The World War II combat films made in Hollywood in the late 1990s and early 2000s demonstrate nostalgia for the celluloid-based, documentary-inspired techniques of the 1940s, while at the same time reveling in the possibilities of computer-generated imagery. This potential contradiction converges on the body of the American soldier, whose physical suffering is illustrated with a combination of optical, photochemical, and digital means. This essay argues that the violence inflicted on the American soldier’s body operates along a melodramatic logic that ultimately redeems the soldier from perceived transgressions in Vietnam and the War on Terror.
“Virtue Through Suffering: The American War Film at the End of Celluloid,” Journal of Popular Film and Television 45.1 (March 2017): 50–61.