Ive begun to wonder why we (the collective we, as in the nation) are more obsessed with WWII than any other war. It was certainly pivotal, no denying that. I'm not complaining - there are many compelling stories to be told.
It jus seems (and I haven't done any research to back this up) that there are 10 times as many movies about WWII than all our other wars combined. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois:
Ive begun to wonder why we (the collective we, as in the nation) are more obsessed with WWII than any other war. It was certainly pivotal, no denying that. I'm not complaining - there are many compelling stories to be told.
It jus seems (and I haven't done any research to back this up) that there are 10 times as many movies about WWII than all our other wars combined.
I never really thought about it, but offhand I'd say there are a few factors.
It was fresh in the minds of people, both filmmakers and the general public, during the golden age of Hollywood.
It was the last major conflict in which we fought that we clearly won. It wasn't a draw, or a lingering, unresolvable mess.
And the generation that fought it was remarkable. It's been all downhill since. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois:
Ive begun to wonder why we (the collective we, as in the nation) are more obsessed with WWII than any other war. It was certainly pivotal, no denying that. I'm not complaining - there are many compelling stories to be told.
It jus seems (and I haven't done any research to back this up) that there are 10 times as many movies about WWII than all our other wars combined.
They’re propaganda movies. WWII was the last war that had the countries full support. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois:
Ive begun to wonder why we (the collective we, as in the nation) are more obsessed with WWII than any other war. It was certainly pivotal, no denying that. I'm not complaining - there are many compelling stories to be told.
It jus seems (and I haven't done any research to back this up) that there are 10 times as many movies about WWII than all our other wars combined.
What I find amazing is that Hogan’s Heroes was only like 20 years after WWII.
There’s no way a POW comedy could get made now days. For any war. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Frazod:
I never really thought about it, but offhand I'd say there are a few factors.
It was fresh in the minds of people, both filmmakers and the general public, during the golden age of Hollywood.
It was the last major conflict in which we fought that we clearly won. It wasn't a draw, or a lingering, unresolvable mess.
And the generation that fought it was remarkable. It's been all downhill since.
I think you've named quite a bit of it. In WWII it was much easier to define it as good v evil (or maybe that is easier in retrospect - I'm not sure how much of Hitlers evil was evident at the time). The following wars weren't so black and white, they were more political power moves (gross generalization).
We just feel better about ourselves in WWII, than we do subsequent or prior wars with maybe the exceptions of the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
Also, they could churn out a movie a month back then. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois:
Ive begun to wonder why we (the collective we, as in the nation) are more obsessed with WWII than any other war. It was certainly pivotal, no denying that. I'm not complaining - there are many compelling stories to be told.
It jus seems (and I haven't done any research to back this up) that there are 10 times as many movies about WWII than all our other wars combined.
I think the sheer magnitude of WWII has something to do with it. It was the largest conflict the world has ever seen. There are so many stories; large, small, fiction, non-fiction, European theater, Pacific, and everything in between. It's like a writer's playground.
And as others have mentioned, there was a very clear line between good and evil. And the blurring of that line has potential for great storylines. [Reply]
SPOILER ALERT: Unknown passenger leaves a soccer ball in a suitcase at the back of the bus with a shipping label and he spends the whole film trying to find the rightful owner, starting at the Fed-Ex terminal at the airport during World War II.
Some scenes are flashbacks to when he was a kid playing a piano and is being bullied by a few new Somali neighbors. He realizes his destiny when he goes to the boardwalk and a fortune telling machine called "Zoltar Speaks" predicts he will become the World's greatest Bus Driver.
He goes to the Empire State Building on his day off and meets a woman on a blind date and they fall in love and marry. [Reply]
Mobile warfare makes everything more interesting and easy to tell stories about.
Good villains.
And everybody knows about it. Knows the battles whatnot. For instance the battles of Verdun lasted 10 months. That’s just hard to tell a story about. [Reply]
