Is anyone watching? War, cinema and bearing witness

Abstract

War-on-terror-themed fictional films, particularly those focused on the war in Iraq, have largely failed at the box office and have been subjected to stinging criticism by right-wing political commentators and film reviewers. Critics on the political right have been upset by a perceived lack of patriotism in the films, often arguing that they are dangerous incitements to new acts of violence. However, unlike many earlier war films, including those made about the conflict in Vietnam, directors of films about the war on terror are quite self-consciously making political films that question United States (US) policy and practice, that focus on the effects of war on US service personnel and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan and that, significantly, attempt to rehabilitate Arabs, Muslims and Islam from decades of Hollywood demonization. Moreover, the films are being made and released into a media environment in which quality news reporting has declined even as the intensity of feeling about 'otherness' has sharpened. This article argues that war on terror film directors are themselves bearing witness to the tragedy of war and thereby inviting film audiences to see the effects of war.

Resurrecting the vigilante: paternal sovereignty, exceptionality and familial security inTaken(2008) andTaken 2(2013)

“…In their box office, if not critical triumph, though, Taken and Taken 2 stand in stark contrast to Hollywood films that have attempted to either criticise the prosecution of the war on terror or deal with the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq more directly through the war movie genre (Carter and Dodds 2011 (2006), amongst others, have often provided spaces for critical reflection on the war on terror, they have also, in the main, struggled at the box office (Philpott 2010). The advantage of films like Taken and Taken 2, then, may be that although they clearly engage with themes of the war on terror, even to the point that orientalised Muslims are the protagonist's enemies in both, they do not explicitly mention those highly controversial conflicts in the Middle East.…”

Interpreting and Reinterpreting the Political Significance of Popular Media: The Importance of Seeing from a Range of Perspectives

“…Nick Robinson (2012) offers a brief overview of games from developers seeking to undermine dominant narratives about war, in which the critical significance comes from the attention to the human costs of fighting, such as simulating the effects of violence on civilians. Several studies have explored the recent films which critique the War on Terror and the Iraq War (Carruthers, 2008; Dodds, 2008a; Philpott, 2010). As in the critical videogames, the emphasis is often on the corporeal suffering that violence inflicts on soldiers and civilians, as well as the psychological trauma of combat.…”

How to Read Paddington Bear: Liberalism and the Foreign Subject inA Bear Called Paddington

“…Political understandings and ideas in popular culture are not innate. Being contextually situated, they are taught, learned, circulated and even resisted (Philpott 2010). Readings, counter-readings and the intended or unintended meanings in artefacts that shape these readings may change over time.…”