Representation and Context in Hollywood War Film: From Vietnam to 9/11

This thesis considers the role that Hollywood war movies have played in the representation of war and the contradictory manner in which they can both affirm and contest the legitimacy of US military campaigns. The research project identifies a correlation between film texts and the social, historical and political context in which their production is situated. The project investigates the patterns and relationships between film institutions, governments and audiences and how these relationships shift in emphasis over time through the representation of thematic content in exemplary texts – in particular the treatment of war, verisimilitude, heroism, PTSD, the ‘other’, and the relationship between soldiers and civilians. The project aims, through a concentrated investigation of the most popular war film texts from Vietnam to the present, post-9/11 period, to examine the relationship between text, context, industry and audience.