A 'Toxic Genre': The Iraq War Films

by Martin Barker

Over the last five years, a cycle of films has emerged addressing the ongoing Iraq conflict. Some became well-known and one of them, The Hurt Locker, won a string of Oscars. But many others disappeared into obscurity. What is it about these films that led Variety to dub them a 'toxic genre'?

Martin Barker analyses the production and reception of these recent Iraq war films. Among the issues he examines are the borrowing of soldiers’ YouTube styles of self-representation to generate an ‘authentic’ Iraq experience, and how they take refuge in ‘apolitical’ post-traumatic stress disorder. Barker also looks afresh at some classic issues in film the problems of accounting for film ‘failures’, the shaping role of production systems, the significance of genre-naming and the impact of that 'toxic' label.

A 'Toxic Genre' is fascinating reading for film studies students and anyone interested in cinema's portrayal of modern warfare.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics

202 pages, Paperback

First published August 30, 2011

Reviews

[Irma Mayorga · Rating 1 out of 5]

Poorly written. And all synopsis of plot lines. And..uses IMDb as its only "evidence" of what people think of films (23 covered). For. Each. Film. That said, it did provide a thorough list of films that concern the war in Iraq up to Hurt Locker. And, of course, a blow by blow synopsis of each film, which is helpful for certain types of projects. Also a chapter that offers synopses of films that feature the new soldier protagonist, the Latino soldier. And, it knocks both feminist film and cultural theory and Zizeck's work. Most valuable asset for my purposes: the bibliography.