The Philosophy of War Films

"War is a pervasive condition, a constitutive part of human experience. The war film genre is extensive and multiform. It is no surprise, then, that war films are provocations to philosophical thought. This important and timely edited collection has an extensive introduction that seeks answers to vital questions: What sort of a phenomenon is a war film? What do we think we mean when we speak of a war film? What are war films for? Can war as such be represented by film? The essays that follow illuminate myriad ethical, aesthetic, epistemological and ontological issues as they related to a broad range of representations of war."—Guy Westwell, Film Studies, Queen Mary University of London

"The philosophical reflections compiled in this book look at war films from a variety of perspectives. I commend editor David LaRocca for bringing together scholars who each, in different ways, engage the interdisciplinary mission of the inquiry into how war is depicted on screen. What is the philosophy of film, and then, of war films specifically? Do war films harbor a philosophy – of death, violence, love - or does philosophy enrich the understanding of the cinematic of war? The Philosophy of War Films explores these questions and many more, connecting the reality of war with the art of filmmaking."—Mieke Bal, University of Amsterdam

"This volume offers rich and deeply thought-out consideration of the representation of war on film and of the ways filmic and now digital representation is deeply entangled with how we experience and think about war (up close or at a distance) in actual life. The book reaches back in film history but is especially provocative on war and its representation in the last decade—the situation we are living with now. The essays are fresh and surprising, showing the whole subject of war and film to be far more interesting, complex, and disturbing than in the standard thinking about war genre films that we are used to."—Charles Warren, Boston University

"The book offers multiple views of, as Kathryn Bigelow might put it, both the 'microcosm' and the 'macrocosm' of cinematic warfare, which may not always provide satisfying answers, but which certainly generates intriguing questions. Ultimately, this is what philosophy is about."—Film-Philosophy

"Meticulously examining an uncountable number of films, David LaRocca's collection of essays The Philosophy of War is a remarkable project that manages to skillfully cover the most pertinent issues in the field of war cinema. LaRocca's collection is thoughtfully structured, which makes it a substantial source as a whole as well as enables scholars to use each of four sections independently, as logically and thematically completed parts."—War, Literature, and the Arts

"LaRocca makes many insightful observations, especially over the relation between the truth of war and the images of war on screen."—Milwaukee Express

"Moviegoers who want to find meaning in their motion pictures — reverently called 'films' in this collection — might enjoy surfing through the 15 scholarly essays."—Military Times

"This self-explanatory volume, which represents another fine effort from the University Press of Kentucky's series of film books, is well-assembled by editor LaRocca and neatly divided into four distinct — and distinctive — categories."—YES! Weekly

"These [essays] offer interesting insights on combat, warriors and veterans, and society at war as depicted on screen. Some valuable observations in the book."—NYMAS Review