I don't watch war movies much. I never was a big fan of them, but since I've grown older and hopefully wiser, they've seemed to have lost all appeal except to provide a visual reference for the insanity of war.
Liz and Fletcher went to visit "Papa" for a few days and I've been relegated to the life of a bachelor. That includes the boredom which comes with not having them around. So, I watched Saving Private Ryan . We don't watch war movies when Fletcher's around. I don't know why we watch them at all but maybe to reinforce how we feel about war. Like any good movie, (and it is), it draws you into the lives of the characters. You are given the opportunity to see what they see and, for as much as it can be done on film, you get to feel what they feel.
I'm a forty-seven year old, testosterone filled male and at the end of the movie, I cried, but not for the reason that many who watched it might have. Many, I'm sure, felt the swell of nationalistic pride, and the sacrifices made, but I cried for the lives lost on all sides - the innocent men and women who have been pulled into wars to be fodder for the lies of government. How many of them drew their last breath at the hand of "the enemy" and believed that they were sacrificing their life for some noble cause? How many believed that life, liberty and property were at risk by "the enemy" and sacrificed their lives on that alter? When will we ever learn?
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As a fellow Christian libertarian and testosterone-addled guy in his mid-40s, I also share your ambivalence about war movies. There are a few I genuinely like: "Braveheart" (my oldest son is named William Wallace), for instance, and a few others in which the protagonists are clearly fighting a war of defense against a clear-cut aggressor.
ReplyDeleteMy favorite war movie as such is probably "Shenandoah," in which James Stewart's Charlie Anderson is fighting the only war that is always justified: He's trying to save his own family and property from the depredations of those who would consume them in their demented political wars.
When I was a youngster, I NEVER played "army"; I always played "explorer" or "detective." I could never understand the appeal of a game in which you were expected to "kill" other kids. I still can't.
Great post!