Last Year, One Of The Most Talked About Mainstream Movies

The fear of killing and being killed in battle is no easy thing to contemplate or to inspire. Inspiring soldiers to participate earnestly in battle is crucial to winning wars. Approaches to accomplish this have been studied and tried by military leaders for millennia. George S. Patton attempted this very thing in his speech to the Third Army. Patton delivered a profane and vulgar speech to untried soldiers who have yet to see combat. Patton is able to inspire his soldiers by using his reputation while dismantling his authority, using obscene humor, and appealing to their sense of honor and courage.

“Hacksaw Ridge” represents one of the movies from last year that I was most curious about. I love Mel Gibson’s “Braveheart,” and the story here seemed interesting. Plus, I was curious to see how Hollywood would react to Gibson’s return to directing after his incendiary past. I finally caught up with the best picture nominee, and it’s certainly a good, but not great, movie.

George Stevens' 1953 film Shane is notable for a number of reasons, from its grand cinematography to its ambiguous ending, but perhaps the most striking thing about the film is its treatment of violence. In particular, the film uses the story of the mysterious gunfighter Shane to chart the gradual irrelevance of this kind of violence in the aftermath of the Civil War, and in some ways one can imagine that the film itself is attempting to recover from the violence of World War II. By examining some key moments from the film, one is able to see how Shane uses its sometimes graphic violence in an effort to simultaneously show the ostensible utility and ultimate futility of violence. In the end, Shane undermines classic western film tropes in order to turn the image of the heroic gunfighter into a frightening warning about the lingering effects of senseless violence.

I read the section about the battles that took place during WWII. It brought to my minds that in real life. There are more important things during a war than finding a private Ryan. War is a huge event and the little things like finding a person to keep the family name going is too small to include in war history. This is what separates the movies from the real life. Another difference is they don't show the actual planning it takes to start an attack or the inelegance that is needed to set up the perfect defense barrier to prevent the advancement of the enemy soldiers. A real battle can last days, weeks, months, or years, compared to movie war that lasts not even a day and has one guy or one platoon take on the entire other side. The casualties of real war is tremendous, rather than movies where you see almost the same characters in the whole movie accomplishing some of the most intense tasks with only one or two dying. Also, in movie war you don't see the other side's horror. You think all the opponents are bad horrible people that deserve to die, when they are just soldiers doing their job and the only reason we are fighting them is because of a bad leader or government. So in the movies every enemy deserves to die and should be shown no mercy, but the actual thing about that is that the enemy is just like any other soldier. And furthermore when the good guys lose a battle in a

The dangers frequently endured by soldiers fighting for the United States is immense. Hundreds of men and women are killed daily by terrorists. Many soldiers give up their dreams to fight for their country because they feel endangered every day by extremist groups and other terrorists. The movie American Sniper is based off of the true story of Chris Kyle and his efforts to protect his country. Throughout the movie, Chris Kyle’s struggles demonstrate that war may build courage but also leads to emotional issues.

“Social scientists state that when violence is shown in context, complete with depictions of the pain and suffering caused by the violent acts, aggressive behavior in the viewer is inhibited”(Valenti, 102). “If a violent act is rewarded – through the perpetrator’s attaining his goal or ‘getting the girl,’ the likelihood of learning aggressive behavior is increased” (Valenti, 103). After Indiana Jones battles his way onto a ship, he’s so bruised he can’t move, so Marion, a beautiful woman, kisses the pain away. This is the only physical consequence we see Indie “suffer” (Raiders).

War can destroy a man both in body and mind for the rest of his life. In “The Sniper,” Liam O’Flaherty suggests the horror of war not only by presenting its physical dangers, but also by showing its psychological effects. We are left to wonder which has the longer lasting effect—the visible physical scars or the ones on the inside?

The short story “The Death of Dolgushov” by Isaak Babel is a gut wrenching story, at times literally, about the dilemmas of killing. Babel, a master of the short story, challenges readers’ morality by contrasting two soldiers plights. On the one hand, a soldier, Dolgushov, pleads that he has “had it (241),” meaning that he wants his comrade to kill him after being mortally wounded by machine gun fire; while on the other hand, another soldier, unnamed, cannot bring himself to kill Dolgushov. Throughout the story, war is depicted as a game until a soldier gets seriously hurt. This device, combined with the vivid imagery associated with both soldier’s plights, complicates how readers’ judge the act of killing and war in general.

Desmond T. Doss, war hero of War World II. The amazing unarmed medic, who saved the lives of seventy-five men on Okinawa in 1945.And became the first conscientious objector to receive the medal of honor. Frances Doss, author of Desmond Doss: The Conscientious Objector, which is Desmond Doss wife, who wrote the book in his honor. In this essay, I will include the summary, authors purpose, audience, and narrative quality to provide a rhetorical analysis on Doss's book.

Undeniably, the book Redemption at Hacksaw Ridge by Booton Herndon is an interesting yet enlightening read which follows Desmond Doss' heroic actions during World War 2. This book is a biography of Desmond Doss who always wished to become a medic, but never received much education as a child. When Doss was one step closer to his dream, he was outcasted and tolerated torture from other soldiers who refused to accept that he is a conscientious objector. The setting of this book first takes place in Virginia, where Doss was born, but the majority of the book takes place at a steep, jagged cliff called the Hacksaw Ridge.

The movie Platoon tells the story of a platoon of soldiers during their time serving in the Vietnam War. The soldiers find themselves in a variety of ethically challenging situations, and many make decisions with massive ethical ramifications. The situations vary, from searching a village for enemy activity to deciding whether to save a fellow soldier, and the soldiers are forced to choose between varieties of less than ideal options. The movie’s ethical spectrum ranges from individuals concerned only with accomplishing their mission at all costs to those who express concern for the lives of all people they interact with. The two ends of this spectrum are represented in the movie by Sergeant Barnes as the soldier who values only completing his mission contrasted with Sergeant Elias who attempts to preserve the life and humanity of the Vietnamese people he encounters when possible (Kopelson, 1986). I believe that the decisions exemplified by Elias represent a better way of conducting warfare, while those of Barnes represent a descent into understanding only the immediate objective at the expense of winning the overall war. The following key ethical decision points from the movie demonstrate the superiority of the decisions made by Elias

How can it be considered an anti-war film if none of the characters question the reason for war, or any politicians for that matter? The film does not focus on the purpose of the war but more so on how the war is conducted.

(Pinker) For instance, Glover’s description of the horrors in My Lai (Vietnam) will resonate with any reader well after he or she have finished the novel: “They [the American troops] burnt down every house. They raped women and girls and killed them. They stabbed some women in the vagina and disemboweled others… Pregnant women had their stomachs slashed open and were left to die” (Glover 58). Although for some, the My Lai Massacre may seem less important than the Holocaust, for example, because of the smaller number of deaths, Glover does not see it that way. In his eyes, it does not matter how many deaths there were; just the mere fact that humans have let themselves do such obscene acts to other human beings is what matters. But what is even more important than those past events is how humanity, as a whole, can stop events such as the My Lai Massacre from ever happening again.

Desmond Doss is one of the most famous U.S conscientious objector in all of U.S military service history. Desmond Doss is known for his brave work at Hacksaw Ridge in Okinawa by single handily saving 75 men by means of carrying them and by manoeuvring them down with his unique rope technique which earned him the medal of honour in October the 12th 1945. Therefore making him the first ever conscientious objector in U.S military history to receive the award. Desmond Doss’s legacy has been shown throughout the ages in television, documentaries and now in the latest 2016 movie entitled Hacksaw Ridge after the real life spot in Okinawa. The movie depicts the true story of U.S serviceman and conscientious objector Desmond Doss in his journey to Hacksaw Ridge. At First Desmond Doss was not fond of people making films or being portrayed in any sort of media because of the inaccuracies that these films might would portray of him because he was deeply focused on his religion and as a seventh day Adventist. But an agreement was soon with him and his firm.

While watching this film you may find yourself experiencing some of the same emotions as the characters in the film this allows you to be in the movie letting you be a part of an important event in our history. This is what makes the film so unique. Its full of different scenarios that keep you wondering what is going to happen next. I think that this film is a very close representation of what WWII was really like.