Formal Film Study: WAR

Chris Chenery

Formal Film Studies

October 13, 2012

War (Ancient to Modern)

(large focus on soundtracks)

            For my formal film study I chose to research the topic of war film. While it is a rather broad topic I wanted to see a couple different aspects/styles of war. I chose to compare a contrast a modern war film, a tribal war film and lastly an ancient war film. For these topics I chose Jarhead (Sam Mendes 2005), Troy (Wolfgang Petersen 2004) and the Last of the Mohicans (Michael Mann 1992). All of these films really captured my attention, watching them in a row was a great way to get a true understanding of the way the films differentiate. Of course the settings and the wardrobe changes drastically, but what I found to be most fun especially with Last of the Mohicans was the soundtracks and also in the case of Jarhead, lack of a soundtrack.

           

So, a quick overview of the films seems to be necessary if you haven’t seen these. Jarhead starring Jake Gyllenhaal is a modern day Marine film set in the Gulf War in the Middle Eastern deserts. The film captures how war can slowly take you away from the reality you knew your whole life and in a matter of months actually drive you near the brink of insanity. Troy is about the story of Achilles and his men attacking the great city of Troy. I found this movie very fun to watch, Brad Pitt starred as Achilles in this captivating sword and shield war film. Lastly, Last of the Mohicans starring Daniel Day-Lewis is a Colonial America war film about a daying tribe of Mohicans fighting Britain during the French and Indian War. While all of these films were captivating, entertaining and well filmed they all had massive differences yet many similarities.

           

Lets start with Jarhead. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1152567-jarhead/It’s a strange movie in the fact that there is a lack of a soundtrack, a lack of blood and an overall lack of intensity, yet somehow it captures your attention. How does it do this, in my opinion its the composition, the editing and the natural suspense that the lack of a soundtrack leaves you with. You get scenes of vast open deserts and you realize how isolated these soldiers really are, you see them carrying liquor in gas tanks to a party with some of the only real noticeable music in the whole film, and you slowly see the team being driven insane from all of this. I feel as though the lack of sound really put you into that feeling of isolation a lot more than if there had been trumpets and drums in repetition in the background. One scene in particular of Gyllenhaal and his teammate walking through the dark desert with burning oil wells spewing 300 foot tall flames up in the sky is a great representation of the vastness and the isolation they are placed in. Even in the midst of the spewing of flames, all you hear is a slight fuzz in the background.             

On the contrast, Last of the Mohicans had a fantastic plot line, was filmed amazingly and had one of the best soundtracks i’ve ever heard in a film. Trevor Jones took his genious of full orchestras and turned Last of the Mohicans into a masterpiece soundtrack. I feel that the reason this film can dive so deeply into the soundtrack and still maintain the war atmosphere is that it is much more epic than Jarhead. In LOTM (Last of the Mohicans) you get intense drum patterns that drive the running and fighting scenes. The main song “Promentory” has intense violins and a full orchestra behind driving a chase scene that is almost unforgettable. I feel as though when a movies soundtrack can give you the chills you know that something fantastic has happened. It’s hard to get into multiple aspects of a film, especially a war film if you know what im saying. Usually a war film has either intense fighting or an intense plot etc. But LOTM was able to capture this amazing story of a Mohican native Indian man and his people fighting an entire country and put one of the best soundtracks behind only to enhance the film even further. Troy shares many similarities to LOTM.

Troy was great for a lot of different reasons. Petersen took the great legend of Achilles and really portrayed him as you always imagined him to be, intense, attractive, God-like. Brad Pitt takes this role to a whole new level and while it may not have the greatest cinematography or even the greatest storyline it somehow captures your attention for over two and a half hours and makes you just want more. The fighting in this film is great, you have horses, swords and shields, arrows and spears, all the things that make an ancient war movie epic. Again what drives this movie though is the soundtrack, unlike Jarhead and much like LOTM. Riding into battle you have a full orchestra with violins, percussion etc. leading you into the battle personally. I think that the main difference between Troy and LOTM soundtrack wise is the overall epicness. Troy provides you with a fulfilling soundtrack of what you would expect to hear as you go into war. However, just because it is general does not mean it is not great. Sometimes, especially in complicated, long films, a soundtrack needs to just get you to feel what you need to feel as simply as they can get it on the track, and id say they did a pretty good job. But LOTM really took it to the next level providing you with a soundtrack as interesting and unique as the film itself.

As far as comparing the films on a war film basis, I would say that Troy and LOTM are up for taking it far over Jarhead. I was a little disappointed with the lack of a true war story behind Jarhead. I feel as though it captured the mental aspect of war fantastically, but really just left you hanging on the action part. The most you get is Gyllenhaal almost taking out someone with a sniper and then a commander coming in and blowing up the building instead. And thats great, for a small 30 second scene in a war film, but if that is the extent in which you dive into fighting in a war film then maybe im going to watch a different war film next time. Troy and its swords and shields, and LOTM with its hand held weapons and axes and arrows really captured my liking and entertained me each for over two hours. What i loved about LOTM fighting was the close quarters fighting scenes. You had native indians with painted skin running up to  Red Coat British soldiers and beating them with native weapons and clubs. On the contrary, you then have large fight scenes in the woods and on a island with gun fire, canons etc. But then we come to Troy, with all of its fighting glory. The whole film bases around Achilles amazing fighting abilities, he takes on people by himself and with hundreds even thousands behind him in some scenes. If you are looking for a war film to capture your fighting attention and you want to see people anguish, bleed and fight to the death, Troy is the war film for you.