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

Front Cover
University Press of Kentucky, 2015 M01 13 - 768 pages

Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film is the definitive study of the symbiotic relationship between the film industry and the United States armed services. Since the first edition was published nearly two decades ago, the nation has experienced several wars, both on the battlefield and in movie theatres and living rooms at home. Now, author Lawrence Suid has extensively revised and expanded his classic history of the mutual exploitation of the film industry and the military, exploring how Hollywood has reflected and effected changes in America's image of its armed services. He offers in-depth looks at such classic films as Wings, Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, The Longest Day, Patton, Top Gun, An Officer and a Gentleman, and Saving Private Ryan, as well as the controversial war movies The Green Berets, M*A*S*H, the Deer Hunter, Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July.

 

Contents

1 Hollywood and War
1
2 Beginnings
12
3 A Standard for the Future
24
4 The Golden Age of Military Movies
42
Fantasy
64
PseudoReality
79
First Reflections
97
8 The Image of the Marines and John Wayne
116
Two NonVietnam Case Studies
383
21 The Navys Search for Normalcy
402
22 New Images Despite Themselves
424
23 The Air Force Seeks a Better Image
440
A More Moderate Approach
455
25 Rehabilitation Completed
485
Full Color with All the Warts
503
Balanced Portrayals
536

9 A Different Image
136
10 The Most Ambitious Undertaking
161
11 A Marriage Ends
188
12 The Bomb as Friend and Enemy
210
13 John Wayne The Green Berets and Other Heroes
247
14 Illusion and Reality of War
278
15 Changing Images
295
16 The Home Front Vietnam and the Victims of War
315
17 Apocalypse When?
332
18 The Deer Hunter Hair and Finally Apocalypse Now
352
19 The Marines Search for a New Identity
369
28 The Cold War Ends on the Motion Picture Screen
556
29 The Search for New Enemies
580
One More Time
617
Bombed Again
645
Epilogue
669
Films Cited
674
Interviews
679
Note on Sources
685
Notes
691
Index
738
Copyright

Other editions - View all

Common terms and phrases

About the author (2015)

Lawrence H. Suid, a military historian, is the author of several books and has recently appeared on The History Channel, Turner Classic Movies, and CNN.

Bibliographic information