Why We Fought: America's Wars in Film and History
Edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O'Connor
Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, July 2008. Cloth: ISBN 9780813124933, $75.00; paper: ISBN 9780813191911, $40.00. 624 pages.





Review by David Buck, Thiel College, Pennsylvania

Many scholars have a hard time accepting film as a legitimate method of depicting history, given its relatively recent development as a vehicle for representing events. While cinema has existed for only a short time in comparison to other art forms, such as literature, music, dance, or painting, film plays an increasingly important role in the study of history. In many cases, people “know” their history from what they see, which is especially true in the genre of war films. Why We Fought: America’s Wars in Film and History, edited by Peter C. Rollins and John E. O’Connor, attempts to give their audience insight into the various roles that film plays in influencing, reflecting, and interpreting American war experiences (1). This massive undertaking began from the 2005 conference “War in Film and History.”Rollins and O’Connor’s finished product is a great resource. It is chronologically organized, and uses a variety of mediums and types of analysis. Furthermore, it can be used by many historical scholars. It appeals to scholars who already have an understanding of how one can use film as a medium for historical analysis. At the same time, it encourages historians to integrate film into their repertoire of historical documents. Additionally, Why We Fought is a solid resource for those who want to integrate historical film into the classroom.Why We Fought is divided into four major periods. “The Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: Revolution, Conquest, and Union” covers the most history, stretching from the American Revolution to end of the Civil War. This section examines films on the American Revolution with a chapter that focuses on Drums Along the Mohawk and The Patriot (John E. O’Connor). Then comes a chapter that focuses on the Alamo films (Frank Thompson), followed by a chapter that concentrates on the Mexican-American War (James Yates). Finally, this section ends with chapters that examine Ken Burns’s Civil War miniseries (Gary E. Edgerton) and Cold Mountain (Robert M. Myers), respectively. While this first period captures many aspects of American history through war films, it does not provide coverage of war films about late-nineteenth-century American imperialism.“The Twentieth Century: Total War” does an admirable job of exploring the World Wars and the inter-war years. Several chapters deal with World War I and the reactions to it. In the first of these chapters, Michael T. Isenberg argues that The Big Parade illustrates the rise in isolationism during the post-war years. Next, James Latham examines how the film industry promoted the theme of war during the World War I era. In the last chapter on the Great War era, David Imhoof examines the reaction of the citizens in Göttinger, Germany to the films Westfront 1918 and All Quiet on the Western Front. Moving from examining the war years, John Whiteclay Chambers II explores how Hollywood shifted gears and supported isolationism and non-intervention during the majority of the 1930s. Cynthia Miller continues the march to the Second World War by examining how Hitler, Beast of Berlin helped signal a shift away from isolationism. Ian S. Scott investigates the role that propaganda played, after the entrance of the United States into World War II, through Why We Fight and Projections of America. Frank J. Wetta and Martin A. Novelli consider the plight of the returning veterans as portrayed in The Best Years of Our Lives. Focusing on the war period itself, J. E. Jones examines how From Here to Eternity brought the history of the war to the American public. Finally, this second period ends with a look at D-day, as Robert Brent Toplin reflects on how during the 1960s (The Longest Day) and the 1990s (Saving Private Ryan), films portrayed historical events while making comments on contemporary issues.“Cold War and Insurgency: The Paradox of Limited Wars” covers the Cold War and the Vietnam War. The first chapter in this section deals with how Berlin is used in film to represent the divide between the West and East in the Cold War (Thomas W. Maulucci). In the only chapter to focus on gender roles, Patricia Neal’s character in The Day the Earth Stood Still represents a contrast to the normal portrayal of women during the 1940s and 1950s (Susan A. George). Shifting to the Vietnam War, the focus becomes the problematic nature of the bias inherent in productions about the war and how films about this war reflected American opinions (Peter C. Rollins). In the following chapter, Platoon illustrates the life of the soldier in the Vietnam War (Lawrence W. Lichty and Raymond L. Carroll). The final chapter shows how the two versions of The Quiet American are impacted by the difference of almost fifty years between the productions (William S. Bushnell).“The Twenty-first Century: Terrorism and Asymmetrical Conflicts” reviews the most recent American conflicts. John Shelton Lawrence and John G. McGarrahan focus on how Black Hawk Down as a film, along with Pentagon support, helped defend the perception of the armed forces, following the model established by Lawrence Suid. Moving into the twentieth-first century, Jeffery Chown explores how the accessibility of film/video has altered the war film, evaluating a variety of films from the war in Iraq. Stacy Takacs examines Jessica Lynch’s myth-like portrayal, and finally, James Kendrick examines how the events of 9/11 have been depicted on both the big and small screens.The primary strength of Why We Fought lies in its wide scope. Its second strength is that Rollins and O’Connor do not restrict the type of film, including feature productions, documentaries made for cinematic release, and productions made exclusively for television. By having this wide variety of film types, this collection provides an appropriately complete illustration of how war has been depicted and its role in understanding American history.Why We Fought also provides breadth in the types of analysis that the individual chapters provide. Some chapters focused on the films themselves and how they depicted the subject matter. Other chapters place the films and the film industry into the context of the period in which the productions occurred. Rollins and O’Connor make sure that the chapter’s authors are committed to taking a “film and history” approach. This means that evaluations about a war film need to: (1) place the film in its historical context; (2) be aware that the film is a vehicle for propaganda; (3) keep in mind that the film’s sponsorship and/or censors impact its message; (4) that war films are their own genre; and (5) caution must be used when studying films (25). The articles included in this collection add significantly to the study of film and history by taking into account these concerns.Another strength of Why We Fought is the filmography and bibliography provided by John Shelton Lawrence. Lawrence lists (in chronological order by production date) every film cited in the work, plus many other major war films. Further, he breaks this list down into historical eras. Also, he provides sources for more comprehensive filmographies, as well as printed resources for each of the historical eras. His bibliography is a solid addition to the book. Following the same historical-era breakdown as the filmography, Lawrence provides both a list for general works and those that have a film focus. These additions only strengthen an already excellent resource work.[See an additional review of this book below.]