Photography and the War Film

Abstract

Iwould like to start with documentary war films before broadening the discussion to fictional narrative accounts of war. I find this to be a critical starting point because there is a connection between documentary war films and fictional war films in how their images are orchestrated to mobilize an emotional response. This connection can be strongly felt in contemporary war films, as many of these films acknowledge a direct influence of the war documentary form. Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker (2008) was shot by Barry Ackroyd, a longtime Nick Broomfield collaborator, his documentary credentials reflected in the film’s use of zooms and handheld camera shots; likewise, a similar visual aesthetic is present in Paul Greengrass’s Green Zone (2010), which Ackroyd also shot. Brian De Palma’s polemical Iraq War film Redacted (2007) is presented in documentary form, recalling actual Iraq War documentaries from previous years, such as Petra Epperlein and Michael Tucker’s Gunner Palace (2004). This chapter will consider how the influence of photography can be felt in both the documentary and narrative war film form, starting with a reading of Emile de Antonio’s Vietnam War documentary In the Year of the Pig. What makes the documentary film form such a reliable intertext in this film cycle is the orchestration of fact and emotion in war documentaries, rooted in a historical tradition of combing reportage and direct testimony.