Hey guys. Like the rest of you, I am working on the first paper assignment. As I looked back on the material we learned so far, I remembered a movie that sort of relates to something we mentioned in class. The movie I am talking about is Red Cliff II, a 2009 Chinese-epic war film […]
Paths of Glory turned out to be a surprisingly captivating movie. Based on what we have seen so far in class, the two themes that repeatedly came to my mind are corruption and the injustice of the ranking system, although I do not know if the latter can be classified as a theme per say. […]
Two things I have come to expect before this attending this class: 1. War films will have a lot of “war” in it (even if it is Kubrick, I really did think there was going to be more tribulation, less trial). 2. The French aren’t all that bad. No I kid, I have nothing against […]
Many things happened in Paths of Glory but I would like to focus on something that is related to what we already read in class. “Friction is the only conception which, in a general way, corresponds to that which distinguishes real war from war on paper.” The quotation above was taken from one of the […]
I applaud you, Stanley Kubrick! What an excellent portrayal of war without the “war” part. What we see in this movie is more than just World War I battle scenes – the French fighting the German along 500 miles of trenches. We go beyond that. We dig deep into the nitty-gritty of human behavior; of […]
One of the most impressive art series about war is by German painter Otto Dix, also a former soldier. Please compare this art project to the writings of Wilfred Owen and Ernst Juenger. Otto Dix _war
This is one of the most famous poems in English describing the horror of War War I: DULCE ET DECORUM EST1 Bent double, like old beggars under sacks, Knock-kneed, coughing like hags, we cursed through sludge, Till on the haunting flares2 we turned our backs And towards our distant rest3 began to trudge. Men marched […]
Ernst Junger’s Storm of Steel is a memoir that shows vivid description of his experience in World War I. Ernst Junger tries to capture mostly the horrifying experiences that soldiers had to undergo. “But finally we were so accustomed to the horrible that if we came on a dead body anywhere on a fire-step or […]
Storm of steel deals with the horrifying accounts of WWI as told by a German soldier; through the stories/journal entries, which he shares we truly receive a glimpse at the horrors of war. While fighting in the war and staying in trenches, these soldiers received constant reminders of the frailty of life and were surrounded […]
I know we went into great detail about real vs. fiction etc, in regards to “Good Form”. I also know that Tim O’Brian is using a literary technique of the untrustworthy narrator, or one that is subjective, that cannot be truly trusted. And yes, I know that isn’t the point. But then, what is really […]