‘Films can tell a lot about a country’ is a much-used statement in discussions of film, but I am not sure I agree. I think we can learn a great deal about a country by looking at its movies, but there are several reasons why the films might not provide an accurate depiction of the country’s reality.

First, as I mentioned in a previous post, films are a reflection of what the director believes to be important, and they do not necessarily reflect the real situation in a country. As we look at films made in the years since World War II, we can see that films often reflect a different attitude towards war than the real situation, and this can mislead viewers about the current state of that country. In films produced during World War II, heroes like the soldiers of Patton, the Marines of Easy Rider, and the men of Band of Brothers were celebrated as men who faced great danger and emerged victorious. In these films, war was glorified, and it is hard to imagine that the same attitude would be reflected in reality. Throughout the war, American soldiers were rarely praised for their actions, and while there were moments when the soldiers of Easy Rider were praised for saving the life of an old man, the attitude remained the same; they were heroes because they survived. The glorification of this war attitude in films was so strong that it was later adopted in films made during the Vietnam and Gulf Wars, and continues to this day. When soldiers are injured or killed, they are remembered for their heroics, not for their service, and this attitude is reflected today in the films made about soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The films also show a different attitude towards women than the reality of the situation. In films made after WWII, women were relegated to supporting roles, often relegated to the role of love interest or damsel in distress. The few women who appeared in films as leads were often limited to playing secretaries or nurses. This is in stark contrast to the reality of women during the war. Women served in combat roles, and many women were responsible for the planning of military operations and the success of those operations. When the war ended, women’s roles were expanded and many women entered professions that had previously been closed to them. Today, women often play lead roles in films, and it is hard to imagine that the situation would be any other way. In fact, when the war in Afghanistan was coming to an end, many women volunteered to fight and were accepted. The attitude and reality of films can be quite different.

So, films are a reflection of what the filmmakers believed was important, but this does not mean that films are accurate reflections of reality. Films tell us a lot about the film industry, but they cannot tell us much about a country.