The author of Invisible Women, Dr. Margaret Harrell who herself is an Army brat, thinks the stereotypes depicted in her book are rooted in reality. "The book does reflect the stereotype, but it's one that's out there in the military community." Yes, Dr. Harrell stereotypes are reflected in reality. Indeed, these very stereotypes make up part of how the civilian word perceives the military in general. At least, through the eyes of Hollywood.
Watch any war flic and you will see reflections of those stereotypes. Even SAVING PRIVATE RYAN had stereotypical characters. Is this necessarily a bad thing? No, stereotypical characters transmit messages far more quickly and with more certainty than non - stereotypical characters. Taking a look at SPR, we see the vehement anti - Nazi Jewish Private Stanley Mellish, the corn - fed Iowa boy who spouts Bible passages as he snipes Private Daniel Jackson, the professional NCO Sergeant Michael Horvath, the bookish officer just wanting to go home Captain John H. Miller. There are more characters, but you get the point. Without these characters "typifying" their parts, the story would have lost its strengths. I am sure that the film succeeded only through Steven Spielberg's force of directorial will rather than through the actors and Rodat's script.
Another example is Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR. Maximus is our perception of how a stereotypical Roman officer would have been. He has honor, integrity, and forthrightness to carry him through his travails. In reality, Roman officers, particularly generals, were political appointees with little true military experience. The Roman Army was not a centralized army of modern recognition, but a collection of legions that had local, rather than national, affiliations. The leaders of the Roman armies were little more than gang bosses that demanded loyalty from their troops and the local inhabitants. So much for our romantic notions of history.
Another stereotype that Hollywood continues to typify is that every country of the world uses only U.S. manufactured weapons (the exception to this rule is that all bad guys carry AK47s). Here I pick on Guillermo Del Toro's The Devil's Backbone. The main crux of the story is that a unexploded bomb drops into a Spanish school yard during the civil war. Only two itty - bitty problems with this scenario. First of all, the bomb is an U.S. style box - fin type developed during World War II not the more correct pointed fin type used by German bombs. Second of all, the bomb exits the bomber in a horizontally position not the more correct inverted vertical position. Also, large unexploded bombs impacting on the ground tend to dig under the ground some distance. They do not stick six inches into the mud for all to see.
