The World War II Combat Film

Anatomy of a Genre

Browse Return to Previous Page       Related Subjects All Subjects Cinema & Media studies Cinema studies

by Jeanne Basinger With an updated Filmography by Jeanine Arnold

Wesleyan University Press

Due/Published May 2003, 373 pages, paper

ISBN 0819566233

Basinger offers a revealing and perceptive look at the combat film. Discussing over one thousand movies, Basinger covers in-depth the key examples of the genre and uses them to define the meaning of genre itself. From Bataan to Battleground to The Dirty Dozen to Saving Private Ryan, the book traces the evolution of the combat genre, as its recurring characters, plots and events are used and reused over time. There is also a section outlining what happens when women replace men in combat and when the subject is treated as comedy. First published in 1986, this updated and expanded edition of the book contains a new introduction, a new chapter on Saving Private Ryan and an updated filmography.

"No other book offers comparable breadth or focus. It makes available a scholarly, historical context for students, readers and filmgoers to understand the continuities and changes in present-day representations of World War II."--Robert Sklar

"In her fascinating book . . . Basinger is fully persuasive in arguing that the films of World War II constitute a separate genre that became the model for the war film for the next forty years or so." -American Film

Contents

Definition
Prior History
Evolution
Variations of Genre
Problems of Genre
Combat Redux
Annotated Chronological Filmography of World War II and Korean Combat Films
Annotated Chronological Filmography: 1981-2003 325
Appendix: Selected Titles Relevant to Prior History of World War II Combat Films
Notes
Bibliography
Index of Films