Be it books, movies, documentaries, or even music. I feel like I have people around me whom wish to fight violence with violence, with mentalities like “we should just counter-invade and show them who’s boss” or “I’m not afraid to fight for what I believe in”, showing a clear intent against an “enemy”.
“The enemy” is such a dehumanizing perspective, and only breeds further animosity. I wish for them to see that we all manage to find justifications for our actions, but that doesn’t make it worthy of just any sacrifice.
I recently saw the Norwegian movie Max Manus, which is about real events during WW2.
Tap for spoiler
He survives, but with almost none of his friends, and after the war he struggles with alcoholism and nightmares for the rest of his life.
It left me with a feeling of despite “victory”, many people paid with more than just their life. And this is the feeling I wish others to feel, just for a bit, and ponder if “doing the right thing” really is the best thing.
No one should want conflict, and I wish to emphasize just how much we really should try and avoid warmongering. I’ve seen uncensored videos from modern wars, been in the military, had a great grandfather who fought in WW2 (who also struggled with nightmares and PTSD until his natural death), and all of it makes me dread the potential of the horrors that happen to everyone involved in an armed conflict, especially the innocents and the kids…
So, any suggestions for media that conveys this in a way that makes one really reflect?
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most of them are pretty right wing, so its mostly propaganda anyways, the MSMs are pretty much this.
Some episodes of Star Trek do this well. Off the top of my head, “The Drumhead” is a great example of rejecting fearmongering and witch hunting “The Enemy”.
I think most even slightly accurate war movies don’t really glorify the war bit. Two recommendations.
There is a film A24 distributed last year called Warfare that follows a very accurate telling of a single operation of a platoon in Ramadi. It is pretty grim, but really gives a sense of just how brutal it can be for a small group. A lot of movies show slaughter at scale, like beaches of Normandy. That is always fascinating and dark too, but it slightly diminishes the struggle of the individuals. This does not.
Another recommendation is Tora! Tora! Tora!; an absolute classic from 1970. This movie shows you many of the mistakes and oversights, big and small that led to the Pearl Harbor attack being so crippling. Aside from huge ship and air guns there aren’t many guns. I think many people would enjoy it at the moment because it shows the USA on the rout.
Anything written by Kurt Vonnegut
Spec Ops: The Line I heard is a game like that
Saving Private Ryan.
If the first 15 minutes don’t turn you into an antiwar activist, I don’t know what will.
If you watch to the end you’ll see a guy who learned to murder a POW in cold blood, though.
pretty much every war movie
the classics have got Saving Private Ryan, Nolan’s got Dunkirk, Best Cinematography’s got 1917, Ghibli’s got Grave of the Fireflies (released same day as Totoro even)…
for anti-war that’s not depressing, there’s also AFAIK the over-the-top Helldivers
for things that feel “clean” instead of bloody there’s the elegant video game Nier: Automata
Vinland Saga
“I have no enemies.” It’s an anime with two seasons so far. The manga is getting close to complete. Takes place around 1000 ad with the wars between the Vikings and the English. Basically the first season is about revenge while the second pivots hard to redemption. It’s ultimately a story about pacifism.
Appreciate this post. I’d welcome any suggestion to help deglorify guns to a kid, too
NSFW, but you can youtube a number of firearms accidents. Blown barrels peeled like bananas, exploded chambers etc…
Guns are fascinating to some boys, until they see the accidents of simple range use. Blinded. Dead. Near misses of dead. Lost hands and faces. Gun safety vids serve as a warning to not fuck around.
Careful with age appropriate. Seriously nsfw nsfl.
All quiet on the western front (movie from 2022) feels like your example a bit without the post-war consequences. Grave of the firefly (anime) is on my watch list and is very anti-war from what I understand. Catch 22 maybe. The Wars by Timothy Findley felt very anti-war but is a tough read. The cruel sea was a good read. Vinland sagas first season is very good, lots of action but some really hard hitting scenes for an anime.
Generation Kill is a very watchable look at a recon unit in the lead up to the 2nd (iirc) iraq war. It’s by the guy who did The Wire. Excellent dialogue, plotting and acting.
It uses a soldier’s eye perspective to examine the systemic issues in the military - casual racism, war crimes, adult diapers and the constant incompetence of officers all come up.
Letters from iwo jima. I think of this film time to time
Band of Brothers fits this very well, It is very evenhanded all the way through and particularly at the end where the final Heartfelt speech is made by a German officer to his men, but it applies to all of the American characters that you have been following through this series, the feeling of Brotherhood was the same for all men involved
There are some… of course, but for some reason these are first I recalled at this moment - some bands a military colleague had been listening back in the days, on fields.
The band name is Lyube (Любэ). There’s a YouTube channel, and some of the titles I still recall he listened to:
- А зори здесь тихие-тихие - Любэ;
- Там за туманами - Любэ;
- Комбат- Любэ;Another song another colleague had been listening to was Чей чай горячей by Чайф.
And though I am not very fluent in Russian (the sense of lyrics in these are quite hard to comprehend, too), rare but tears of these two strong men made me believe these were incredibly significant for them, and represented an unbearable sorrow of any war…
