Abstract
Jennifer L. Gauthier explores the important but often unexplored Indigenous perspective in war films. Studying films by Indigenous filmmakers, Gauthier questions how the war film can be re-imagined when the audience is provided with an Indigenous point of view. As she argues, when traditionally marginalized voices are the focus of a film, conceptions of national identity, heroism, and memory may be challenged. Gauthier finds that due to commercial imperatives, the narrative feature films fall back on common war film tropes in their goal to entertain audiences. In this way, while there are moments where the Indigenous “Other” fights back in the war film, the documentary format appears to offer greater promise for a fuller narrative and perspective of the marginalized in war.
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Films
The Battle of the Somme. Directed by Geoffrey Malins and John McDowell. Great Britain, 1916.
Forgotten Warriors. Directed by Loretta Todd. Canada, 1997.
Indigènes/Days of Glory. Directed by Rachid Bouchareb. France/Algeria/Morocco/Belgium, 2006.
The Mutiny on the Bounty. Directed by Lewis Milestone. USA, 1962.
Tearing Down the Spanish Flag. Directed by J. Stuart Blackton. Great Britain, 1898.
Utu. Directed by Geoff Murphy. New Zealand, 1983.
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Gauthier, J.L. (2019). The Other Fights Back: Indigenizing the War Film. In: Tholas, C., Goldie, J., Ritzenhoff, K. (eds) New Perspectives on the War Film. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-23096-8_5
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