This project is an exhaustive, comprehensive, look at the fictional portrayal of American forces in twentieth century war.

This installation piece projects onto 3 screens continuous loops composed of film clips from American war films. Missing from the clips are all references to a specific enemy or any elements of plot or character development. Through the use of three screens, different film clips interact and combine to show the mechanics, devices and subtext of the images. By selectively using only images of American soldiers out of context, the politically biased notions of American vs. Foreign, Good vs. Evil, and Us vs. Other are challenged, and a sense of the redundant presumptions inherent in the cinematic vocabulary of American war images is revealed. At times it seems that the WW2 soldiers are fighting the soldiers of Vietnam, or Platoon’s Vietnam is at war with Rambo’s Vietnam. Eventually all forces are fighting each other in an explosive show of  “friendly fire”.

The piece shows the environment of fictional war, by using Apocalypse Now, Saving Private Ryan, Pearl Harbor, Rambo, Black Hawk Down (to name just a few). The images from more popular and widely seen films are used more extensively as they have had a greater influence in shaping public perception.
In all these popular films, the war genre serves as a propaganda tool leaving the impression that the American soldier is a hero proving himself in an adventure. Placing these images outside of their original context invites the audience to reevaluate these impressions and to challenge and question their responses to the genre.