Ideological Negotiation in the Combat War Film

Abstract

In his book, War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning (2002), former New York Times correspondent Chris Hedges speaks directly to the stark reality that war is the business of workers killing other workers—and that to do so, soldiers inevitably seek ways to give meaning to their experiences in combat: the myth of the good war in World War II or fighting for one’s buddies in the discretionary wars of today. In the arena of combat, Hedges notes, “War exposes the capacity for evil that lurks not far below the surface within all of us” (qtd. in Skelly 2006).