From ‘Salvador’ to ‘The Diary of the Dead’, journalism in turbulent times for humanity has produced great historical and science fiction works
War and political conflict films have been a powerful medium to tell stories of extreme journalism. The war that takes place in ‘Civil War’ has not taken place at the moment, but Its approach is not so much that of a science fiction film as if it were a historical recreation of some foreign conflict, and his camera follows the reporters who report on it, which is almost a subgenre.
Stories of courage and tragedy within the complex nature of war and its consequences that have always been present in films by great directors who mixed coverage of conflicts and drama. We have selected seven significant titlesbut there are many others like ‘Circle of deception (1981), ‘Gernika’ (2016) ‘Live from Baghdad’ (2002), ‘5 Days of War (2011) or ‘The Bang Bang Club‘ (2010).
The Year of Living Dangerously (1982)
– Director: Peter Weir
– Main cast: Mel Gibson, Sigourney Weaver, Linda Hunt.
An intense look at political and personal conflicts during turbulent times that follows an Australian journalist in Indonesia during the 1965 coup d’état. Among the political chaos, it also includes a story of love and disillusionment where Peter Weir proved once again to be one of the great contemporary storytellersin a title also made notable by Linda Hunt’s Oscar-winning performance.
Review in Espinof | Available for rent on Amazon Prime
Under Fire (1983)
– Director: Roger Spottiswoode
– Main cast: Nick Nolte, Gene Hackman, Joanna Cassidy.
A drama that explores journalistic ethics and activism in times of war following three journalists who find themselves in Nicaragua during the Sandinista revolution and end up facing moral dilemmas between objectivity and active participation. With memorable performances by Nick Nolte and Gene Hackman, the film is a reflection on the role of the media in war that has numerous points in common with the dilemmas raised in ‘Civil War’, but above all, it coincides in the portrait of the ethics of its protagonist and the way of presenting the snapshots which is interspersed in the footage.
The Screams of Silence (The Killing Fields, 1984)
– Director: Roland Joffé
– Main cast: Sam Waterston, Haing S. Ngor, John Malkovich.
A heartbreaking testament to survival and the human spirit under a brutal regime that follows the true story of two journalists caught up in the Cambodian genocide by the Khmer Rouge. Winner of several Oscars, including Best Supporting Actor for Haing S. Ngor, she is a masterpiece that confronts the viewer with the cruelty of war in a series of crescendo discoveries of horror that Garland has surely taken into account in his collage of scenes of horror and dehumanization.
Salvador (1986)
– Director: Oliver Stone
– Main cast: James Woods, Jim Belushi, Michael Murphy.
Oliver Stone at his creative best directed this intense and provocative unflinching vision of political violence and the search for truth in El Salvador’s civil war. James Woods returned to play a journalist after his descent into the hells of ‘Videodrome’ but here emulating a reporter who experiences a political and personal awakening while covering the conflict. Co-written with Richard Boyle, protagonist and one of the great chroniclers of major international conflicts of the 20th century.
Available on MGM+
Comanche Territory (1996)
– Director: Gerardo Herrero
– Main cast: Imanol Arias, Carmelo Gómez, Cecilia Dopazo.
One of the crudest portraits of the war from the perspective of those who cover it. Based on the autobiographical novel by Arturo Pérez-Reverte, it follows three journalists in the Bosnian War, exploring the concept of ‘Comanche territory’, the most dangerous area of the war zone. The ethics of the objective is the dilemma here, between the principles and the audiencethe same themes of ‘Civil War’ but with more blind spots for the protagonists.
Available on Movistar+
Welcome to Sarajevo (1997)
– Director: Michael Winterbottom
– Main cast: Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei.
The famous Winterbottom recounts the odyssey of a British journalist who tries to save a girl from an orphanage in besieged Sarajevo, showing the brutality of the conflict and the tremendous human impact of a situation from yesterday that many have been forgetting. The film combines real and fictional elements to tell a powerful story of survival and denunciation within the representation of war and its effects on the innocent.
Review in Espinof | Available in Runtime
Diary of the Dead (2007)
– Director: George A. Romero
– Main cast: Michelle Morgan, Joshua Close, Shawn Roberts.
War is swapped here for a zombie invasion, but that doesn’t mean it’s not one of the first truly modern and critical takes on society’s obsession with documenting horror in the age of social media. A group of film students encounters zombies while filming in the woods, which becomes a fight for survival is taken by George A. Romero as a social metacommentary to the obsession with recording, rubbernecking and the lack of ethics derived from influencers and streamers. Garland not only reproduces its ending with a carbon copy, but some of the most talked about scenes from ‘Civil War’, such as the meeting with the military, were already here in similar ways.
Review in Espinof | Available for rent Rakuten
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