The Fog of War: The Army in the Series "Rome" (original) (raw)
Related papers
Considerations of Ancient Warfare on Film
Brill's Companion to Greek and Roman Warfare on Film, 2023
The new volume Brill's Companion to Greek and Roman Warfare on Film, edited by Konstantinos Nikoloutsos has much to offer in the way of reception studies and considerations of how the treatment of ancient warfare in film can reflect contemporary history and culture as well as the studio system. In addition to noting the topics and interconnections of the 20 chapters, I also point out areas of study in need of more work.
Third-Force Influences: Hollywood's War Films
Parameters, 2017
This article discusses the role of movie images in influencing the public’s perceptions of servicemembers. The implications of these findings are relevant to policymakers responsible for balancing servicemembers’ needs with public perceptions. D to its role during America’s long wars and its effect on perceptions of US military prestige, the entertainment media can be considered one of the third forces—“organizations that can influence the outcome of armed combat.”1 This article explains the ability of combat films to influence civilian and military perceptions of servicemembers and veterans. By understanding Hollywood’s depictions of servicemembers in combat and veterans at home, military leaders can respond better to media-influenced perceptions of military institutions and the people who provide our nation’s defense. The film American Sniper, based on the autobiography of Chris Kyle, a veteran US Navy Seal sniper with 160 officially confirmed kills during four tours in the Iraq W...
Two legendary strategists. Military campaigns stretching from the border of Persia all the way to modern-day northern India and from Tunisia to the Ardennes. A strong sense of a divine-like destiny to command armies in the face of a numerically superior enemy. A complicated personality. These are some of the aspects that have come to define our conception of both four-star general George S. Patton, Jr. (1885-1945) and Alexander the Great (356-323 BCE), hereditary king of Macedon. Their feats of hard-nosed leadership are admired by countless military professionals and enthusiasts worldwide, so it was no surprise they both eventually ended up on the silver screen. The research questions of this article are as follows: How are General Patton and Alexander the Great represented as military commanders? Why are famous soldiers such an enduring topic of historical biopics – despite a plethora of contemporary, extremely brutal conflicts? Do the films in question manage to convey their grand strategic vision? To what degree is the forceful public persona counterbalanced with serious character flaws, weaknesses and mysticism? I will concentrate on four especially crucial facets of Patton and Alexander that affect our reading of the title characters’ nature, namely the depictions of strategic and tactical[7] abilities, speech giving, militaristic attitude, and religiosity. Speeches and different shades of militarism are fairly typical aspects of soldier biopics of any given decade, but meticulous attention paid to tactical details and religious beliefs is actually something quite rare. The scenes I have chosen for closer scrutiny help to define the screen Patton and Alexander primarily as commanders but also as thinking individuals.
A New Categorization of Hollywood War Films
This short piece examines the co-evolution of and the synergy between Hollywood war cinema and American war memorialization in the historical, political and ideological terms of remembrance in order to propose a new, theoretically useful categorization of Hollywood war films. It is a distillation of the arguments to be found in the title chapter of Hollywood Remembrance and American War, edited by Andrew Rayment and Paul Nadasdy, Routledge, 2020, pp.1-38.
Beginning in April 2016 I was lucky enough to be asked to contribute a series of articles on medieval warfare on film to the pages of Medieval Warfare Magazine. This quickly became a regular column in the bimonthly magazine. Being incredibly enthused by this fascinating subject, I consistently soared over the word limit assigned to these pieces (which, due to space constraints could only ever run to two pages) and found I had written articles thousands of words more than was required. Many of these additional words necessarily found their way into the editing bin. Nonetheless, in their original state I consider they have interesting things to say so I have collected them here (up to Issue 7.2 – the first six articles). I have continued to write articles for the series but I have (I think) become better at staying closer to the word limit. These articles were writing for an informed general audience and so do not include references although each article has a further reading segment. In all cases the first step in researching them was to view the film itself. After the first two articles (on Arthur – although here I have returned them to their long, single article version), each would be written, as much as was possible, to conform to the theme of each issue of the magazine. Thus the issue on the Norman conquest of Wales had an article about the Normans and medieval Irish on film, the Vikings article concentrated on Ragnar Lothbrok (since he was the focus of that issue) and the Robin Hood article looked at that hero from the perspective of the First Baron's War. These constraints may give some of the articles an unexpected twist or an incomplete feel in some cases but I certainly intend to return to some of the subjects in more detail. At the same time, other themes such as that on the 1525 peasants revolt meant I could explore an interesting (and often ignored) subject such as peasants on film. I have kept my original titles here even though in some cases they were changed in the final edit of the magazine. These articles, written as they were for a magazine which focuses on military history, have a similar military focus. That is not to say that there is not material which is not related to military history but those aspects, equally fascinating, were not able to be emphasised. Likewise, there are several films which focus on medieval subjects which might not make an appearance simply because they do not focus on warfare. With that said, however, warfare is never far away in the medieval film and I have attempted to be as inclusive as possible. Enjoy.