How do Fountain and Tanovic use features unique to their text type to critique the nature of contemporary warfare?
Within their respective works, both Fountain and Tanovic expose the reality of contemporary warfare as an untold story of tragedy that is manipulated for personal agendas. They highlight that as a result of false narratives being created for personal agendas, the traditional war genre misrepresents the cyclical and inconclusive nature of contemporary warfare, as well as its devastating impact on the soldiers. However, where Tanovic presents the physical confinement of soldiers because of war, Fountain pinpoints the psychological entrapment of soldiers.
Fountain and Tanovic condemn powerful institutions for manipulating the truth …show more content…
In No Man’s Land, Tanovic subverts the traditional war genre to emphasise to the audience that war does not progress anything, utilising a cyclical structure when using the same theme song at the beginning and end of the film. Moreover, satire is used to ridicule the lack of progress when the UN tank arrives to try and help – during this exchange, the UN personnel cannot communicate with the soldiers due to a language barrier being present, instead resorting to the use of hand gestures and onomatopoeia such as a “boom” sound to communicate. Fountain mirrors Tanovic’s use of a cyclical structure, using a visual metaphor of the Bravos “strapping in” and being required to go back to war after their halftime show, positioning the audience to sympathise with them. Furthermore, Tanovic suggests that contemporary warfare consists of long periods of tension with no climax nor resolution, using close-up shots of Nino on the ground with a gun to his face from Ciki, and a following shot of Nino seeing the blue sky, to symbolise the minor skirmishes that occur during war that lead to no conclusion. Additionally, Tanovic offers no resolution to whether Cera survives, ending with an aerial shot of Cera to emphasise the uncertainty of the situation. Similarly, Fountain expresses that “war simply culminates to long periods of tension”. However, Fountain also portrays war as a game based on chance rather than skill, using …show more content…
In Bill Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Fountain positions the audience to pity the Bravos because of their psychological anguish, employing visual imagery to suggest the horror of war has stuck with the soldiers and is “burnt into the retina” and being played “like a CD on repeat”, emphasising that the Bravos have no escape from the torment of PTSD. In comparison, the soldiers in No Man’s Land are portrayed as physically trapped with no escape, through Tanovic’s use of an allegory of the trench as small, confined, and claustrophobic, as well as the juxtaposition of the green fields and the trench, and the high-angle shot portraying the trench as a narrow space. Additionally, Fountain explores the unwillingness of the powerful to help soldiers in need, but also their readiness to exploit these soldiers, by using militaristic, aural, and visual imagery to portray the Bravos halftime walk as “an ambush situation” on their own soil, causing “an unholy barrage of noise”, with “lum rounds shooting off” and a “storm of light and fireworks” causing “pupils to dilate”. In turn, the halftime show is an allegory of the Bravos’ battlefield, which conveys to the audience that the soldiers cannot psychologically escape from conflict. By
Within their respective works, both Fountain and Tanovic expose the reality of contemporary warfare as an untold story of tragedy that is manipulated for personal agendas. They highlight that as a result of false narratives being created for personal agendas, the traditional war genre misrepresents the cyclical and inconclusive nature of contemporary warfare, as well as its devastating impact on the soldiers. However, where Tanovic presents the physical confinement of soldiers because of war, Fountain pinpoints the psychological entrapment of soldiers.
Fountain and Tanovic condemn powerful institutions for manipulating the truth …show more content…
In No Man’s Land, Tanovic subverts the traditional war genre to emphasise to the audience that war does not progress anything, utilising a cyclical structure when using the same theme song at the beginning and end of the film. Moreover, satire is used to ridicule the lack of progress when the UN tank arrives to try and help – during this exchange, the UN personnel cannot communicate with the soldiers due to a language barrier being present, instead resorting to the use of hand gestures and onomatopoeia such as a “boom” sound to communicate. Fountain mirrors Tanovic’s use of a cyclical structure, using a visual metaphor of the Bravos “strapping in” and being required to go back to war after their halftime show, positioning the audience to sympathise with them. Furthermore, Tanovic suggests that contemporary warfare consists of long periods of tension with no climax nor resolution, using close-up shots of Nino on the ground with a gun to his face from Ciki, and a following shot of Nino seeing the blue sky, to symbolise the minor skirmishes that occur during war that lead to no conclusion. Additionally, Tanovic offers no resolution to whether Cera survives, ending with an aerial shot of Cera to emphasise the uncertainty of the situation. Similarly, Fountain expresses that “war simply culminates to long periods of tension”. However, Fountain also portrays war as a game based on chance rather than skill, using …show more content…
In Bill Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Fountain positions the audience to pity the Bravos because of their psychological anguish, employing visual imagery to suggest the horror of war has stuck with the soldiers and is “burnt into the retina” and being played “like a CD on repeat”, emphasising that the Bravos have no escape from the torment of PTSD. In comparison, the soldiers in No Man’s Land are portrayed as physically trapped with no escape, through Tanovic’s use of an allegory of the trench as small, confined, and claustrophobic, as well as the juxtaposition of the green fields and the trench, and the high-angle shot portraying the trench as a narrow space. Additionally, Fountain explores the unwillingness of the powerful to help soldiers in need, but also their readiness to exploit these soldiers, by using militaristic, aural, and visual imagery to portray the Bravos halftime walk as “an ambush situation” on their own soil, causing “an unholy barrage of noise”, with “lum rounds shooting off” and a “storm of light and fireworks” causing “pupils to dilate”. In turn, the halftime show is an allegory of the Bravos’ battlefield, which conveys to the audience that the soldiers cannot psychologically escape from conflict. By