American War Films we ve been watching the same movie about America s Wars for 75 years Office of War Information partnered with Hollywood to portray American War with a positive bias Our basic American values get pitted against brutal barbaric enemies General Formula for all war films Us vs Them We re the good guys Racism allowed toward the enemy Moral free fire zone for American characters God country and something worth dying for No time spent on why the savages are going after us Sargent yelling training montage Weird drama where the leading officer is idolized as a war dad one guy gets some moxie trying to impress Sargent gets everyone in trouble and then redeems himself through sacrificed himself group cohesion is paramount to war During the war itself the film can t be critical In sum Gritty brave selfless men stoic women waiting at home noble wounded warriors Imagined Communities nations developed conceptually as a product of romanticism when prideful groups want to identify themselves nations become a modular concept and nations can exist anywhere nationalism arouses deep attachments this is an imagined political community and imagined as inherently limited and sovereign members of the nation do not have intimate dealings with everyone therefore our intimacy is imagined nations are bound by elastic borders also imagined as sovereign the sovereign is always sleeping deep fraternal sensation
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