Racism And Prejudice In War Movies

CHAPTER THREE
AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD WAR MOVIES IN TERMS OF RACISM

My goal of this chapter is to analyse selected Hollywood war movies in terms of racism and other racial prejudices. I will examine as follows: Glory (1989) which deals with African American Civil War troops, Windtalkers (2002) which centres around Pacific War and Navajo code talkers, The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) which portrays British soldiers in Japanese captivity. The last two movies Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and Letters from Iwo Jima (2006) were shot simultaneously, by the same director Clint Eastwood, and both tell the same story about the invasion of Iwo Jima through the eyes of an American and Japanese soldier. In all those movies, non-white characters are portrayed stereotypically, negatively and face various types of prejudice or racism despite being often equally important to the storyline. My research problem/question is the following: What negative representations can be found in portraying non-white characters in war movies. Very often,

Either war movie reconstructs the reality of the past and the real way people treated each other or it presents fictional reality. Today’s viewer very often confuses fiction with reality. In addition, moviemakers often combine historical reconstruction with their own fictional elements. If some war movies had been made in the times in which their storylines are located, the viewers would probably have not considered those movies racists. Nevertheless, today's viewer live in different, modern reality and is aware of any signs of bias. This is the problem of the contemporary war movie– regardless how good it reconstructs the historical reality, it very often bears hallmarks of racism, because discrimination is inscribed in the everyday life of the past. Sometimes we should consider racist elements in war movies as the mindless reconstruction of the