New Media, New Wars, and New Films
The pictures of the terror attack in New York on 9/11 travelled around the world with lightning speed and are irrevocably connected with the memory of the crumbling World Trade Center. The attack provoked a military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan that sent thousands of soldiers into war. As a modern, global war, the conflict was not only documented by news reporters and official video coverage, but also by soldiers on their tour of duty in Iraq, who recorded what they saw and experienced on new, mobile technologies: private cell phones and digital cameras. Unofficial pictures from the war were distributed over the internet and created an image of the conflict that seemed to highlight atrocities (1) and war crimes rather than the promised fight for freedom, differing greatly from the official pictures of the war distributed by the press. By now, a little more than a decade after the beginning of ‘Operation Freedom’, the American occupation of Iraq has been interpreted and
reinterpreted through different media outlets, ranging from novels (2) to biographies of soldiers (3), from Hollywood films4 to BBC documentaries (5).
Especially in filmic reinterpretations of the war, common themes emerged that bind these films together and identify them as representations of the war in Iraq. These themes include returning soldiers who fail to reintegrate into society and ventually reenlist or even commit suicide, and footage of war atrocities – especially torture but also the murder of innocent Iraqi women and children – which was recorded on personal devices such as camera phones and digital cameras. This digital
material reflects and contributes to psychological problems the soldiers face after their return home. The digitally saved memories are hard to erase and eventually haunt them, which is represented through recurring flashbacks in many of the films.
While these additional materials are used to show a different side of the war, and therefore suggest that most films about the Iraq War are in fact anti-war films (6), they also reflect on and remediate real footage made public by news coverage in 2004, when the US TV channel CBS revealed a scandal involving pictures taken in Abu Ghraib Prison and showing American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. In addition, these digital videos or photographs showing scenes from Iraq are part of a
common media practice that is linked to new digital media technologies – like cell phones and digital cameras – and influences the medial make-up of current war films. Similar themes have travelled through various films and different cultural backgrounds, suggesting that digitally recorded images of torture and committed atrocities have become mediated memories of the Iraq War.
This thesis will analyze the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal as part of the cultural memory of the Iraq War, its reflection on common medial practices of soldiers serving in Iraq, and the remediation of torture scenes in recent fictional filmic representations of the war. I will further connect the common media practices used in and exemplified by the Abu Ghraib scandal to a new visual make-up of war films
that uses and represents the same media practices. They are used to both add authenticity to the fictional films and reflect on changing media usage. While the films about Iraq are part of a long history of war films (7), they also offer new characteristics, such as using different video materials on full screen and on artificial screens, which arguably creates a new sub-genre of films focusing on the War on Terror (8). These characteristics will be discussed in detail in chapter three.
This thesis is based on theories from media studies and memory studies. While media studies is used to reflect on the aesthetics and medial make-up of the films under consideration, the field of memory studies offers a comprehensive approach on how cultural memories are created through mediated memories (9) distributed by the mass media as well as through filmic reflections, as film is a
medium that is commonly understood to influence and represent cultural memory, especially the memory of war (1)0. I will draw from different theories connecting media and memory. The most practical models for this approach are José van Dijck’s concept of mediated memories as well as Joanne Garde-Hansen’s (et al.) study on digital memory combined with Allison Landsberg’s theory of prosthetic memory.
These theories combine a new media approach with memory studies and introduce important concepts for my thesis, such as new common media practices (van Dijck), digital photography as a form of communication (van Dick, Garde-Hansen), and the idea of taking on somebody else’s memory through digital or medial prosthetics (Garde-Hansen, Landsberg), especially through film. The usefulness of these concepts will be explained in more detail in chapter two.
It is important to point out that this thesis focusses on the medial representations of torture and everyday media practices as well as the common visual make-up in the films under consideration here. While the narrative embedding of these scenes might be of interest for the scene analysis and might offer clues as to what exactly is shown on the extra material, or how other characters reacted to the photographs showing torture practices, the implied message of the films, or a grading of the conflict in Iraq based on the narratives given in these films, will not be part of this analysis, although this has been done elsewhere (11).
1 Robert Eberwein observed that “atrocities appear with frightening regularity” (134) in these films
2 For example Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds or Wish you were here by Graham Swift
3 Perhaps most famously Chris Kyle’s biography American Sniper, which was recently also turned
into a movie
4 Including Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, winner of the ‘Best Picture’ award at the Academy
Awards in 2010
5 For example The Iraq War by the distinguished documentary maker Norma Percy
6 Francois Truffaut argues that “there is no such thing as an anti-war movie, because it will invariably
look exciting on the big screen” (Truffaut cited in Keeton and Scheckner, 105).
7 Robert Eberwein offers a thorough introduction to the war film genre in his book The Hollywood
War film (2010). Peter C. Rollins connects war films to US history in his book Why we fought (2008).
8 For more information on common characteristics of films about the ‘new wars’ and an in-depth
analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan, see Rasmus Greiner Die Neuen Kriege im Film (2010).
9 Many scholars discuss the connection between memory and media (for example Joanne Garde-
Hansen, José van Dijck, Ann Rigney). Astrid Erll sums the connection up by stating that collective
memory is unthinkable without medial representations (Erll (2005), 137 “kollektives Gedächtnis ist
ohne Medien nicht denkbar”).
10 See for example Astrid Erll in Film und Kulturelle Erinnerung: “Erinnerung an Krieg ist damit
weitgehend Erinnerung an mediale Darstellung des Krieges” (Erll (2008), 140)
11 See for example Douglas Kellner Cinema Wars Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush-Cheney
Era, as well as several of the essays quoted in this thesis.
The pictures of the terror attack in New York on 9/11 travelled around the world with lightning speed and are irrevocably connected with the memory of the crumbling World Trade Center. The attack provoked a military intervention in Iraq and Afghanistan that sent thousands of soldiers into war. As a modern, global war, the conflict was not only documented by news reporters and official video coverage, but also by soldiers on their tour of duty in Iraq, who recorded what they saw and experienced on new, mobile technologies: private cell phones and digital cameras. Unofficial pictures from the war were distributed over the internet and created an image of the conflict that seemed to highlight atrocities (1) and war crimes rather than the promised fight for freedom, differing greatly from the official pictures of the war distributed by the press. By now, a little more than a decade after the beginning of ‘Operation Freedom’, the American occupation of Iraq has been interpreted and
reinterpreted through different media outlets, ranging from novels (2) to biographies of soldiers (3), from Hollywood films4 to BBC documentaries (5).
Especially in filmic reinterpretations of the war, common themes emerged that bind these films together and identify them as representations of the war in Iraq. These themes include returning soldiers who fail to reintegrate into society and ventually reenlist or even commit suicide, and footage of war atrocities – especially torture but also the murder of innocent Iraqi women and children – which was recorded on personal devices such as camera phones and digital cameras. This digital
material reflects and contributes to psychological problems the soldiers face after their return home. The digitally saved memories are hard to erase and eventually haunt them, which is represented through recurring flashbacks in many of the films.
While these additional materials are used to show a different side of the war, and therefore suggest that most films about the Iraq War are in fact anti-war films (6), they also reflect on and remediate real footage made public by news coverage in 2004, when the US TV channel CBS revealed a scandal involving pictures taken in Abu Ghraib Prison and showing American soldiers torturing Iraqi prisoners. In addition, these digital videos or photographs showing scenes from Iraq are part of a
common media practice that is linked to new digital media technologies – like cell phones and digital cameras – and influences the medial make-up of current war films. Similar themes have travelled through various films and different cultural backgrounds, suggesting that digitally recorded images of torture and committed atrocities have become mediated memories of the Iraq War.
This thesis will analyze the Abu Ghraib Prison scandal as part of the cultural memory of the Iraq War, its reflection on common medial practices of soldiers serving in Iraq, and the remediation of torture scenes in recent fictional filmic representations of the war. I will further connect the common media practices used in and exemplified by the Abu Ghraib scandal to a new visual make-up of war films
that uses and represents the same media practices. They are used to both add authenticity to the fictional films and reflect on changing media usage. While the films about Iraq are part of a long history of war films (7), they also offer new characteristics, such as using different video materials on full screen and on artificial screens, which arguably creates a new sub-genre of films focusing on the War on Terror (8). These characteristics will be discussed in detail in chapter three.
This thesis is based on theories from media studies and memory studies. While media studies is used to reflect on the aesthetics and medial make-up of the films under consideration, the field of memory studies offers a comprehensive approach on how cultural memories are created through mediated memories (9) distributed by the mass media as well as through filmic reflections, as film is a
medium that is commonly understood to influence and represent cultural memory, especially the memory of war (1)0. I will draw from different theories connecting media and memory. The most practical models for this approach are José van Dijck’s concept of mediated memories as well as Joanne Garde-Hansen’s (et al.) study on digital memory combined with Allison Landsberg’s theory of prosthetic memory.
These theories combine a new media approach with memory studies and introduce important concepts for my thesis, such as new common media practices (van Dijck), digital photography as a form of communication (van Dick, Garde-Hansen), and the idea of taking on somebody else’s memory through digital or medial prosthetics (Garde-Hansen, Landsberg), especially through film. The usefulness of these concepts will be explained in more detail in chapter two.
It is important to point out that this thesis focusses on the medial representations of torture and everyday media practices as well as the common visual make-up in the films under consideration here. While the narrative embedding of these scenes might be of interest for the scene analysis and might offer clues as to what exactly is shown on the extra material, or how other characters reacted to the photographs showing torture practices, the implied message of the films, or a grading of the conflict in Iraq based on the narratives given in these films, will not be part of this analysis, although this has been done elsewhere (11).
1 Robert Eberwein observed that “atrocities appear with frightening regularity” (134) in these films
2 For example Kevin Powers’ The Yellow Birds or Wish you were here by Graham Swift
3 Perhaps most famously Chris Kyle’s biography American Sniper, which was recently also turned
into a movie
4 Including Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, winner of the ‘Best Picture’ award at the Academy
Awards in 2010
5 For example The Iraq War by the distinguished documentary maker Norma Percy
6 Francois Truffaut argues that “there is no such thing as an anti-war movie, because it will invariably
look exciting on the big screen” (Truffaut cited in Keeton and Scheckner, 105).
7 Robert Eberwein offers a thorough introduction to the war film genre in his book The Hollywood
War film (2010). Peter C. Rollins connects war films to US history in his book Why we fought (2008).
8 For more information on common characteristics of films about the ‘new wars’ and an in-depth
analysis of the conflict in Afghanistan, see Rasmus Greiner Die Neuen Kriege im Film (2010).
9 Many scholars discuss the connection between memory and media (for example Joanne Garde-
Hansen, José van Dijck, Ann Rigney). Astrid Erll sums the connection up by stating that collective
memory is unthinkable without medial representations (Erll (2005), 137 “kollektives Gedächtnis ist
ohne Medien nicht denkbar”).
10 See for example Astrid Erll in Film und Kulturelle Erinnerung: “Erinnerung an Krieg ist damit
weitgehend Erinnerung an mediale Darstellung des Krieges” (Erll (2008), 140)
11 See for example Douglas Kellner Cinema Wars Hollywood Film and Politics in the Bush-Cheney
Era, as well as several of the essays quoted in this thesis.
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