Why Do Some People Hate War Movies?
As an issue, war is not going to go away. People tend to relate personally to war and thus are more easily entertained by movies on the subject. Why is it then that there are a significant percentage of viewers who will not watch a war film? Obviously, the reasons are as multitudinous as the number of people. However, I think the reasons could be rounded out by suggesting that since the end of World War II our society has been trying to reach a higher moral ground where history's broader issues are more narrowly defined in terms of race, class, gender, and ethnicity. Military movies tend to reach to the broader issues of history and the characters' relationships with the events surrounding them. Therefore, this portion of the viewing audience views movies of the military sort with animosity. Perhaps it is in the nature of this animosity that certain viewers feel alienated from the story.
Michael Bay has done an interesting turn with PEARL HARBOR. During an interview promoting the film, he states the he was not creating a documentary but a romance. He was not filming history purely as history but to tell the story of two friends and their relationship with a girl. I reason that he was trying to attract that fourth group into the theaters. Push the romance and downplay the history. Take out prurient violence so that each war - like action is nobility in action, add the second group. Add enough (CGI) action to make the movie attractive to the first and third groups. Viola, you have a winner.
Based on the returns from PEARL HARBOR, it has done well enough. Certainly, the film is not the great blockbuster that it seemed destined to be but it has good workmanlike qualities that make it watchable. Even, I think, watchable enough for the people in the fourth category.
I do not think I answered my original question. Nor, do I think I ever will. Suffice it to say that movies of a military nature, as well as the documentaries of
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