# Is an anti-war movie possible? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Tags:** movies\ **Created:** [June 9, 2025, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363 "2025-06-09T12:37:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/61 "2025-06-11T13:27:50Z")
> [@robby](#): > > there’s a reason that recruit training changed in the U.S. military from how it is depicted in the film. There are a lot more rules now (which is true for the last 40 years or so), and a lot less hazing and cruelty. Not only were there some well-publicized recruit deaths which led to a public outcry, but even the movie _Full Metal Jacket_ itself shows the possible consequences of pushing a recruit literally past the breaking point. Oh, absolutely! By the time we watched the film - late 1993 or early 1994 - the methods depicted there were almost certainly a thing of the past in the Marine Corps as well. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/62 "2025-06-11T17:10:59Z")
> [@ASL\_v2.0](#): > > It only deigns to take just enough of the edge off in the end to not _also_ be an anti-human film “We finally, really, did it! You MANIACS! You BLEW IT UP! Ah, DAMN you! God damn YOU ALL TO HELL!” Wait, wrong movie. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2025, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/63 "2025-08-02T00:07:26Z")
> [@Pardel-Lux](#): > > Does anyone remember the 1983 TV production **[The Day After?](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_After)** It was shown on TV in the USA, but on cinemas in Europe. I saw it in Berlin and I can tell you the mood when leaving the cinema was somber. People were shocked. > It is so long ago, I couldn’t tell you the details. I think it was not even a good™ movie. But anti-war? Yes, I think it was. It worked that way on us. I didn’t get to watch it, because I was in a play, and we had rehearsal; my family didn’t have a VCR, and I didn’t happen to see it at anyone’s house who did have one. But I remember the fuss. Yes, people were shocked. I did see a documentary (unusual in that is had **no** narration at all) which came to theaters around the same time called _The Atomic Cafe._ It wasn’t as widely viewed as _The Day After_, but I discussed it with people who did see it, and it was extremely effectively as anti-nuclear propaganda. Admittedly, anyone who’d go to it was probably already at least vaguely anti-nuke (I was), but _The Atomic Cafe_ radicalized me. I joined a couple of organizations-- one was for teens and supervised by adults (sort of). The other was a student group run by both undergrad and grad students, and did not have faculty advisors. I was a part-time , ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2025, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/64 "2025-08-02T00:23:42Z")
Has anyone else seen _All This And World War II_? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2025, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/65 "2025-08-02T00:32:26Z")
> [@Reply](#): > > I remember [Eye in the Sky](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_in_the_Sky_(2015_film)) as being pretty anti-war, with a focus on the dehumanizing aspects of American drone pilots in desert trailers killing people thousands of miles away with what looks like gaming controllers. That was basically a cinematic presentation of the trolley problem. ---
**Author:** ![MortSahlFan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3bc359/32.png) [@MortSahlFan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MortSahlFan)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 11:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/66 "2025-08-07T23:27:52Z")
La Grande Illusion ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [August 7, 2025, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363/67 "2025-08-07T23:40:56Z")
The Battle of Algiers The fighting is brutish and cowardly, the ideals of both sides were compromised by cynicism, and the outcome wasn’t some glorious liberation from tyranny. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-an-anti-war-movie-possible/1019363.md?page=3)