Why war films?
• Sir: I am, shall we say, a mature middle-aged relic of World War II; and the other day I was challenged
. by a younger colleague as to why , there were so many World War II films in the West End, TV shows on the box, and so on.
I pointed out that in order to justify such entertainments viewer' wise or profit-wise (aha! I can do • it!) they must appeal to the very large number of 'young people' who were not themselves involved ; in the war. Personally, I am not an avid viewer of such programmes, whose existence I find rather embarrassing. To this, he had no answer; but I reflected that I also had no answer to his question.
Since this seems to be a matter of some relevance to the state of mind of the country today, perhaps you will allow me to advance, in your columns, some hypotheses (possibly mutually conflicting) as to why this should be so.
1. The usual cliché, that the country, having lost its commanding position, is wallowing in nostalgia for its great days, I do not really believe, especially in view of the large number of young people necessarily involved. I know few people of any generation who would really like the Empire back.
2. It might be an opportunity for a vicarious release of the tedium-produced violence of our days, to escape into a time when at any rate some kinds of violence were acceptable, respectable, and publicly rewarded; and possibly also a reaction against the now universal (and perhaps a bit hypocritical and mealy-mouthed) condemnation of all vioience on every occasion. There might also, I suppose, be a component of male anti-female protest in this.
3. Perhaps some lost residuum of the spirit of Nazi Germany, made homeless in 1946, has alighted on this country, as sometimes happens between enemies who fight to exhaustion. I was in Austria and Germany before the War, and can testify to the enormous power of this spirit. See how the German armed forces and secret police are treated in these films — evilly employed, no doubt, but highly intelligent, autocratic, disciplined, purposeful, and above all strong. Perhaps people admire; perhaps they even identify. 4. On the Continent, I understand that this kind of film is rare. One might wonder, then, is it after all we who are odd? Perhaps it might be natural and even right to dwell for quite a long time on such a world-breaking and worldmaking conflict; and perhaps the Continental avoidance of the subject is a kind of conspiracy of silence among the guilty and the shamed — into which we are now presumably to be drawn.
I just don't know. But it seems as though it might be important.
Ronald Vincent Smith 17 Rodney Road, New Malden, Surrey
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