*Taste Of Cinema – Movie Reviews and Classic Movie Lists
The 10 Best War Movies of The 21st Century
The popularity in recent years of war films such as Lone Survivor and American Sniper have demonstrated a resurgence of the war film genre. Few films were made in the years between Operation Desert Storm and the present, similar to war film production in the years during and after Vietnam. Public outcry or indifference serves as the most satisfying explanation of why these films are so sparsely produced, and so poorly received both critically and commercially.
The reversal of fortunes for war films comes from these recent films and their injection of national pride and heroism that are largely absent from previous films. Films often failed to peak the interest, because they focused either on the atrocities of American soldiers like those exposed at Abu Ghraib, or on the futility of fighting wars against enemies with no apparent fear of death on their own soil.
While still exploring some of these concepts of war surrounding American-involved combat in the 21st century, war films began to reinvigorate some of the sentiments similarly generated by films produced about World War II. It was The Hurt Locker in 2008 that proved such a resurgence of the genre was possible.
Although a diversity of thematic elements and narrative scope have been largely missing from those films produced about modern war in the 21st century, war films are again relevant through their revelations in a new kind of combat action unrealized in the wars of the past.
More impressive firepower, and greater technology to include unmanned aerial drones, and night-vision bring war films to the forefront of the action genre if not contributing to the discourse of war. Inspired by this renewed vigor, the following list of ten films represents the best that the genre has offered in the 21st century.
10. Zero Dark Thirty (Kathryn Bigelow, 2012)
Zero Dark Thirty is perhaps best described or classified as a political thriller, or even better still as a spy thriller as it follows Maya, played by Jessica Chastain, and her years-long hunt of Osama Bin Laden. It is, however, made significant to the subject of 21st century warfare because of the involvement of the Navy SEAL team and the siege sequence that concludes the film.
As Maya’s search that has lasted longer than a decade comes to a conclusion and the Navy SEAL team moves stealthily on the compound hiding Bin Laden, repeated images are seen through night vision goggles. The night vision imagery and sequences of precise, quiet combat has become the most iconic staple of the war film genre in the 21st century.
Even though night vision has appeared in several war films before the 21st century – Courage Under Fire (Edward Zwick, 1996) and G.I. Jane (Ridley Scott, 1997) – visuals in night vision were popularized by video games like the Call of Duty franchise, then used in Act of Valor (Mike McCoy and Scott Waugh, 2012) as a possible recruiting tool.
Night vision imagery alone is not particularly significant, but Kathryn Bigelow proved with The Hurt Locker (as discussed below) that films could be made about modern war where heroes are made of the soldiers that fight in a time when war is largely unpopular while also complicating both individual and geopolitical motives for going to war. It is the persistent contribution of Bigelow that grants this film an entry here as one of the ten best war films of the 21st century.
9. In the Valley of Elah (Paul Haggis, 2007)
2007 was a watershed year for the 21st century war film. In part, this is because the consciousness of Americans and the global community was at its peak regarding post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Unlike previous conflicts, soldiers in the 21st century have unrestricted and unencumbered access to photography and video equipment to document their experiences.
This film suggests that these first person documentations are more important for those that do not participate in combat. Hank Deerfield, played by Tommy Lee Jones, discovers the horrible details of his son, Michael’s, deployment to Iraq through a series of scrambled videos taken by Michael in Iraq.
Hank, also a veteran of war, demonstrates the changing attitudes about war as well as he uncovers the changes in actual warfare, to include soldiers’ ability to document what’s going on around them in real time. While the videos are revealing to Hank about his son’s traumatic experiences, their place in the narrative structure are also telling about how first-hand accounts can expose soldiers’ experiences at war otherwise unknown to those unexposed to wartime.
Although actual combat is largely absent in this film as Mike’s experiences are revealed in the videos sparsely spaced over the time of the film. The shocking images focus the attention of the film to the horrors of war mostly specific to modern warfare of the 21st century.
More importantly is how these images also expose the indifference of society to those traumas. Unlike any time before in American history soldiers are returning home to a level of indifference that is alarming considering some of the imagery and soldier experiences contained in this film.
Although audiences can be made uncomfortable by this film’s ability to turn the lens of criticism on the audience and its lack of involvement in supporting physically and emotionally scarred soldiers returning home. It is this unusual trait that make In the Valley of Elah essential to this list of 21st century films about 21st century war.
8. Redacted (Brian De Palma, 2007)
This film could be viewed as a remake of sorts of Casualties of War (1989) because of the strong similarities between the two films’ plots. Like In the Valley of Elah, this film explores soldiers’ ability to record war in real time taking its perspective from an Army Private, Angel Salazar’s, video camera.
Salazar, played by Izzy Diaz, is an aspiring filmmaker hoping to submit his video diary as part of his application to the USC Film Program. What the camera records forms De Palma’s recreation of true events – Casualties of War was also based on real events from the Vietnam War. Both films tell stories of rape and murder controversially orchestrated by American soldiers.
With a disjunctive narrative that tasks the viewer to fill in the gaps between recordings, the film lacks catharsis as it ends unconvincingly with a video of an emotional confession of one of the other soldiers involved. In the contrived ending sequences this film necessitates its own existence and its inclusion in this list by providing a mirror to society at the time the film was produced – lacking real answers about the theater of war and begging for closure.
7. Restrepo (Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger, 2010)
An incredibly ambitious undertaking by Junger and Hetherington to document the actions of an Army platoon over the course of an entire year on the ground in Afghanistan in what is described as “the deadliest valley in Afghanistan.” The film takes its title from the name of an outpost where 2nd Platoon, B Company, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, 173rd Airborne Brigade Combat Team spends their year in a fight for control of the Korengal Valley.
Restrepo is also the name of a soldier of this unit who was killed in action and is memorialized by the outpost’s naming. Hetherington and Junger bring combat action to the screen in a visceral way that never achieved before. With the nearly immediate availability of images in the new millennium the fever of the gunfights and combat patrols shown in this film bring combat to the audience in the now.
Because the war in Afghanistan still raged at the film’s release, Restrepo presents modern war to its viewers in perhaps the most current, unadulterated way possible without actually experiencing combat. For the bold risks taken by the film’s creators, who put themselves in harm’s way for the sake of documenting something relevant but largely unseen, and the broad scope of this uninhibited look at this brave group of soldiers, Restrepo is a must see. Tim Hetherington was later killed in Libya while attempting to document similar hostilities.
6. Battle for Haditha (Nick Broomfield, 2007)
Continuing in the vein of documentary, Nick Broomfield lends his experience in the tradition – Soldier Girls of 1981, Kurt and Courtney of 1998, and Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer of 2003 – to create another factually based fiction fit for this list. In an effort at realism, Broomfield employs some key methods of the documentary tradition. Nothing is so important to the film as the use of participants of real world events in cameos or roles small and large in the filming.
Cast in the lead role for this film is ex-marine Elliot Ruiz – the youngest Marine in country at the time of his real world deployment to Iraq at 17 years old. Ruiz’s character, Corporal Ramirez, appears before the camera early on in improvised scenes, along with other soldiers to describe the monotony filled with danger that is the nature of a deployment to Iraq. The removal of scripting in these moments lends some credence to the factual nature of the film and further complicates American involvement in Iraq and the effect that involvement has on soldiers.
The documentary technique and other efforts towards realism weight the suggestion of the film that the officers in command of today’s military are more responsible for soldiers’ actions, such as those in this film, than the soldiers themselves. While Broomfield’s utilization of documentary technique and style are important to this film’s inclusion to this list, it is more important to consider this film for a list such as this, because of its pointed critique at the leadership that guides today’s American military.
5. Jarhead (Sam Mendes, 2005)
Based on the autobiography of the same title, this film isolates and examines some key points in the 21st century critique of war. Most ubiquitous throughout is the critique of the American military masculine. Continued reference is made to a soldier’s competence and efficiency being directly related to some concept of complete – or incomplete – masculinity. Simple mistakes or errors in judgment make a soldier less of a man, and perfect execution of a task elevates one to superior among men.
The expectation of violence and opportunity to prove oneself on the field of battle plays a large role in the construction of the military masculine, and is central to this film’s relevance. Swofford and his compatriots desire more than anything to demonstrate their skill in combat, but their combined attributes are nullified by American technological superiority over the enemy.
In a sequence where A10 Warthogs fly overhead and eventually fire on Swofford’s platoon the film demonstrates the American military’s will to eliminate the strategically obsolete. Swofford’s accounts isolate technology’s replacement of military “muscle” and comment on this contradiction of history, wherein individual exploits were praised and soldiers used technology as a tool rather than be overcome by it.
4. American Sniper (Clint Eastwood, 2014)
In an effort to make war films more amenable to audiences than those of earlier war years (those films of 2007 mentioned above and many others were poorly received at the box office) filmmakers have begun again to use storytelling devices common to the films of World War II.
For example, 21st century films of modern war have begun with more regularity to tell the stories of individual accolade and success in battle. Clint Eastwood’s most recent film tells the story of Navy SEAL Christopher Kyle, played by Bradley Cooper, the deadliest sniper in American history.
His proficiency as a sniper is drawn to his earliest hunting experiences where he learned to shoot from his father, and his success as a Navy SEAL is most specifically linked to his adrenaline seeking behavior as a rodeo cowboy, and his perceived stubbornness, which allows him to overcome the rigorous SEAL training process and avoid an attrition rate sometimes over 90%.
All this exposition sets up Kyle’s unrelenting search for the enemy and his unquenchable desire to save the lives of his “brothers” sends him to Iraq on four separate tours of duty. This timeline sees almost all of his SEAL Team comrades killed in action, succumbing to their wounds, or discharged from service forced by the strains on family.
Kyle’s drive to always do more sets him apart from other soldiers, and leaves him dissatisfied. Instead of providing overwatch as a sniper, Kyle joins Marines that clear structures possibly harboring insurgents. Instead of allowing others to search for a high priority target of the enemy, Kyle insists upon putting a team together of his own to accomplish the task.
The ideal that is created in the process is complicated by the inclusion of Kyle’s experiences stateside between deployments. His dedication to service strains his marriage and the horrors of war effect every one of his social interactions. Still though, Kyle finds a way and elects to work with veterans struggling with lingering wounds, and reintegrating into society.
His realization that veterans sometimes need to be saved as well provides him with an opportunity to treat his own PTSD and continue to serve his country. The story of an incredible man, who did difficult and amazing things, is made significant by this film’s depiction of the demon’s that tugged at Kyle over time and repeated exposure to combat. The reach of Kyle’s accomplishments and connection to others through service make American Sniper a must see.
3. The Hurt Locker (Kathryn Bigelow, 2008)
Nominated for 9 Academy Awards, and winner of 6, The Hurt Locker is perhaps the most critically acclaimed war film about modern war made in the 21st century. Kathryn Bigelow succeeded to bring popularity to a genre of film that had lost traction with audiences since the invasions, liberations, and attempted democratizations of Iraq and Afghanistan began.
Bigelow’s offering set itself apart both by bringing critical and commercial success to the war genre once again, and examining the American soldier’s addiction to war. Sergeant First Class William James, played Jeremy Renner, symbolizes this addiction as he is only at ease demonstrating his proficiency at his craft of defusing improvised explosive devices, and is lost at anything else.
Although the film follows a series of James’s reckless and dangerous decisions, he comes away from his deployment unscathed. And, although he returns home to a wife and child, his addiction to the adrenaline of being on the brink of death and the intense violence common to wartime consumes him and he turns to his drug of choice, the theater of war, for relief.
The presentation of war as addiction is enough to make this film one of the best war films of the 21st century, but the film also contributes to the discourse of military masculinity, and the homoeroticism arising from the necessity of the military being a homosocial organization (until recently). All of this solidifies The Hurt Locker as one of the best in the genre’s history.
2. Lone Survivor (Peter Berg, 2013)
Taking the same cue as American Sniper, this film tells the story of an individual’s heroic story of survival. Recounting the story of Operation Red Wings, where American forces intended to disrupt Anti-Coalition Militia activities led by Ahmad Shah to facilitate elections for the Afghani Parliament. A four-man Navy SEAL team moved into position close to Shah’s believed location and awaited instructions.
Poor intelligence about troop strength and a chance encounter with three Taliban-sympathetic goatherds compromises the SEALs’ mission and forces them to run and fight for their lives. This film’s success comes from its persistence of action. War films of every era often include dramatic interludes to develop characters, inject a romantic plot line, or to provide commentary on the wartime condition of a soldier or of society. The reality, though, is that war is unending and relentless in its taxation of the human condition.
This film takes a different tack by forcing the audience to participate in the endurance trial that is combat. Brief moments do occur allowing both the characters and the audience introspection into the circumstance before them, but they only exist to humanize the soldiers of this story, and to demonize the Taliban to some extent. The attention to the grueling trial of combat and of survival with only the minimum necessary attention to dramatic development makes this film a must see for anyone who is a fan of war films.
1. Black Hawk Down (Ridley Scott, 2001)
The subjective nature of art makes it impossible to say definitively what is the best of any medium or genre. That being said, Black Hawk Down is probably the closest to the distinction of best 21st century war film about 21st century war. We can be assured of this because of its inclusion of so many of the thematic elements, storytelling devices, and cinematic techniques that have been mentioned thus far in addition to some unique style elements of its own.
Some of the shared traits include persistence of action as seen in Lone Survivor, perceived addiction to war as demonstrated by the films The Hurt Locker and American Sniper, allusions to the so-called importance of the military masculine from Jarhead, multiple perspectives similar to the format of Battle for Haditha, and the silent action of covert military operatives that characterizes the combat sequences of Zero Dark Thirty.
What sets Black Hawk Down apart from these other films that it shares so many commonalities with is the scope of the events depicted, and the clarity with which they are presented. The number of moving parts involved in capturing Mohamed Farrah Aidid and the resulting battle in Mogadishu in 1993, and the number of character perspectives provided is vastly larger than any other film on this list.
The scope here harkens back to war epics like The Longest Day (Darryl F. Zanuck, 1962), Battle of the Bulge (Ken Annakin, 1965), Patton (Franklin J. Schaffner, 1970), and others of the popular and productive era of war films made during and after World War II.
Without diminishing the excitement and anticipation generated by the film’s action, attention is turned to the burden of command and returns to the struggle of soldiers on the ground seamlessly and with great effect. Black Hawk Down is the touchstone for modern war films made in the 21st century because of its production time period, and because it did so much right in its depiction of modern war.
Author Bio: Timothy Buchalski, M.A. discovered his love for film while on deployment to Iraw as a part of the United States Army between 2005 and 2006. After service her earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film Studies and a Master of Arts in Art History from the University of Colorado at Boulder. Currently Timothy exercises his cinephilic pursuits through personal means and freelance writing.
*http://www.tasteofcinema.com/2015/the-10-best-war-movies-of-the-21st-century/
