A World-War-II State of Mind

I don't know what it is with guys. We have this in built fascination when it comes to the second World War. As I've mentioned in the past, there is a large majority of us that has a distinct fascination for World War II and we often tend to take that passion to an extreme. I say 'we' in this case because I do include myself in that crowd. I don't know when exactly this fascination began but I know that it has been with me for quite a long time. I can remember watching a Charlie Brown movie where the gang visits France and they make a stop off at Normandy. I remember hearing the term 'D-Day' and I can still remember feeling a bit of fascination at the fact that that one term held so much significance in history.

But if reading about World War II is a fascination that most of us history buffs have, there is another group (nearly as large if not larger) that is totally devoted to movies depicting anything and everything to do with World War II. During the late 1960's and 1970's there were an abundance of World War II movies. In fact in the sixties before opinion of war began to change, some of the most beloved movies on that historic conflict came out. These included such classics as "The Guns of Navarone", "The Great Escape", and "The Dirty Dozen" to name a few. Though many movies claimed to be based on some historical truth, many of them were dramitizations of events that didn't really occur or at least not in the way that many of the movies showed them to have come about.

But there was something to World War II movies that seemed to appeal to people no matter what. I guess perhaps it's partially because World War II was (and still often is) thought of as the 'Last Great War'. It's a term meant to convey the sheer importance of a conflict that certainly helped shape the world for the next fifty years. Indeed from the fall of Nazi Germany to the fall of Communism, very little of what history was made during the second World War did not have an impact on the way things have played out since then. I guess in the context of that war it was easy to understand who our enemies were.

The Germans and the Japanese were clear cut opponents and the Allies were the heroes. War was still fought with some degree of clarity and though many movies show that commando raids were launched by both sides, the war was almost always shown to be fought on an honorable front rather than in a deceitful back. Sure many would say that you have to do what you have to to win but at what cost? World War II was a war which had the support of most of the country and it was a conflict that though was contained to the rest of the world other than the Americas there was still nationwide support for the war effort. In the times since most major conflicts have been viewed with such cynicism that a whole "you're either with us or against us" mentality has come to pass and I think that's why there are still so many that like World War II movies.

Perhaps it seems a bit war-monger-ish to 'like' war but I don't think that's what it is. I think World War II was something that people believed in fighting. I don't mean to imply that the men and women in uniform don't believe in fighting the wars we are fighting now but many people don't seem to understand why we fight now. I won't get into the politics of why we should or shouldn't fight the wars we're fighting now but I'll say that if nothing else, films like the old war movies many of us grew up watching or the new war movies like Quentin Tarantino's forthcoming "Inglorious Basterds" again lets us say that war is okay for the right reasons. Whether for good or bad it is something that has almost always stood behind these movies and I think it's something that will always stand behind them.