Stars and Stripes on Screen: A Comprehensive Guide to Portrayals of American Military on Film - Softcover

Suid, Lawrence H.; Haverstick, Dolores A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0810854120 ISBN 13: 9780810854123

Publisher: Scarecrow Press, 2005

Synopsis

Throughout the 20th century and beyond, Hollywood has portrayed the U. S. armed services in mortal combat against enemies, real and imagined. Whether in a drama, comedy, or even a musical, the American military has played a role-either as a backdrop or as an integral element-in hundreds of films.

Stars and Stripes on Screen is the guide to the portrayal of American armed services in motion pictures from 1898 to the present. It contains entries to more than 1,000 feature films produced in the U.S. and abroad. The guide also includes more than 100 made for television movies and more than 175 documentaries-a list that has never before been compiled, according to the National Archives and the Library of Congress.

Each feature film entry identifies the following information: Title, director, producer, primary stars, studio, year of production, running time, and a brief abstract. In addition to this information, the guide also includes valuable details not often found in other guides: The war (or peacetime designation) in which the story took place, the service or services portrayed, and any cooperation that the production received from the American military. The entry also supplies (if applicable) the dates each film was reviewed in Weekly Variety and/or The New York Times.

In addition, the guide has ten appendices, including select lists of actors and directors with significant military film credits, key portrayals by subject, significant portrayals of military leadership, and a listing of all military films to receive Academy Awards®, regardless of category. Most important, the guide contains a chronology of films by service.

The wealth of information provided in Stars and Stripes on Screen will make this an indispensable guide for researchers and fans, as well as film and military historians.

About this title

About the Author

Lawrence H. Suid is a military historian whose primary expertise is the study of the symbiotic relationship between the film industry and U.S. armed services. In addition to Guts & Glory, the definitive history of the subject, and Sailing on the Silver Screen, he has written histories of Armed Forces Radio and Television Service and the Army's nuclear power program.
Dolores A. Haverstick served as director of human resources in the office of inspector general in the U.S. Department of Labor. She has edited Lawrence Suid's books for the last 15 years.

Reviews

In nearly 1,300 entries, this guide -covers films that portray American servicemen and women from 1898 to the present, from 1911's The Military Air Scout to Stealth, released in 2005. The work is arranged in three chapters covering feature films, television movies, and documentaries. An additional chapter lists a few films, such as The Sound of Music, that don't portray the American military but received some military assistance. The authors also provide an appendix on notable television series that depict the American military. There are 10 appendixes in all, among them a list of Academy Award-winning films, the 25 greatest American military films (which is admittedly very subjective), and, most significantly, films arranged by type of military service. An extensive bibliography concludes the work.

Entries range from a few lines to more than a page and generally note, in heavily abbreviated form, the conflict and the branch of the military depicted, the type of cooperation received by the Department of Defense, the cast and crew, and two review citations--all information that is quite valuable presented together and unavailable elsewhere. Each entry also includes a narrative, usually brief. These can be a little uneven. Some entries, such as that for Lone Star, provide only information regarding to what extent the filmmakers received help from the military, while others, like that for The Sum of All Fears, include details of the film's plot. For some movies, among them Saving Private Ryan and Tears of the Sun,the authors also provide critical analysis.

Stars and Stripes complements Suid's previous work Guts and Glory: The Making of the American Military Image in Film (Univ. of Kentucky, 2002). Together, these two works provide a comprehensive, critical look at the American military as portrayed on the silver screen. For anyone interested in either military or film history, this work is a gem. Recommended for large public and academic libraries. Susanna Eng
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Scarecrow Press
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810854120
• ISBN 13: 9780810854123
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 448