were at a disadvantage here, it turns out that having people who know the American frontier like the back of their hands is really valuable, and they proceed to just SPANK the British for two years. By 1757, Britain isn’t going great, and while the Native Americans are getting increasingly screwed by both sides.

With that, it’s time to get into the battle with an adaptation of a story written during this historic conflict. I’ll get more into that later, I promise.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

November: War

Let me start by saying that war...war is bad.

Yeah, I know, that’s hopefully obvious to everybody. Whether you support a given war or not, I think we can all agree that war is objectively bad. Sure, the results of war can be positive. After all, without the Civil War and its outcomes, I very possibly would be unable to type this right now, as a Black American man. But am I glad that the Civil War actually happened? Well...no. No, obviously no! The fact that it took 618,222 deaths for me to have a movie blog isn’t really worth it, now is it?

But, unfortunately, war is an uncomfortable reality of all species, to a certain degree. You might wonder what I mean by that, since lions don’t have political skirmishes that result in widespread casualties. But, first off all...that’s not exactly true, now, is it?

Competition for resources and territory is VERY much an animal thing to do, and we’re no exception. In our case, though, war is far more complex by nature of our species’ evolutionary complexities. So, no matter what we do, war is a part of human nature. Peace is obviously the preferred option for everybody, but war happens. It has, it is, and it will.

But with that said, the perception of war has DRASTICALLY differed over time. It began as epic tales of glory and heroism, producing legendary heroes and epic battles told mouth-to-mouth. The warrior became the soldier, the soldier became the hero, the hero became the leader, and the leader begat their own warriors. It’s literally the oldest story in the book.

So, war was a part of mythology and told tales since tales have been told. Pretty early on, belief was tied into war, and religious ideology was tied into not only the war itself, but into the stories told about war. Heroes prospered under the eyes of their god, or under the tenets of strict belief, and war became not only an aspect of heroism, but a noble and honorable thing for a character to engage in.

This meant that heroes weren’t just defined by their ability to wage war, but their willingness to enter it. The Bible has a TON of war in it, and some of its greatest heroes willingly entered those wars. David stepped up and killed a giant, and the people of Israel just went “Hey, you’re cool, wanna be king now?” And so, the glory and power of war could take someone from lowly to being a king. And from that, a dangerous precedent begins to emerge. At this point, according to the stories of the time, war is...kinda good?

By the way, this is mostly off the dome. I am NOT a scholar of this bent by any means, but this is based off of my knowledge of historical depictions of war. And I’m also not saying that history looked kindly on war universally. God knows a HELL of a lot of people hated war, in reality and in story. However, you don’t hear about anti-war stories much. And again...there is a point to this, I promise.

Time passes, and war doesn’t change too much. The gun and artillery are invented, as well as other technologies, and many battles are won and lost worldwide. But in terms of cultural depictions, war is still mostly full of heroic acts and dastardly villains, all fighting for Gods and countries. And again, I’m not saying this is universal (the Bhagavad Gita comes to mind, for one), but it’s definitely present. But all the while, war technology is advancing, and things are getting deadlier and more dangerous. We hit a bit of a lull worldwide, and life moves on for about 40 years.

And that’s when the Black Hand struck.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand is assassinated in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip in 1914, and events transpire that lead to World War I, also called the Great War. All the countries of Europe are all chuffed to jump in on this one, because war is still seen as a noble pursuit of freedom and justice, for the most part. But what people don’t realize is the fact that war technology has gotten EXTREMELY powerful.

France enters this war with the same military outfits they were wearing 40 years before, and Germany steps to the plate and goes “Schau da! Ein bunter Soldat hebt sich vom Feld ab! Erschieß ihn.” And after that change, and the introduction of grenades, submarines, tanks, machine guns, anti-aircraft weapony, and AIRCRAFT, war got a LOT deadlier, and a lot more dangerous. And after you lose FORTY MILLION PEOPLE to a war, you start to think...this war thing...might be REALLY FUCKING BAD.

And that’s where culture steps in.

In 1929, Erich Maria Remarque writes All Quiet on the Western Front, a book about his experiences on the German front of the Great War, and the brutal story made an impact with audiences worldwide. Ernest Hemingway joined in on the “war is a little fucked” fun with his novel, A Farewell to Arms. And anti-war sentiment slowly builds steam worldwide. Soon after, film jumped in on the game, with the first well-regarded war film being an adaptation of Remarque’s novel, released in 1930.

But then, Germany starts to act up again when some Austrian dude starts making some really fucked-up speeches. And when his speeches lead to a SECOND World War, people start to forget that whole “war is bad” thing, and film as a medium is quickly recruited in the use of...well, recruitment.

Propaganda is all the rage, and the world is all in on this one. The United States ESPECIALLY gets hyped up about it, and it will leave the war forever changed. Anti-war media disappears for a little bit, or is toned down at least. After the Allies win the war (using two FUCKING NUKES in the process), America has a reputation as a powerful, dangerous, warmongering country, and we quickly enter both a cold war and a Korean War as a result.

All the while, anti-war sentiment begins to rebuild slowly, and it ekes out further as films about World War II are made. But the fun thing about war films is that...really, they’re ALL anti-war. So, as soon as they’re made again, they help to fuel this building anti-war sentiment. But that’s NOTHING compared to reality.

And reality is about to hit HARD, right in the fucking face.

When we went into Vietnam in 1955, we were excited to fight against communism in the region, and to spread the American ideal even further. However, both military and media technology had advanced at this point, meaning that the American public could now see war up close and personal.

AND WE DIDN’T FUCKING LIKE IT

Other than essentially birthing the hippie movement, the new footage coming in from the southeast Asian jungle nation shocked and disgusted many Americans, and the rest of the world as well. And while the political ramifications of the Vietnam War and the resulting countercultures are...complicated, to say the least, this post is about the media implications. And boy howdy, were there media-related implications.

See, now that the secret was out, some of the first anti-war messages to be pushed out into the common zeitgeist were released via the art of film. The old anti-war fervor of war-focusing films came back, AND WITH A FUCKING VENGEANCE. And this sponsored some of the best movies ever made.

First and foremost in my heart will always be Stanley Kubrick’s 1964 black comedy Dr. Strangelove, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. Genuinely a hilarious comedy, and one I whole heartedly recommend to anyone who’s interested. But while this film was anti-war to a certain degree, that sentiment would just grow as time went on, and as films continued being made. And now, Vietnam provided brand new material to use.

Not every way film made at the time was anti-war. John Wayne, professional racist and uber-patriot, was so concerned about anti-war sentiment that he got the permission from Lyndon B. Johnson to make a big-budget war propaganda film...which people saw, but apparently hated. And while this film wasn’t alone, the tide turned QUICKLY. This was especially as war vets started coming home. And those vets...they were not doing OK.

In 1978, Michael Cimino tries to capture PTSD in Vietnam soldiers in The Deer Hunter. Haven’t seen it, but it’s on my list, that’s for sure. This film truly brings the barbarous nature of the war to the cinema, at a time where people were truly tired of Vietnam. Anti-war sentiment was at a high, and Vietnam was a taboo subject in Hollywood. But even then, the film was released after much confusion over the screenplay.

Here’s the thing, though: no Vietnam vets were actually consulted when they wrote this film, as far as I can tell. What that means is that this is a movie made from the media’s interpretation of the war, and not from experience. This is because it was written in a MONTH, and the writer, Derek Washburn, based his script almost entirely on news footage. Which is...problematic. But the next movie would involve a veteran in its production. And it...well...it changed everything.

Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is considered one of the greatest films ever made. I have not seen it. BUT I WILL GODDAMN IT

Anyway, a friend of Coppola’s served as the basis for the main character of the film. And while some of the events of the film have been disputed or disproven, it at least snows some effort to depict realism in the setting. More importantly, this film set the tropes that would become a part of the entire genre of war films from then on. Sure, many of them had their roots in previous films, but something about the Vietnam War really brought the genre into full focus.

And the rest is movie history.

I’ve touched upon the depiction of Vietnam vets in film with the OG, John Rambo. Check out my Recap (Part One | Part Two) and Review of First Blood if you’re curious. And it’s only, like, my 4th post, so...be gentle, I was (and am) new at this.

But what movies am I looking at this month? After all, there’s a lot of literal history to cover here. And while it’s unlikely I’ll get to all of them, I should still post my list of possibles! Bold ones are the ones I haven’t seen, as per normal. And hey, if you want to use this as a watchlist for yourself, you’re more than free to! And if you’re wondering after all of this what a war film is, well...it’s war

And that’s all there is to it. Right?