Well, today was our first day watching a film. We were watching All Quiet on the Western Front. Most of us that took AP Global last year saw part of it. It sort of brought back memories, though they weren't all that memorable. It was just kind of funny to see a movie that I never thought I would see again after AP Global was over. I mean, we only saw the part where all the students in the classroom are enlisting, but it still has the same effect that it did. It's almost kind of disturbing to see that everyone is so excited to go to war when the reality is that war is a harsh, cruel monster that you can never truly get out of once it swallows you. You may escape its stomach, you may escape the shells, but war forever leaves psychological effects on the soldier. It's pretty depressing that we have to see this carefree mood take a nosedive early on (when we see the former postman issuing orders and speaking like a true general), but such is the way of war.
I can tell that this is a depressing film already, but I kind of wish it wasn't. Then again, I'd rather it be a little bit more down to earth than be something disgustingly sugar-coated. That's all for today, I guess.
The film is depressing in some ways, but uplifting in another. Rather than telling you how it is the latter, I'd like you to think about that as you watch the rest. War brings out all of savagery in Man, but there's more to it, and the film explores that. Alas, though it succeeds as a work of timeless art, it may ultimately fail as an anti-war statement precisely because of the ambiguity I allude to.
ReplyDeleteSchindler's List was brutal as well, even though it DID use a lot of pathos.
ReplyDeleteA few of my great uncles served in WWII, and they usually tell me about how lucky they are to be alive. My Uncle August once told me about how he witnessed the U.S.S. Mt. Hood incident when a small destroyer the U.S.S. Mt. Hood exploded while docked near the ship that my uncle was on. The Mt. Hood and a small fuel ship that was fueling it were erased from existence when either a weapons malfunction took place, or an alleged Japanese suicide sub did it in. My Uncle August was knocked down by the explosion, and when he got back up all he was able to see was a big debris cloud, and remnants floating near by, most of it being completely mutilated human remains. All men on the Mt. Hood and the fueling ship were killed instantly. Despite this my uncle says that the war was the best years of his life, and that he made many friends, and the good times outnumbered the bad.
ReplyDelete