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Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film

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This is a mighty tome that has something intelligent to say about virtually every war movie made in Hollywood, and even some that weren't from the Hollywood studios.

More amazing yet, where I have a good remembrance of, and a firm opinion about, a given movie, I find that Suid has hit the nail on the head with his comments. Especially notable was the treatment he gives to two fairly recent films, Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor. Almost everyone I know, and the critics as well, hailed SPR as a work of genius. I thought it was dreck, that it got just about everything wrong that it could have gotten wrong, and finally I walked out of the film when the beleaguered Yank says he's run out of ammo and does anyone have any "bandoliers"? Over the course of half a dozen pages, Suid explains to my satisfaction exactly what I found SPR unsatisfying.

He even gives a preview of such very recent films as Blackhawk Down, and there too he's right on the money.

Full disclosure: I know Suid, because he interviewed me about a book that became a film that is mentioned (mostly favorably) in his text.

Film and military historian Lawrence H. Suid's Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film is an updated version of a published twenty-six years ago, now encompassing cinematic depictions of the First World War up to the Gulf War and Somalia. Thus, younger readers will be glad to see movies such as Black Hawk Down (2002) and Windtalkers (2002) come under Suid's updated study. His chronological approach amply highlights the US military in the vicissitudes of Hollywood image making since the film industry's inception. As such, Guts and Glory is, at its crux, a study in cinematic sociology, with ramifications for political science. Suid's span runs from classics to lesser-known movies. He includes fantasies such as The Final Countdown (1980), smarmy failures such as Pearl Harbor (2001), the humorous - like Stripes (1981), assorted millennial and survivalist works, and those that otherwise suffered from "the ambiguity of conflicting images" such as Pork Chop Hill (1959) (201).

World events are often midwife to the film industry; hence, Suid discusses at length the effects of the Cuban Missile Crisis and growing atomic arsenals (229ff) in the making of the American military image. With their extended implications for the American mythos, politics and popular sentiment impact the minds of producers and screenwriters. For most films, producers worked closely with the Pentagon, providing them scripts to get their comments. This was more for material than spiritual support.

Throughout, there is a pleasing balance in Suid's analyses. He lauds films such as The Killing Fields (1984) and Southern Comfort (1981) for at least nominally standing "above the political issues" to let "the visual images of slaughter speak for themselves" (468). Thus, he applies his vast knowledge in addressing why certain films proved effective or interesting, and why others did not - why Full Metal Jacket (1987) "became a strangely detached and uneven movie" (525), or why From Here to Eternity (1953) proved, "one of the few Hollywood portrayals of the armed forces that ranks both as a great military film and a great American movie" (151). Several films are cross-categorical, such as Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964). This touches upon one of Suid's key subjects, how each military service attempted to aid Hollywood in repairing or enhancing their respective images. In the course of this discussion, Suid includes some surprises, such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), brought to light because of the Air Force's staid approach to the existence of UFOs (494). Discussed at length are the movies depicting and interpreting the Vietnam War, a study worth a separate book. John Wayne and his role in military movies warrant two chapters (116-135; 247-277).

A work of this broad a reach bears a few criticisms. Suid seems a bit over-determined when he states that Spielberg did a "great disservice to the men he was trying to memorialize" (633) with respect to Saving Private Ryan. He omits the Western, particularly this genre's portrayal of Native Americans and Mexicans in conflict with the US Cavalry. Suid discusses John Ford's productions, and Ford made several movies where racist dynamics were bound-up with Cold War politics - such as Fort Apache (1948) and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon (1950). Finally, Suid could have briefly spoken to how America cinema affected perceptions of America for international audiences.

Still, Suid's research remains a paradigm of thorough inquiry. He includes a helpful index to the 220-some films that come under his purview. There is also an interesting appendix delineating Suid's vast number of interviewees, which includes dozens of directors, producers, screenwriters, actors, technical advisors, US military personnel, critics, and studio executives. In the end, Suid believes that Americans likely watch war movies not out of bloodlust, but to enjoy "watching other people challenge death" (673). This book will likely remain a standard for years to come.