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A war movie is a genre of movie where a war or an armed conflict plays an important part in the movie. In most of the scenes, the actors will play in a scenario which is affected by war. War movies usually show modern wars, unlike other genres, which may show older conflicts. The first war movie was Sea Fighting in Greece, by Georges Meliès, of 1897. It is set in the Greco-Turkish War (1897). Documentaries about wars are not war movies.
War movies were often used to show how terrible war really is, and that peace is a better option. These are sometimes called anti-war movies.
War movies have the following characteristics:
- The mix fictional and non-fictional elements (for example, a fictional story about a real war). Even though everyone knows that this story did not happen, a very similar one could have happened. Very often, the viewer knows what the parties in the war were, and how the war ended.
- The place where the movie takes place, and the kinds of weapons used have a big influence on the movie.
- There are two options: either there is one protagonist, who needs to go through some development, and prove himself; or there is a group of people who need to find common traits and work together to be successful.
Usually, a part of the audience will idealize soldiers, and war. Very often, visual effects (stunts, explosions, etc) will be made to look very realistic. This can make it difficult to keep a critical distance.