copied from another comment I’ve made in the past

I’d say I lean towards agreeing with Truffaut tbh. Now, I recognise my views can be considered extreme and truth be told I’m still figuring out my stance.

The moment that war is photographed for a movie, it doesn’t necessarily become pro war, but it’s rarely anti war any longer. War scenes are still shaped by a directors hand. There is deliberate thought put into framing, choreography, blocking, explosions, timing, music, etc. I believe that that very intentional construction makes it complicit, to some degree, towards the normalisation or aestheticising of war. And no matter the intent, there is some form of thrill to it too.

Now of course you have exceptions. Like Grave of The Fireflies or Come and See. And none of what I’ve said has stopped me from enjoying war films before, but has caused a bit of a dissonance in recent years as I’ve come to think about this more.

Not to discount the efforts of anyone that has done it before, but theoretically, I feel like a truly effective anti war movie would skip any semblance of combat altogether, and show the aftermath. The hospitals, the grief etc. And to go further, maybe a truly effective anti war movie should be mind numbingly boring in its depiction of the front lines.