Category Archives: War in Film

First World War in Film

Posted on July 31, 2014 by briansandberg

This week marks the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War. Numerous new books and articles are remembering the war and its terrible destruction. I was recently conducting research in France and was impressed by the crowded window … Continue reading →

Posted in Historical Film, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Tanks in World War II Films

Posted on July 30, 2014 by briansandberg

Fury, a new World War II film, will be released this fall, presenting the perspective of United States tank crews fighting in Germany toward the end of the war in Europe. The film focuses on a Sherman tank named Fury … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, Historical Film, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Reconsidering Anti-War Films

Posted on July 15, 2014 by briansandberg

As the centennial of the outbreak of the First World War approaches, films about the conflict are being re-examined.  Perhaps the most famous film about the First World War is Lewis Milestone’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), based … Continue reading →

Posted in Atrocities, Historical Film, History in the Media, History of Violence, Human Rights, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

A Sequel to Restrepo

Posted on June 1, 2014 by briansandberg

A sequel (of a sort) to Restrepo, the 2010 documentary film by Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington about combat at a firebase in Afghanistan, is being released. The new documentary, Korengal, by Sebastian Junger attempts to contextualize the broader conflict … Continue reading →

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American Wars in Film

Posted on January 26, 2014 by briansandberg

War films, especially those produced in Hollywood, tend to focus on American experiences of wars. War films of the Second World War and Vietnam War have long dominated the American film industry’s considerations of historical conflicts. Depictions of American wars … Continue reading →

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Hitchcock’s Documentary on the Holocaust

Posted on January 12, 2014 by briansandberg

Director Alfred Hitchcock made a documentary, entitled Memory of the Camps, on the Holocaust in 1945. Hitchcock used the rushes of the British military film crews that had filmed the liberation of concentration camps, such as Bergen-Belsen, that year. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Atrocities, Historical Film, History in the Media, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

Conference on René Allio and Historical Film

Posted on November 19, 2013 by briansandberg

René Allio was one of the most important French directors of historical film in the 1960s and 1970s. Most of Allio’s films focused on historical subjects by depicting historical events, people, or sites. The director is most remembered for his … Continue reading →

Posted in Conferences, Early Modern Europe, Early Modern World, European History, French History, Historical Film, History in the Media, Revolts and Revolutions, War in Film | Leave a comment

Area 51 Acknowledged

Posted on August 17, 2013 by briansandberg

Recently released Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) documents acknowledge the existence of the Area 51 military base, which has developed experimental aircraft since the 1950s. The U2 spy plane was developed and tested at Area 51, but the base has since … Continue reading →

Posted in Graduate Work in History, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment

On Accents and Class in the Film Zulu

Posted on May 31, 2013 by briansandberg

Michael Caine’s breakout role as a film actor was in the film Zulu (1964), in which he played Lieutenant Bromhead, a young upper-class officer with a snooty accent. Caine recalls that, “in Zulu I was cast as a wishy-washy upper-crust … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, Historical Film, History in the Media, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | 3 Comments

WWII Soldier who Inspired the Dirty Dozen?

Posted on May 28, 2013 by briansandberg

Jake McNiece, a sergeant in the U.S. 101st Airborne Division during the Second World War, died this year at the age of 93.  McNiece led a squad of paratroops who became known as the “Filthy Thirteen,” which may have become … Continue reading →

Posted in European History, Historical Film, History of Violence, War in Film, War, Culture, and Society | Leave a comment