“Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim

One important and influential popular culture product is fiction film. Arguably, even though fiction film is often seen as a mere entertainment outlet, its undeniable status as a socio-cultural commentator allows fiction films to impart values as well as capture popular imagination and consciousness...

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Main Authors: Aziz, Jamaluddin, Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor, Hashim, Fuzirah
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: CMIWS and UiTM Press 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/10958/1/AJ_JAMALUDDIN%20AZIZ%20JMIW%2011.pdf
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author Aziz, Jamaluddin
Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor
Hashim, Fuzirah
author_facet Aziz, Jamaluddin
Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor
Hashim, Fuzirah
author_sort Aziz, Jamaluddin
collection UITM
description One important and influential popular culture product is fiction film. Arguably, even though fiction film is often seen as a mere entertainment outlet, its undeniable status as a socio-cultural commentator allows fiction films to impart values as well as capture popular imagination and consciousness. Fiction films, needless to say, can move or provoke the audience with their depiction of and focus on real-life events such as personal angst, the World Wars, the cold war, political struggles, economic downturns and natural disaster. One prevailing trend with regards to fiction film is that after the event of September 11, 2001, the interest in the war film genre gains its momentum. Speculations about the post-September 11war that ensued, such as that in Iraq, have allowed variegated representations of war to be made on silver screen, either reaffirming or challenging the audience’s perception of war. Employing close textual analysis, the main aim of this paper is to reveal the prevalent themes of some war films. This is done by focussing on the characters. This approach to film as signifying practices will help illuminate the themes of the films, hence, prompting critical reflections of the film’s commentary of the war that it alludes to.
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spelling oai:ir.uitm.edu.my:109582016-04-15T04:54:52Z https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/10958/ “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim jmiw Aziz, Jamaluddin Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor Hashim, Fuzirah Popular culture War films One important and influential popular culture product is fiction film. Arguably, even though fiction film is often seen as a mere entertainment outlet, its undeniable status as a socio-cultural commentator allows fiction films to impart values as well as capture popular imagination and consciousness. Fiction films, needless to say, can move or provoke the audience with their depiction of and focus on real-life events such as personal angst, the World Wars, the cold war, political struggles, economic downturns and natural disaster. One prevailing trend with regards to fiction film is that after the event of September 11, 2001, the interest in the war film genre gains its momentum. Speculations about the post-September 11war that ensued, such as that in Iraq, have allowed variegated representations of war to be made on silver screen, either reaffirming or challenging the audience’s perception of war. Employing close textual analysis, the main aim of this paper is to reveal the prevalent themes of some war films. This is done by focussing on the characters. This approach to film as signifying practices will help illuminate the themes of the films, hence, prompting critical reflections of the film’s commentary of the war that it alludes to. CMIWS and UiTM Press 2011 Article PeerReviewed text en https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/10958/1/AJ_JAMALUDDIN%20AZIZ%20JMIW%2011.pdf “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim. (2011) Journal of Media and Information Warfare (JMIW) <https://ir.uitm.edu.my/view/publication/Journal_of_Media_and_Information_Warfare_=28JMIW=29/>, 4. pp. 79-92. ISSN 1985-563X https://jmiw.uitm.edu.my/
spellingShingle Popular culture
War films
Aziz, Jamaluddin
Shahizan Ali, Mohd Nor
Hashim, Fuzirah
“Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title_full “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title_fullStr “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title_full_unstemmed “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title_short “Are we shootin’ people or what?”: critical reflections of war in popular films / Jamaluddin Aziz, Mohd Nor Shahizan Ali and Fuzirah Hashim
title_sort are we shootin people or what critical reflections of war in popular films jamaluddin aziz mohd nor shahizan ali and fuzirah hashim
topic Popular culture
War films
url https://ir.uitm.edu.my/id/eprint/10958/1/AJ_JAMALUDDIN%20AZIZ%20JMIW%2011.pdf
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