Theatres of Representation: Discourses of War and Cinema

Considering three periods in history – World Wars I and II and their interim, the Vietnam War, and the wars in the Gulf – Theatres of Representation reflects on changing representations of war and conflict, and maps discourses therein, highlighting the tendencies that emerge. The following key films are examined: ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT (1930), PATTON (1970), APOCALYPSE NOW (1969), FULL METALJACKET (1987), THREE KINGS (1999), JARHEAD (2005), and THE HURT LOCKER (2009). Select scenes are subjected to a multi-modal analysis – adapted from the work of O’Halloran, Iedema, Bateman, and Schmidt – revealing repeated patterns in editing (and pacing), use of camera and sound design. Further formal analysis has taken place in the context of a discussion around key findings. Foucault’s work on knowledge and regimes of truth, Shklovsky’s concept of defamiliarisation and the studium and punctum of Barthes’ ‘photographic message’ inform analyses of the texts. Arguments around similarities and differences in representation consider the ‘character’ of these eras, identifying sets of approaches through which the multifarious horrors of particular conflicts are approximated. A final chapter is devoted to representations of war andconflict in video games and comic books: key texts are the video games CALL OF DUTY 2 (2005), SPEC OPS: THE LINE (2012), and the long-running comic series Captain America (1941-present).