ORIGINAL: VegasOZ
ORIGINAL: TheWombat
ORIGINAL: VegasOZ
The Movie that I know of that gives background is: EXODUS(written by Leon Uris, Stars Paul Newman). It tells the story of Israel up to the establishment of the State and covers some of the early armed conflict. I am not aware of any war movie that depicts any of the major Arab Israeli wars, however.
While this was one of my favorite movies as a kid (book, too), I would hesitate to offer it today as good background, as it doesn't really meet contemporary standards of balance, much less objectivity. Not that fiction has to, by any means, but the depiction of Arabs in the movie borders on caricature, and the heroic Zionist settlers trope has worn a bit thin after a generation or two more of scholarship. But yeah, we grew up on this stuff, and Newman makes a hell of a sexy hero for sure.
I am absolutely opposed to posting ANY kind of political content on this gaming forum and therefore will not challenge your statement.
/shrug
If you're going to start talking about movies about one of the most politicized, emotional, and long-lasting situations in modern history, you can't keep politics out of it. All art is political--even these games we're playing. You could argue that by making games of real wars you're making statements each time you quantify the OOB or morale factors or objectives. If people want to recommend movies I'm all for it but you can't just say recommend a cultural artifact and then not allow critique. Movies, like books or any other text, don't just sit outside of their context or culture.
Yes, I'm an academic, so perhaps my take on these things is a bit different than most, but I take this sort of thing pretty seriously. If someone wanted to recommend Birth of a Nation as a great film to watch for the history of Reconstruction, it'd be hard not to comment, for instance. Hollywood, too, has a long, long history of doing a terrible job on history, particularly when it represents non-Western subjects or peoples.
But hey, I loved watching Exodus too, and it has a great soundtrack. Goodness knows it's a favorite among many folks I know. But it's mostly an adventure and love story with a historical context.
