Enemies of the State(S): Cultural Memory, Cinema, and the Iraq War

Abstract

Nearly 17,000 Australians served in Iraq, but memories of this experience are far removed from the film and television representations such as American Sniper (2014), The Hurt Locker (2008), and Generation Kill (2008). For most Australians in Iraq, the war was not one of constant fighting, and their marginal role caused angst for some Australian soldiers expecting to undertake direct combat action. Australians at home had few realistic frames of reference regarding war and soldiers other than film. Many US films have been made about the war in Iraq; some of these have achieved distribution success in Australia and have been absorbed by Australian audiences. Yet these cinematic images watched by Australians were US-made, were about Americans, and explored a US experience of war. This might have resonated and been appropriate for a US society that was intimately connected with this conflict, but was not appropriate for an Australia whose military role in Iraq was peripheral. Australian memories were less visceral and heroic, and the distorted cinematic images contribute to the ongoing dissonance and an unrealistic representation of Australia’s Iraq War.