Best regards, Andrew Stewart
Begin forwarded message: > From: H-Net Staff via H-REVIEW <[email protected]> > Date: February 25, 2021 at 8:54:36 AM EST > To: [email protected] > Cc: H-Net Staff <[email protected]> > Subject: H-Net Review [H-War]: Todd on Rich, 'Cinema and Unconventional > Warfare in the Twentieth Century: Insurgency, Terrorism and Special > Operations' > Reply-To: [email protected] > > Paul B. Rich. Cinema and Unconventional Warfare in the Twentieth > Century: Insurgency, Terrorism and Special Operations. London > Bloomsbury Academic, 2018. Illustrations. x + 264 pp. $120.00 > (cloth), ISBN 978-1-350-05569-8. > > Reviewed by Carlie Todd (University of South Carolina) > Published on H-War (February, 2021) > Commissioned by Margaret Sankey > > Cinema not only reflects our fantasies and imaginations but can also > provide glimpses into a society's attitudes, perceptions, and areas > of contention. After almost twenty years since the beginning of the > War on Terror, unconventional warfare (UW) has increasingly become a > part of our lives culturally, politically, and economically. UW as a > timeless tactic and method has been extensively studied by state and > non-state intelligence actors especially throughout the twentieth > century. However, the important interconnections and influences > between cultural products like cinema and UW have been minimally > explored in literature. > > As the editor of the journal _Small Wars and Insurgencies_, Paul B. > Rich has written extensively on terrorism, insurgency, > counterinsurgency, and guerilla warfare. In _Cinema and > Unconventional Warfare_, he continues his research through the > analysis of more than eighty films pertaining to UW with the purpose > of "complementing the huge body of writing on the cinema of war by > focusing on increasingly familiar forms of war in our age involving > insurgency, terrorism and special operations" (p. ix). Despite UW's > growing presence in film, he finds an absence in the scholarly > literature surrounding it and embarks on exploring how films have > dealt with themes of UW, such as guerilla insurgency, terrorism, and > special operations. He argues that the war genre "needs to be > rethought, given its capacity for internal evolution and innovation > over time" to better understand UW in film (p. 5). Rich contends that > because UW does not easily fit into the traditional "western military > ethos" of full-frontal assaults and conventional conflicts, it has > been poorly understood by not only militaries but also filmmakers, > leading to a perpetuation of cinematic myths, such as national unity, > patriotism, and male heroism (p. 2). > > The piece is organized thematically around case studies in the United > States, Britain, Ireland, France, Italy, and Israel. Themes examined > include depictions of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in the > United States, British postcolonial insurgencies in Malaya and Kenya, > The Troubles in Northern Ireland, myths surrounding special forces, > French filmmaking in 1950s Algeria, Italian neorealism's depictions > of urban insurgency, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and > counterterrorism. While the scope for the piece is massive, these > cases provide an enriching window into examining the arguments and > proposed myths Rich sets out to examine. Despite some UW > interpretation of Latin America and the Caribbean with films like > _Burn! _(1969) and _The Dancer Upstairs_ (2002) as well as discussion > of Argentine Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, Rich's purview > through these selected case studies upsettingly leaves readers > wanting more on Latin American UW in film during the twentieth > century. > > Rich's source base is admirable with feature-length films being the > core of the primary sources consulted, including both American and > international films, resurrecting many long-forgotten films in his > analysis, such as _The Planter's Wife_ (1952), _Simba_ (1955), and > _Djamila_ (1958). Critically speaking, the filmography reflects a > mostly Eurocentric or Western perspective of UW and has few films > produced outside of the United States and Europe. Only a handful of > films from the growing Latin American film industry are featured and > none from India's massive "Bollywood." Further inclusion of such > films as Santosh Sivan's _The Terrorist _(1997) or Luis Mandoki's > _Voces Inocentes_ (2004) would have made excellent additions in > discussing terrorism and guerilla warfare. In addition to films, the > work also consults a variety of excellent secondary sources, > including film reviews, newspapers, magazine articles, government > documents, journals, and books, on various forms of UW written by > political scientists, historians, and film scholars. > > At the same time, the work is not absent of flaws. There is a lack of > consistency in the film analysis methodology with no detailed > explanation in the introduction for readers to follow the analyses > nor is there a set standard to the film elements being consulted, > such as dialogue, cinematography, or sound design. To illustrate the > inconsistency, in the chapter "Hollywood, Terrorism and the Myth of > Special Forces," the piece focuses heavily on the portrayal of > masculinity when discussing the _Rambo_ film series, including the > depiction of Rambo's body. However, Maya in _Zero Dark Thirty_ (2012) > receives little analysis of her character's involvement in finding > Osama bin Laden and the portrayal of feminine bodies. As Rich > mentions, women make up very few characters in the films consulted, > but the inconsistency in methodology taking place should be clarified > and made consistent throughout rather than privileging some subjects > and characters more than others, like that of women. This would > benefit the film analyses and connections with the argument and myths > presented. > > Despite these minor critiques, the book significantly fills a crucial > gap in scholarly literature on UW, particularly in film studies. As > one of the first scholars to comprehensively examine UW in film, Rich > has laid a groundwork for future scholars to build on more > extensively. His work has also brilliantly revealed many lesser-known > films that have been overlooked, providing even more opportunities > for research exploration. The piece is well written and could easily > be assigned for undergraduates studying military film history. Most > important, Rich demonstrates that film can help us understand not > only evolving conflicts and myths surrounding UW but also how these > affect our social consciousness. > > Citation: Carlie Todd. Review of Rich, Paul B., _Cinema and > Unconventional Warfare in the Twentieth Century: Insurgency, > Terrorism and Special Operations_. H-War, H-Net Reviews. February, > 2021. > URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=55103 > > This work is licensed under a Creative Commons > Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States > License. > > -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#6722): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/6722 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/80907496/21656 -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
