How Did We Get It So Wrong?

Wayne Blair depicts the theme of war with the scene of the girls arriving in Vietnam and travelling to their camp. Through the use of setting, the devastation of war is displayed with the change of scenery as they travel further within the country. When the girls and Dave are first travelling through, the setting is bright and cheerful; they are happy and excited which is shown through a medium long shot of the characters and their transport. As they travel further into the country, the scenery changes as it becomes gloomy and is destroyed. Through the tracking medium long shot, the scenery is displayed while

The reader is left with a sense of betrayal by the government and offended by it’s blatant lies. An obvious question is: if the government has been lying about cluster bombs and has been getting away with it, what else are they lying about?

McNamara’s first lesson is to empathize with your enemy. In the documentary, McNamara reveals how the United States and Russia avoided a full blown nuclear assault with empathy. President Kennedy and his advisers had limited time before Nikita Krushchev and Fidel Castro complete and activate

The films I chose to do my comparative paper on are The Green Berets and Casualties of War. Both of these films deal with issues concerning the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was viewed as unpopular and pointless by society; The Green Berets objective was to gain support for the Vietnam War. The film puts great emphasis on liberal war journalist George Beckwith (David Janssen). Beckwith originally doubts America's involvement in the war, but after spending time with the Green Berets, his attitude changes significantly. Casualties of War has a different perspective on the Vietnam War. The film is based on a real-life incident and it focuses on the emotional and psychological aspects of war. The film

The only way they get out of this insane loop is from outside help. The final and most important theme is the areas in America that are war zones, People,

Hunter. “Meet the Jade Helm Conspiracy Theory: the federal governments pot to invade Texas.” 2015.Web.

Through this book the main plot is conflict. In our nature and as part of the Human Condition conflict is inevitable. Miller put the message across by using a historical event that was a dispute and which led to deaths. The book does not let the

The preference for “clarity over nuance” which means American people prefer simplicity over complexity when American people access significant declarations and military activities. American people vote their presidents so that American people like politicians announce the statement with the easily accessible idea, even though politicians lie to them, or the statement is wrong. Politicians deceive American people with the easily accessible idea that “...American people in their pursuit of happiness...” (38) according to Andrew J Bacevich’s “The Real World War IV”. Politicians simply state its purpose that the elimination of terror instead of the founding purpose that grab the accessible oil in the Middle East because American people prefer to hear the statement of simply understanding from their politicians who they vote. Also, American people prefer to see a simplicity in the military school in order to pursue their happiness. However, in “The Naked Citadel”, Susan Faludi exposed that there was no admission for women, sex-discrimination, and violence, and etc. many bad news in the military school. But the ugly and relentlessly truth deeply hurt American people’s feeling. Even if the reality is around American people, and we are familiar with it, the reality is too horrible to accept it. Same as soldiers, Tim O’Brien attempts to emphasize the war story is all about human’s love and memory, it is not about war in the “How to Tell a True War Story”. He is trying to explain that

In the early morning hours of the 19th of March 2003 the leviathan force better known as the United States military began an occupation to topple the brutal Saddam Hussein regime. The conflict later known as the Iraq War and dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom by the United States, brought together four separate nations to overturn Saddam Hussein and the Ba’athist government. The war introduced tactics and strategies of urban warfare, the likes of which have never used by the U.S. military before; and despite President George W. Bush declaration on the 1st of May 2003 abroad the USS Abraham Lincoln, the war was anything but “mission accomplished.” Operation Iraqi Freedom consisted of twenty-one major battles throughout its rough ten-year occupation. Operation Phantom Fury, or better known as the Second Battle of Fallujah, was one of those strategic key battles. Then Major General Richard F. Natonski led the 1st Marine Division through Operation Phantom Fury. I will introduce a brief history of LTG Natonski, the strategic location of the City of Fallujah, and an in-depth critical analysis of the mission command throughout the deadliest battle in the Iraq War.

To convey the terrible truth that the Allies lost 10,000 men on June 6th, the director had to recreate the gruesome blood soaked waters and beaches and the piles of dead and dying soldiers. The scene when Miller’s men go rummaging through the huge pile of dog tags is surreal.

For my paper I will focus on Valley of the Wolves: Iraq and the stereotyping/ enemy making techniques within this film through the American characters present and the several scenes when enemy making is most potent. I have chosen to focus on this because it is based on true events, like July 4, 2003 raiding of Turkish Special Forces offices by American Marines, who put hoods over their heads and detaining them for several days-- all because the Marines claimed to mistake the soldiers for insurgents-- as well as the Abu Ghraib prison human rights violations. I also have chosen this film to focus on because of the interesting perspective of the Americans being the enemy-- something I do not see often, if at all, as an American.

“The Spymasters” begins with an act of vengeance. Leon Panetta, the former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, describes(in great detail) of the agency manhunt for the planners of a 2009 suicide bombing at a base in southeastern Afghanistan, that killed seven of its employees. Mr. Panetta got a call from his office, saying that they had found the bomber. The first thought was to take him out, however, there were women and children around the bomber. He had to make a decision, “If you can isolate the individual and not hit any women or children, then do it. But if you have no alternative and it looks like he will get away, then take the shot”(Spymasters). He gave the order for an armed drone to destroy a compound in Pakistan that was hiding a militant leader — killing everyone there, including the intended target’s wife and children. If he hadn’t given the order, Mr. Panetta recalls, the man might have escaped and carried out future attacks. But much later in the film, he admits that the action was also “personal.”

Professor Bolger's chapter on the Iraqi war served to help us see what exactly happened in 2006. I believe that he wrote this chapter in order to give the uncensored details about what happened in Iraq because the public is left in the dark about most of the details.

You don’t know where the next shot is coming from and you can never relax because the pacing of the movie comes like a tidal wave of dread. An interesting creative decision here is that even though this is clearly WWII and we know who the enemy is, you never see a single German soldier, not even a Nazi Germany flag is present. The closest you get to an enemy is the aerial assault from many jets fighter. The absence of a physical enemy, it doesn’t affect this survival film one bit, if anything it strikes up more paranoia keeping the audience uneasy the way through.

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