Recent war films are more like psychological thriller/horror survival films. I approve of this. Even for the Victor war should not be a gaudy thing.

Films like Dunkirk, the German release of All Quiet on the Western Front and even Hollywood’s Fury still show courage, valor and decency but the same time in the face of a much more plausible horror, life under the constant threat of death, enormity of the cost of war.

Happily gone are the ridiculous jingoistic cowboy war films like Pearl Harbor, Midway and their like.
In my opinion, if a war film doesn’t fill you with dread, or disgust at the wastefulness of it - it has failed.

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JSul3 · 70-79

The 1930 Universal picture All Quiet on the Western Front was an anti-war film.

The vast majority of Hollywood productions during WW2 were propaganda pieces.

The film Go For Broke, though flawed in some respects, showed that there were patriotic Americans, who were not white guys, fighting against the Nazis.

The Vietnam war brought several very graphic tales of war. John Wayne's Green Berets was his typical "gung ho" version of war.

Many vets of D Day state that the graphic opening scenes of Saving Private Ryan were accurate.