“Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim

Aziz, Jamaluddin and Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor and Hashim, Fuzirah (2011) “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim. Journal of Media and Information Warfare (JMIW), 4. pp. 79-92. ISSN 1985-563X

Abstract

One important and influential popular culture product is fiction film. Arguably, even though fiction film is often seen as a mere entertainment outlet, its undeniable status as a socio-cultural commentator allows fiction films to impart values as well as capture popular imagination and consciousness. Fiction films, needless to say, can move or provoke the audience with their depiction of and focus on real-life events such as personal angst, the World Wars, the cold war, political struggles, economic downturns and natural disaster. One prevailing trend with regards to fiction film is that after the event of September 11, 2001,
the interest in the war film genre gains its momentum. Speculations about the post-September 11war that ensued, such as that in Iraq, have allowed variegated representations of war to be made on silver screen, either reaffirming or challenging the audience’s perception of war. Employing close textual analysis, the main aim of this paper is to reveal the prevalent themes of some war films.
This is done by focussing on the characters. This approach to film as signifying practices will help illuminate the themes of the films, hence, prompting critical reflections of the film’s commentary of the war that it alludes to.

Metadata

Item Type: Article
Creators:
Creators
Email / ID Num.
Aziz, Jamaluddin
UNSPECIFIED
Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor
UNSPECIFIED
Hashim, Fuzirah
UNSPECIFIED
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HM Sociology > Culture > Popular culture
P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > Motion pictures > War films
Divisions: Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam > Faculty of Communication and Media Studies > Centre for Media and Information Warfare Studies (CMIWS)
Journal or Publication Title: Journal of Media and Information Warfare (JMIW)
UiTM Journal Collections: UiTM Journal > Journal of Media and Information Warfare (JMIW)
ISSN: 1985-563X
Volume: 4
Page Range: pp. 79-92
Keywords: Characters, Popular Culture, Textual Analysis, Themes, War films
Date: 2011
URI: https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/10958
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10958

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