The Books of My Life: The World War II Combat Film

Jeanine Basinger's The World War II Combat Film: Anatomy of a Genre (New York: Columbia University Press, 1986) works on two different levels. On one level the book is a historical and sociological analysis of the World War II combat film genre. On another level the book is a historical and sociological analysis of film genres, particularly film genres in the Hollywood studio system from the early twentieth century to 1980.

Basinger's book explores the Hollywood WWII combat film genre, its origins, its precedents, and its historical evolution and dynamism. Basinger argues that the WWII combat film emerged in its full form with its recurring characteristics (night/day, safety/danger, comedy/tragedy, good weather/bad weather, combat/non-combat), plots (the last stand, the mission), recurring characters (hero, group), and recurring cinematic techniques in the films Air Force (1943) and Bataan (1943). She argues that the Hollywood WWII combat film was impacted by elements of earlier World War I films. She argues that the World War II combat film went through four stages: the establishment stage, the acceptance stage, the realist stage, the epic stage, and the inversion stage in which the World War II combat film was turned upside down. She explores how the World War II combat film intersected with the woman's film, the musical film, and the comedy film. Finally, she explores the cultural and ideological functions the World War II combat film played in the continuing socialisation of film audiences (the need for patriotism and sacrifices in order to fight the enemy in World War II and Cold War function, the national pride post WWII function, the satirical and parodic function in the Vietnam war era, and, in a later essay on Saving Private Ryan, a nostalgia for simpler times function).

There is much to praise in Basinger's book. Unlike so many studies by film studies scholars these days The World War II Combat Film is grounded in an analysis of a wide range of films rather than a few films that are regarded retrospectively as classics, however "classic" is defined. Basinger analysed, she claims, over 1000 films, a claim borne out by the annotated list of World War Ii combat films and the genres descendants (the Korean War and Vietnam War films) in the back of the book. It explores genre historically. As Basinger notes, the WWII combat film allows one to explore film genres historically because the World War II combat has a beginning point and is exemplary of how genre films come into existence and function. It is sociological. Basinger explores the functions genre serves in relationship to film audiences.

While there is much to praise in Basinger's book there were also some things I was a bit concerned about. Basinger's book doesn't really explore the impact of other media on the development of Hollywood film genres. There were a number of literary, theatre, and vaudeville precedents that impacted Hollywood melodramas and comedy films, for instance, Is this the case with the combat film? Sociological explanations about how audiences might respond to film social functions are grounded in supposition rather than in empirical audience analysis, something that may be impossible given the limited empirically grounded audience analyses of the past. Despite these qualms I remain very impressed with Basinger's book and recommend it for anyone interested in cultural studies, film history, and the sociology of films. It is one of the best books I have read on Hollywood and on Hollywood film genres.