Analysis of Four Typical Models of Western War Movies

Abstract: As an important visual media and cultural text, movies have been accepted and loved by the audience. Western war movies, as one of its main types, have attracted people's attention since they appeared in the early 20th century, and gradually formed a pattern in the process of development. This paper takes western war movies as the research object, and divides them into four types according to their structural modes and connotation characteristics: seeking mode, wolf child mode, hero mode and event center mode. From the perspective of cultural analysis, this paper strips off the cloak of commercialization and utilitarianism of western war movies and explores the construction of a stepped depth model from the shallow to the deep and from the outside to the inside.

[Keywords:] war movie search mode Wolf child mode hero mode event center mode

Nowadays, the research of visual culture is in the ascendant. As an important visual medium and cultural text, movies express the difference between reality and art in an isomorphic mode, taking the time and space of life as the carrier, and let the audience seek sensory stimulation and understanding of life in familiar and unfamiliar contexts. Its depth mode is gradual, which can meet the needs of different levels of audience. As one of the important types of film art, the purpose of war movies is not to flaunt the so-called scientific view of human history, but to show the relationship between people and the world, the relationship between images and thinking, and to endow the human behavior and emotional world, which should belong to the historical category, with an aesthetic way of thinking. What it shows is no longer a simple historical event, but the tension between emotional expression and ideological appeal. Western war movies have attracted people's attention since they appeared in the early 20th century. Its types are diverse and have the characteristics of patterning. Based on the film text itself, this paper divides it into four types according to the structural mode and connotation characteristics: seeking mode, wolf child mode, hero mode and event center mode. This paper attempts to peel off the cloak of commercialization and utilitarianism of war movies from the perspective of cultural analysis, and explore the construction method of its step-by-step depth model from shallow to deep.

First, each mode and its visual, ideological and emotional characteristics.

1, search mode

For a long time, "seeking" has been a major theme of human spiritual world, such as the pursuit of an era in the Renaissance, the exploration of the ultimate meaning of human beings by modernist novelists such as Kafka and Borges, and the root-seeking experiment in literature. And this search mode also exists in war movies. While focusing on the historical reflection on the war, it also shows a state of existence and behavior that gives human existence meaning. Cold Mountain, Long Contract, Beautiful Life, Letter from Iwo Jima, Apocalypse Now, deer hunter and Tokyo Trial are all typical of this kind of war movies.

This kind of film pays attention to the creation of a sense of picture, and does not directly describe the battlefield and prison. These scenes are mostly colorless gray tones, using unsaturated colors or black and white pictures, and the clarity is low. At this time, the information brought by color and light is reduced, and it is difficult for the audience to notice the details. What is external becomes an extension of what is internal. In contrast, it is a beautiful and romantic life scene with obvious light and shadow effect and high brightness. Such different visual processing reflects the disastrous delay of the war. This kind of disaster is not only reflected in the battlefield, but its influence is non-central, spreading from pre-war to post-war, or even longer, with different forms of expression.

In some theme-seeking movies interspersed with life reality, memories and fantasies, the normal time series is disrupted in the emotional line of the protagonist, as if implying the silent resistance of the emotions brought into consciousness to the irreversibility and logical inevitability of time. The cruelty of war will destroy the truth, goodness and beauty in people's hearts, the value of subject existence will be covered up by frequent deaths, and people will lose their ability to choose themselves in it. In the war movies looking for patterns, the carnival of popular culture and ideological demands was abandoned, and dreams were shattered, leaving behind darkness and insomnia. It shows a gesture on the road, trying to convey the signal of broken dreams and powerlessness to the audience, and it is this powerlessness that gives this kind of film a strong sense of substitution and emotional effect. In terms of emotional expression, most war films try to portray psychological fear, despair, terror or nervousness through the description of cruel and bloody scenes, while war films looking for patterns rarely show the above negative emotions directly, but tend to show the critical state and security between them. This critical state is mainly reflected in the protagonist's body itself. "The body is never now, it includes before and after, fatigue and expectation. Fatigue, expectation and even disappointment are all physical attitudes. " It is fatigue, expectation and the above-mentioned sense of powerlessness that constitute what the author calls critical feeling.

2. Wolf child mode

There is a situation in western war movies, that is, the protagonist, as an aggressor and a member of a strong civilization or a relatively progressive social system, is involved in the group of the invaded, weak civilization or a relatively backward social system for some reason, and has gone through the process from distance and estrangement to interaction and integration, and finally to reflection and return. For example, Dancing with the Wolf, The Conqueror, Out of Africa, Gone with the Wind in Australia, The Last Samurai, Hotel Rwanda and so on. This kind of war movies are basically produced in the United States. In order to illustrate the problem vividly, the author compares them to the growth mode of wolf children.

Because there are many cross-cultural factors and exotic scenes in this kind of films, their selection and expression have strong subjective feelings, which is the embodiment of people's reaction to nature or their own externalization process. Nature has become the embodiment of non-indifferent emotions.

The most famous wolf child in western history belongs to the romulus brothers, the founder of Rome. Ancient Rome advocated the "wolf spirit" which emphasized wisdom, group, exploration and fearlessness. This is a psychological state that naturally permeates from a small civilization to the development of individuals or events. Once the development enters a stable stage, it also means that spiritual stagnation or even retrogression has a breeding ground. In fact, war is very much like the epitome of this process, and the development and growth of a group is beneficial; The sudden emergence of a new force, the assimilation of heterogeneous forces, and many contradictions hidden in it constitute an organic whole. The hardships and tension before the war, the vigorous battlefield, the slaughter and plunder of the winners, the pain of the losers, the post-war reflection and the change of strength formed a cycle. Among them, the values of waging war and maintaining achievements, whether positive or negative, inevitably conflict with human nature's desire for morality and peace, which is a very emotional factor in the war. However, when a few conquerors with negative attitudes can't remain indifferent to violence and killing, can't "remain indifferent in the face of inhuman horror scenes" and obey, but choose to face the conflict directly and stand on the side of humanity and morality, they lose their position, becoming both participants and traitors; He is both an observer and an intervener.

The hero's recognition of the disadvantaged and backward groups also reflects his return and reflection on the traditional spirit formed since the rise period, as well as his pure feelings unaffected by utilitarianism. Puritans were early pioneers in America, and they adhered to the spirit of moral behavior. "This kind of ethical spirit? Perfect? That is to make money as much as possible, strictly avoid all instinctive life enjoyment, and there is no happy mixture, let alone enjoyment. " The support of faith is diligence and thrift in behavior and courage to explore. For example, Out of Africa and Gone with the Wind in Australia, which are also about love, the heroines who are aristocrats gave up their comfortable aristocratic life and came to a "wild land", and they also experienced the failure of marriage and are rebuilding.

The hero in this kind of war movies has strong personal ability, but he can't get the recognition of his own ethnic group and find his inner belonging. Coming to a foreign country has become an important turning point in their lives. They often go through the process of doubt, adaptation, integration and identification. Although they are ostracized to a certain extent by strangers, they can get the appreciation of key figures and the admiration of the opposite sex, and eventually become respected heroes in times of crisis. In the whole process, they are positive because of their sense of identity.

Emotional state.

3. Hero mode

Since ancient Greek and Roman literature, western literature has a hero-centered narrative tradition, and war movies have also inherited this tradition, presenting a series of legendary heroic works for the audience, such as Sparta 300 Warriors, Brave Heart, King Arthur, Alexander the Great, Troy, Heaven and Julius Caesar, all of which are far away. Another example is The Conqueror, Schindler's List, Rabe's Diary and Hotel Rwanda, all of which are very close to our times.

Heroic war movies try to establish some new worship values from the display. Although this attempt may not be successful under the influence of business, it can at least give the audience a stirring visual experience. Heroes always represent a certain social attitude, appear in a ritualized way rather than a life-like way, and make a difference, so they always show people as tall, powerful, heroic and handsome. The concrete expression of this worship value in the play is the worship of tragedy.

War movies with heroic themes show strong pattern characteristics in story selection and characterization, and most of them are based on legendary stories of heroes (mostly men) in history, focusing on their growth experiences or words and deeds. Heroes in contemporary war movies are not only spokesmen of human wisdom, vitality and energy, but also express the complex emotions of ordinary people in the face of crisis, fear, despair and love in various ways. The film focuses not on the traditional stereotyped heroes, but on the humanized heroes. This concept also affirms human subjectivity. When we look at human history from the perspective of God, we always unconsciously focus on some outstanding figures, which we call "heroes". They are often able to restrain low-level pursuits (physiological needs, security needs, belonging and love needs) and pursue high-level needs (respect needs and self-realization needs). As a result, the level of demand has been reversed, and they can endure hunger, persecution and even sacrifice their lives to uphold the truth. This view of history directly leads us to regard self-realization as the essence and highest pursuit of human nature. With the awakening of self-awareness, people began to pay attention to the most basic things in "body", instinct and human nature, and began to try to break away from the grand narrative of history. This is the tendency of contemporary hero mode war movies. As mentioned above, the heroes created by such films have the characteristics of humanization. They have strong personal ability, a sense of responsibility and rich feelings, and the positive quality is dominant. Their personality is sacred, and their emotions are human. Small loves such as affection, love and friendship are as important as great love for freedom, loyalty to the monarch and patriotism.

4. Event center mode

Calling this kind of war movies event-centered is intended to emphasize the events and stories of this kind of movies. Compared with the first three modes, the meaning of story narration itself plays a greater role in the overall expression, which is very common in World War I movies and World War II movies. The author divides it into "big events" and "small events". The former has the characteristics of epic grand narrative, showing the audience a panoramic war scene and time course, while the latter mostly cuts in from a personal perspective or small events, and the war as a grand whole becomes the background of details. But the expression of specific works is different. The former, like The Fall of Empire and Masterpiece of Strategy, is gradually developed through a series of events in the time series, while The Longest Day, Pearl Harbor and Black Book are interwoven by events in different time or space, which advance the narrative in the form of multiple main lines. The latter, such as hurt locker, The Whisperwind, Enemy at the Gates, etc., adopt the method of "expanding narrative" to make the narrative time longer than the event time, so as to realize the expression of small events, such as Women in Berlin, War and Peace, Boy in Striped Pajamas, Passion Years, Saving Private Ryan, etc., and realize the personal perspective rather than history.

Event-centered war movies mostly present events directly in the form of "reports", trying to create a sense of reality by restoring real war scenes. This kind of war movies try to realize a disastrous gestalt construction from plane to depth, from detail to whole, from vision, hearing to touch, from form to content.

Compared with the first three modes of war movies, the ideological and political motivation in the event-centered mode movies is more obvious, which is mainly reflected in the contradiction between the national center and the individual center. Fascist-style national centralism often creates inspiring war effects and convinces fanatics to fight for this banner even if they break their heads. No matter how unreasonable this insistence is, once a discourse is made by a certain group or class, it cannot be a monologue, but a targeted language. On the issue of war, group movements have drowned the value of human existence as individuals, and what is needed is the propaganda of attack and resistance, and the thinking is suppressed afterwards. For the master, everything is an analytical proposition, and everything already exists in his omniscience and omnipotence. He has the right to create the concepts he wants to create, and they create images to convince the audience that this is true. The manipulated audience can only get something on the experience level unless they are not deceived by the current illusion. For example, "Saving Private Ryan" publicized the kindness and care of the government, and tried its best to save the only survivor of the four Ryan children who went to the front. As a result, the rescue team and Ryan stopped the enemy together and successfully returned to their hometown, creating an illusion that the war is so simple, the just side, the country is strong and caring, the soldiers are patriotic and have a high sense of responsibility, and they will definitely win. But in fact, war is an absurd drama. There is no winner and there is no justice. Man is flesh and blood, not a machine. However, people have habitually commemorated victory and mourned failure. It can be seen from the treatment of veterans when they return home that they were not warmly welcomed as veterans of World War II, and even treated unfairly like alienation and discrimination. In the face of large-scale disasters, we all lost the right to criticize nationalism and the limitations of nationalist discourse to protect our personal position.

Second, the evolution and integration of the four models

From a diachronic point of view, in western war movies, American movies have always played the leading role, grasping the commercial laws and flaunting national interests, and "seeking, cultivating and expanding the ranks of bosom friends around the world with their heroism, moral consciousness, humanitarianism and romanticism". Since the First World War, most films that serve wartime purposes and boost morale are event-centered or heroic. The events reflected, no matter how big or small, are concentrated on the national position, forming a distinct binary opposing force of love and hate, and the positive emotions point to the party recognized as justice. The war itself is also heat-treated, and many direct descriptions and grand writings of battlefields, campaigns or heroes lack detailed explanations. Although grand and inflammatory, it is a bit rigid. Just as war itself has duality and cannot be praised or criticized unilaterally, the value position reflected in war movies is also more complicated, with both hot rendering in wartime and cold thinking after the war. "By the end of 1970s, the nuclear arms race between superpowers had cast the world under the shadow of nuclear destruction. This reality has changed the views of Hollywood and its audience on war and even war movies. It is more and more widely believed that no matter what kind of coat war is put on, its essence is against human nature. The anti-war theme is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and has won worldwide recognition. " It can be seen that the expression tendency of war films has turned from now on. Event-centered films began to cut into events from the perspective of personal humanization, treating war as a grand whole, as the background of details: war films in heroic mode are similar to them, from focusing on heroism to letting heroes walk down the temple by expressing disenchantment and restoring their humanity and emotions. The Wolf-child-mode war film marked by Dancing with the Wolf has brought cultural issues such as race, system, identity and nation-state into people's field of vision in addition to national ideology. Following deer hunter and Apocalypse Now, the model-seeking film, which aims at calmly reflecting on the war and seeking human nature, also stands out in the western war films dominated by Hollywood because of its profound theme and emotional fit with the audience.

From the perspective of * * *, the author divides the modes of western war movies only to better analyze and understand the film text from the perspective of film structure and connotation, but it does not mean that there are absolute boundaries between different modes of movies, and there may be multiple modes intertwined in some movies with complex connotations. The classification of objects is only to provide a framework for the analysis and research of problems. It is not appropriate to classify specific works first and make a one-sided concept map. To put it simply, there are two clues in the film looking for patterns, the hero mode and the wolf child mode, which are respectively embodied in the personal psychological logic and the real event logic. Focusing on their relationship, the film tension is realized by the complex interweaving of perceptual, intellectual, rational and environmental factors. In the relationship between the two, personal psychological logic is often dominant, and people are the center of expression, so the story of the film is not the focus of attention. What is different from this is the war movie with the event-centered mode. The subject of fantasy, thinking and value judgment is not the role, but the audience. The film does not directly show the promotion of axiology, but embeds the guidance to the audience in the presentation of events. In addition, there are differences in visual expression, ideological connotation and emotional expression, which will be analyzed in detail below. No matter what kind of film, there are traces of catering to the audience and infiltrating the national ideology.