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Messages and values conveyed within the films The Hurt Locker and more..


I am creating a project, looking specifically at The Hurt Locker by Kathryn Bigelow, Saving Private Ryan by Steven Spielberg and Platoon by Oliver Stone. I am looking for opinions and ideas about the messages and values conveyed within these American War films.

Realism - Does it matter? – do the films realistically represent the conflicts that they seek to depict?

They do? They don’t?

Have a greater impact?

Does it matter?

Are they intended?


What makes a hero?

What does this tell us about society?

Are they heroes?


Directors – Do their personal experiences have an impact upon their films?

How much does his own ideology affect the representations present?

Anti war?

Pro war?


Any contribution is helpful!

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There is a character in Bigelow's excellent The Hurt Locker who seems to represent the mind-set of people who inactivate explosive devices. A high-ranking Army officer (doctor?) with the group who feels very sympathetic to the local Iraqi population is killed stepping on an IED.

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