piefed.eeWhat are some good media that un-glorify conflict?
Be it books, movies, documentaries, or even music. I feel like I have people around me whom wish to fight violence with violence, with mentalities like “we should just counter-invade and show them who’s boss” or “I’m not afraid to fight for what I believe in”, showing a clear intent against an “enemy”.
“The enemy” is such a dehumanizing perspective, and only breeds further animosity. I wish for them to see that we all manage to find justifications for our actions, but that doesn’t make it worthy of just any sacrifice.
I recently saw the Norwegian movie Max Manus, which is about real events during WW2.
He survives, but with almost none of his friends, and after the war he struggles with alcoholism and nightmares for the rest of his life.Tap for spoiler
It left me with a feeling of despite “victory”, many people paid with more than just their life. And this is the feeling I wish others to feel, just for a bit, and ponder if “doing the right thing” really is the best thing.
No one should want conflict, and I wish to emphasize just how much we really should try and avoid warmongering. I’ve seen uncensored videos from modern wars, been in the military, had a great grandfather who fought in WW2 (who also struggled with nightmares and PTSD until his natural death), and all of it makes me dread the potential of the horrors that happen to everyone involved in an armed conflict, especially the innocents and the kids…
So, any suggestions for media that conveys this in a way that makes one really reflect?
All quiet on the western (movie from 2022) front feels like your example a bit (without the post-war consequences). Grave of the firefly is on my watch list and is very anti-war from what I understand. Catch 22 maybe. The Wars by Timothy Findley felt very anti-war but is a tough read. The cruel sea was a good read.
just make sure you’re in the right mindset when you watch Grave of the Fireflies – great movie BUT it is an emotional gut-punch
Yeah I’m kinda terrified to watch that one, not gonna lie. I get an emotional overreaction just looking at the cover…
Absolutely worth it though. Maybe watch it together with somebody so you can do some adhoc mutual therapy lol.
I love Ghibli movies so much because they tell stories very well, they are never black and white, and they always make me feel and ponder things. (And all that with beautiful art and music).
Grave of the Firefly is the greatest movie that I will never watch again.
*Das Boot*, it is the classic movie about German Uboats from the perspective of the Uboat crew.
It does not glorify, it does not condemn, but the one thing that stays with you is the feeling of futility.
They did all the terrible and heroic things, cheered at hitting convoys, let allied seamen drown because of their orders, escaped again and again, showed fanatism and self-reflection, panic and comradeship, and in the end, when they come back to their home base, it just doesn’t matter.
spoiler
As they arrive, half-afloat, battered, relieved and enthusiastic about being home, while a marching band plays in the background, they get hit with an air raid. Bombs fall, all die, only the narrator (war reporter) survives to tell the tale. All for nothing. All of it completely futile.
Must give that another watch. Absolutely incredible flick.
Edit: actually just ordered the Bluray. Less than a tenner. Can’t wait.
pretty much every war movie
the classics have got Saving Private Ryan, Nolan’s got Dunkirk, Best Cinematography’s got 1917, Ghibli’s got Grave of the Fireflies (released same day as Totoro even)…
for anti-war that’s not depressing, there’s also AFAIK the over-the-top Helldivers
for things that feel “clean” instead of bloody there’s the elegant video game Nier: Automata
Pretty much every war movie glorifies war haha. Saving Private Ryan, Dunkirk, and 1917 are famous because of their awesome looking action scenes. All those films glorify war and convey a sense of heroism, urgency, and righteousness for people involved in a war. If the director’s wanted to make a film that didn’t glorify war, they would’ve focused on the shitty parts of war instead of showing the audience all the cool heroic things soldiers get up to.
Grave of the Fireflies does not glorify war. Thin Red Line is maybe the only movie about soldiers that doesn’t make war seem cool.
I would compare the action scenes in Saving Private Ryan to the “action scenes” of Schindler’s List. It tells you how hard all of this is, how everybody’s confused, how nobody knows what they’re doing, how it’s all a hellhole. I would not describe Schindler’s List as “glorifying” the plight of the Holocaust victims. It tells you how horrid this all is, not that you should be part of it.
(FWIW, Saving Private Ryan and Thin Red Line are often put in the same category of “glorifying the people who fought in WWII”. But in my opinion, “glorify” here means “elicit sympathy for their effectively-forced situation”, and not “glorify”, which I would say is something like La Grande Vadrouille (1966).)
I agree that Saving Private Ryan action scenes are supposed to show what you’re talking about, but that’s not what they do. To an American audience (which the film was made for) the chaos and horror is justified and honorable. The audience has been taught that America is always on the right side of history, they have to honor soldiers at every sporting event, they have a general riding a horse into battle in the middle of their town square, they had to pledge allegiance to war every day as a kid, etc etc. The title Saving Private Ryan tells you everything; war is heroic and necessary.
I’m not sure what film of which you can’t claim specific lenses would color them contrary to their intentions.
Vinland Saga
“I have no enemies.” It’s an anime with two seasons so far. The manga is getting close to complete. Takes place around 1000 ad with the wars between the Vikings and the English. Basically the first season is about revenge while the second pivots hard to redemption. It’s ultimately a story about pacifism.
Wow. I dropped it too early then.
I kinda rolled my eyes and was like “Is EVERY Viking story just an endless circle of killing fathers killing sons killing fathers again?”
Maybe I should give it another chance…
Ya the first season reminded me a lot of Berserk. You’re following along with a character whose sole purpose is to kill and survive.
But you see his father in the first few episodes, a man who moved his family far away from the Danes, a man who runs a village and is beloved, a man who despite being a master with a sword is shown trying to lean new skills and grow. He was a man who couldve led the Vikings and lived in luxury but wanted his kids to grow up away from the battlefield. The story is the unfortunate journey of Thorfinn having to realize what his father was trying to teach him but the hard way. Even though the first season is a lot of fighting, there is very little in the second.
Don‘t get me wrong the conclusion is phenomenal but the second season just drags on and on and on. They should‘ve made the second part a much shorter movie. The prologue season on the other hand was absolutely amazing and peak television.
Goes to show that every war movie (or in this case TV show) is a pro-war message just as much as it is an anti-war message. It all depends on who you ask. No matter how much effort you put into getting your message across.
Anything written by Kurt Vonnegut
An amazing movie is come and see. One of the best movies I have ever seen (no pun intended).
Edit: the comments says it all, just the type of thing you asked (or what I understood you asked).
I came here to say this too! The other one that springs to mind is Threads. Nuclear conflict as opposed to ‘traditional’ warfare but very illustrative.
This War of Mine
I’m so scared to play that game. I also am very much not willing to engage in real warfare, so, I guess it’d be preaching to the choir… But yeah…
Was about to comment about watching that and then realised I was thinking about Land of Mine, but that is also a film I would suggest.
Was scrolling through to see if this was posted yet. Such a hard game, emotionally and mechanically. I’ve never managed to get very far through it before everything goes wrong and my characters start dying horribly (Which is entirely the point).
It’s a really good portrayal of the civilian toll of war I think.
Spec Ops: The Line I heard is a game like that
The Unknown Soldier is quite well made and high budget war movie by Finnish standards and it does nothing to glorify war.
Generation Kill is a very watchable look at a recon unit in the lead up to the 2nd (iirc) iraq war. It’s by the guy who did The Wire. Excellent dialogue, plotting and acting.
It uses a soldier’s eye perspective to examine the systemic issues in the military - casual racism, war crimes, adult diapers and the constant incompetence of officers all come up.
I think most even slightly accurate war movies don’t really glorify the war bit. Two recommendations.
There is a film A24 distributed last year called Warfare that follows a very accurate telling of a single operation of a platoon in Ramadi. It is pretty grim, but really gives a sense of just how brutal it can be for a small group. A lot of movies show slaughter at scale, like beaches of Normandy. That is always fascinating and dark too, but it slightly diminishes the struggle of the individuals. This does not.
Another recommendation is Tora! Tora! Tora!; an absolute classic from 1970. This movie shows you many of the mistakes and oversights, big and small that led to the Pearl Harbor attack being so crippling. Aside from huge ship and air guns there aren’t many guns. I think many people would enjoy it at the moment because it shows the USA on the rout.
Haven’t seen Warfare, but would definitely second Tora! Tora! Tora!, it’s a magnificent film.
Civil War definitely wasn’t fun at all
Edit: I mean it was good don’t get me wrong, but it absolutely didn’t glorify war
Really enjoyed that flick, but it was beyond unsettling.
I still feel really curious about getting around to that one.
The most unsettling thing is working at my local library, and that movie’s been out for a long time now, and I see it circulating CONSTANTLY.
That speaks volumes about what’s on people’s minds, I think…
Empire of the Sun is a film about civilians caught in a war zone.
The Things They Carried, by Tim O’Brien, is a collection of short stories about the Vietnam War. It shows the exhilaration, the terror, the cruelty and hardship of living through a war. It definitely doesn’t glorify conflict.
My War Gone By, I Miss It So, by Anthony Loyd, is a firsthand account of the Bosnian conflict of the 90s. It is ugly and brutal, and the author tries to give an honest presentation of his own state of mind at the time.
Black Hawk Down (the book, not the movie), by Mark Bowden, is a fairly thorough account of the incident in Mogadishu in 1993. Bowden did a lot of research and describes the political background that led to the UN and US presence in Somalia, and all of the mistakes that led up to the helicopter being shot down and what happened after. He interviewed many of the military personnel who were actually involved and recounts the events from several different perspectives. And as the Wikipedia article says:
This is a very realistic presentation of what combat is like, framed inside the perspective of the overall military operation. Bowden doesn’t shy away from describing the mistakes in decision-making, but also does a fair job of describing how lack of information or bad information leads to bad decisions in the moment which result in people dying for no good reason. He definitely doesn’t glorify the conflict. My overall impression after reading it was “I hope I never have to be involved in anything like that”.
And finally, Alice’s Restaurant, by Arlo Guthrie, is a song about the draft.
Echoing Alice’s Restaurant. It’s funny too.
New bar trivia team name: The Group Dubya Bench
The Things They Carried is so beautifully written. The story On the Rainy River, about a young man struggling with whether to avoid the draft, had this which has stuck with me:
If the stakes ever became high enough - if the evil were ever evil enough, if the good were good enough - I would simply tap a secret reservoir of courage that had been accumulating inside me over the years. Courage, I seemed to think, comes to us in finite quantities, like an inheritance, and by being frugal and stashing it away and letting it earn interest, we steadily increase our moral capital in preparation for that day when the account must be drawn down. It was a comfortable theory. It dispensed with all those bothersome little acts of daily courage; it offered hope to the repetitive coward; it justified the past while amortizing the future.
Well, I’ll recommend Arcane as a show where nearly everyone wants war and pushes for war, and then regrets it and either changes their mind or dies.
However, I do think war has its place and is sometimes necessary. If we hadn’t gone to war with the Nazis, the world would be a much worse place. I believe we should directly intervene in the Russian invasion of Ukraine and in the Israeli invasion of Palestine, on the side of the defending forces, while limiting our actions to purely military targets. I also think World War 3 has become nearly inevitable, and that it will be triggered by the invasion of Venezuela and Greenland, and that we should be prepared to support the defending forces so as to prevent the rampant spread of fascism.
I’ve already watched Arcane, and it indeed is a great show in how it displays each death as an immensely impactful event for each close character, making them feel anger and desperation, ultimately leading to regretful emotional decisions.
In regards to war being necessary, I partly agree: It only becomes necessary because one side finds it a worthy method to gain what they seek. The Nazi party decided that taking by force is a viable option, and they got support for it. This is what I hope to prevent in the first place. One example is the (initial) support Kremlin had to intervene in Ukraine with a military force. Another example is Trump taking Maduro; also a clear act of war. I’m honestly impressed by the world’s reluctance to give military consequences, though I fear it’s for the wrong reasons…
The people of the aggressor’s side are the ones that would benefit the most from un-glorifying of conflict, and I will surely recommend people I know some of the great suggestions in this post.
The villifcation of war will not persuade those who are already out for blood, they’re determined to have those wars. However, I fear it may drive our potential allies to passivity in the face of fascist expansion, making the fascists’ jobs easier. I very much enjoy media that glorifies war for a just cause, such as Star Wars or Inglourious Basterds.
Everyone believes their cause is just. Every conflict ever can be framed as defensive. The US has compared every major conflict since WWII to stopping Hitler, even cases like Vietnam. My mother once quoted, “All that’s necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing” in the context of defending the invasion of Iraq.
If You investigate and deconstruct the concept of “defensive” wars (as You are so wont to deconstruct concepts) then You will find that they are entirely dependent on socially constructed ideas about “legitimacy.” If Switzerland does not have “legitimate ownership” of Zurich, then to station troops there or to fight against Zurich being occupied by foreign powers would make Switzerland the aggressor. It could be argued that, when the US invaded Vietnam, it was merely “coming to the aid” of the Republic of Vietnam, which had requested our aid (nevermind that they were our puppet). Likewise, in Ukraine everything about how you view the conflict is dependent on who you think is legitimate - the “consensus” interpretation in the West is that the central government is legitimate and the separatists are just Russian puppets, while the pro-Russia view says that the separatists are legitimate and the central government just Western puppets.
So V.I. Lenin observes:
Funny enough, this observation was shared by Leo Tolstoy, the Christian Anarchist/Anarcho-Pacifist, who writes:
World War I is a prime example of how things can go wrong. There had been a major socialist movement at the time across every major country in Europe, and there had been a significant fear that, should the imperialist powers start a major war like that, it would lead to a coordinated revolution across all of Europe. But instead, when war broke out, the social democrats all found reasons to rally around the flags of their respective countries. They were committed to keeping their positions within the realm of acceptability, and the war narrowed that realm of acceptibility to the point that coordination with ordinary people of other countries (or genuine opposition to the war) was considered treasonous.
If Your “antirealist” stuff is supposed to have any merit at all, then it ought to allow You to recognize that the concept of “defense” is largely arbitrary - or are You seriously of the belief that national borders have some inherent natural truth when even the law of gravity does not?
I do think with the right angle, those out for blood can indeed be persuaded. There’s no “general cure” to the bloodlust, which makes it difficult, but far from impossible. And vilification is but one angle. Another is a profound sadness, felt in relation to their personal situation.
It might drive the good people to passivity, true, but I believe that the fear of conflict can become great enough to warrant action, so that fascists/imperialists meet resistance/consequences internally within the nation. Like by the workers who are in the business of weapon logistics, the journalists who write glorifying articles in the news, the people who not only speak up but act against “their own people”. I think there are already many like it, based on several videos I’ve seen from Russia in 2022 for example, although not many enough, evidently.
The Anime Grave of the Fireflies (AniDB) is a heart-wrenching telling of the impact and consequences of war.
Come and See (TMDB), a 1985 soviet anti-war film. I haven’t watched it yet, but I’ve seen it mentioned multiple times as significant or exceptional, heart-wrenching. (Looks like other comments mention it as well, as expected. :P)
I’m a bit disappointed I can’t recall much else right now, and of different kinds than just the misery of war. Two other anime pop into my head, but the aspects asked for aren’t a major part of them.
There are many videos and reports of Ukraine military defense operations that can show what combat realistically looks like. Even for the righteous, it’s a harsh situation. Moral superiority does not help much when you’re sitting in trenches, in the situational, practical aspects at least.
A Soviet anti-war film sounds intriguing, especially considering the times. I’ll definitely give that a watch. Grave of the Fireflies has been on my list for ages as a Studio Ghibli film, so I guess it’s about time for that one too, thanks.
When it comes to real footage, I’ve seen too much. It’s what still sits with me, the gut-wrenching despair people are exposed to, and the lifelong nightmares in active development. There are videos I’d like for certain people to see, but I’m unsure whether it’s a good idea or not to show them. NSFL content is something I generally don’t share unless I’m completely confident it will have a constructive reception. Hence I ask for common media instead, that is thought provoking on a less risky level.
Defcon: Everybody Dies
That game has actually been studied by scientists, because it changes people’s attitudes towards nuclear weapons.
The game literally is about using nuclear weapons to win.
How does it look? It isn’t overly grotesque. There are no melting faces, no devastated landscapes. Nothing. It’s just a minimalist map of the world.
You might hear that and think that it’s a pro-war game. But it actually has the opposite effect on players.
How can it be? Simple. The game is accurate in how swiftly it all ends if there is a nuclear war. And by playing it, that truth is engraved into players’ intuitions.
https://www.academia.edu/6697989/Education_from_inside_the_bunker_Examining_the_effect_of_Defcon_a_nuclear_warfare_simulation_game_on_nuclear_attitudes_and_critical_reflection
Interesting suggestion! I’ve heard about this game, and my initial thoughts were exactly as you described, so maybe I should try it out indeed.
Also thanks for linking a study!
“Would you like to play a game?”
Some episodes of Star Trek do this well. Off the top of my head, “The Drumhead” is a great example of rejecting fearmongering and witch hunting “The Enemy”.
Band of Brothers fits this very well, It is very evenhanded all the way through and particularly at the end where the final Heartfelt speech is made by a German officer to his men, but it applies to all of the American characters that you have been following through this series, the feeling of Brotherhood was the same for all men involved
Godzilla Minus One does a great job at showing post WW2 Japan, and the effect the war had on the Japanese people.
To add some music here,
Roger Waters: The Wall.
His version is my personal preference over the original Pink Floyd version; it has some more songs, better audio quality, and IMO hits a little harder. Read the lyrics for full understanding. Watch a recording of the concert to be blown away.
“Di-di-di-did you ever wonder why we had to run for shelter when the promise of a brave new world unfurled beneath the clear blue sky?”
The Emperor’s Naked Army Marches On.
:::spoiler Click for summary/spoilers
Kenzō Okuzaki was conscripted to fight in WWII and the experience radicalized him against the Japanese government. He deliberately attempted to get himself shot by Allied forces but was captured instead. After the war, as the years passed, he became worried that the younger generation was growing up unaware of the horrors of war and the atrocities that their government had committed, and so would be prone to repeating the mistakes of the past. He became desperate to do something about it.
Okuzaki brazenly defied norms about politeness and drove around in a car covered in slogans, shouting out of loudspeaker that the emperor was a war criminal. The film focuses on his attempts to track down elderly veterans and get them to record testimonies in front of a camera, specifically investigating allegations that Japanese soldiers resorted to cannibalism in New Guinea. Of course, people generally aren’t particularly thrilled about a stranger showing up to relitigate old war crimes and interrogate grandpa about The Things We Don’t Talk About. There are times when Okuzaki even gets involved in fistfights with people over it.
After collecting testimony from a bunch of people, he comes to the conclusion that a colonel was responsible for the war crimes, and he decided to kill him over it. However, when he arrived at his house, he only found his son, who he shot and injured instead.
Okuzaki is a complicated and problematic figure but in some ways that makes the film all the more unsettling and challenging. Shooting someone for just for being related to a war criminal is pretty indefensible, but Okuzaki was broken by the war he wanted to avoid repeating (the decade in solitary confinement probably didn’t help either). He wanted to remind people of the horrors of war, but it’s because of what the war did to him that he had become maladjusted and prone to violence (although it’s worth noting that a lot of his protests had been nonviolent, and had gotten him jail time). I think there’s a natural inclination to look at things like this in the abstract, to ask, “how for is it justifiable to go in pursuit of a good cause?” but the film pushes us to consider the psychological, human aspect of this traumatized killer trying desperately to create a world where people like himself would not be created.
Appreciate this post. I’d welcome any suggestion to help deglorify guns to a kid, too
NSFW, but you can youtube a number of firearms accidents. Blown barrels peeled like bananas, exploded chambers etc…
Guns are fascinating to some boys, until they see the accidents of simple range use. Blinded. Dead. Near misses of dead. Lost hands and faces. Gun safety vids serve as a warning to not fuck around.
Careful with age appropriate. Seriously nsfw nsfl.
This is a good suggestion because even if you’re unable to dissuade the interest in guns, you might at least make the kid think twice about safety before they eventually handle one and thus prevent a tragedy.
I certainly speak about this. But, yeah, haven’t gauged when to expose them to graphic depictions, yet.
I benefited from watching that type of content. Not just with guns, but physical violence in general. What was that subreddit that eventually got banned? watchpeopledie? Obviously that was much more out there than just gun safety content, but stuff like that. Helpful as it might have been, it has probably warped my sense of what’s standardly age appropriate, though, so I err on the side of caution with that
This may not be the approach you have in mind, and it kind of depends on the kid’s personality, but one of the ways to de-glorify and de-romanticize something is to de-mistify it, to take it out of fantasy and make it real.
To that end, consider Forgotten Weapons on YouTube. Ian will discuss a single gun, its design history, manufacturing, intended use, disassembly and cleaning, and constant reminders about gun safety. If the kid finds the history, engineering and basic maintenance discussion to be boring, they might lose interest in the topic altogether. Alternatively, if they find it interesting, you might steer an unhealthy interest in violence toward something productive (history and/or mechanical engineering).
Keep in mind that forbidding access to something just adds to the mystery and romance around it and can have the effect of increasing the desire for it.
I think this is a wonderful suggestion and actually has a good chance to align with their interest. I’ll make a point to watch a few with them
It’s definitely a tight rope. I was a bit of a “gun nut” as a teen. Mostly by way of fiction and research.
But the difference, and why I’m probably alive and with all my fingers today, is my dad constantly and heavily emphasized safety alongside exposure in controlled environments. They were something to fear and respect, but not be afraid of.
I worry about this as a soon to be father myself. We might be in a situation where arms become necessary, God forbid.
An interest can be healthy, but we definitely need to put the ridiculous carelessness and violence-porn power fantasies into the “outrageous stupid entertainment in moderation” box, rather than glorifying it as a core part of our culture.
Come and See
Saving Private Ryan.
If the first 15 minutes don’t turn you into an antiwar activist, I don’t know what will.
That movie is textbook glorifying war 😭 The first 15 minutes especially!! It’s literally called Saving Private Ryan as in here’s a movie about heroic saviors in a situation that is only possible because of war. Majority of the audience doesn’t leave a film like that thinking “war is so awful” but instead thinking “wow the scene where they stormed normandy was awesome it was filmed in such a cool way omg i wish i was also able to be as brave and heroic as those men.”
I think that movie is great, but it is impossible to make any media about war, that directly shows the war, without coming across as pro-war.
If you watch to the end you’ll see a guy who learned to murder a POW in cold blood, though.
Books: Forever War the homophobia is strange though. I’m not gay so I won’t say it isn’t offensive, but it is strange.
The ender’s saga. Starts off questioning “what is an enemy”, ends questioning “what is life”. Author is a cunt though, steal/ borrow it if you can. Strange someone so bigoted can write a series so… not bigoted.
Bill the galactic hero. “It’s always bawb your buddy week”. A bit immature, maybe the jokes are dated now.
Films: Jarhead
Platoon
Full metal jacket
No write ups, I think the films are well enough known.
For some incredibly good sci-fi: Some desperate glory by Emily Tess
Tap for spoiler
About a teenager, groomed from birth to be a true-believing elite soldier, who is starting to question and escape a fascist, rapey, ultra-militarized hellhole while looking fo her lost brother. Her mental journey is superbly written. Also includes gay awakenings.
M*A*S*H the 1970 Robert Altman film is a dark comedy following battlefield surgeons in the Korean war. Based off a semiautobiographical book with a similar premise.
Essentially the surgeons try to keep themselves sane in an insane environment by playing practical jokes and generally making light of the darkest situation imaginable.
2000 meters to Andriivka
It follows the Ukrainian push through a narrow strip of woodland to a town that has been destroyed by the war.
The Boy in The Striped Pajamas and Empire Of The Sun spring to mind.
Edit: Also, The Deer Hunter.
The War Prayer, a prose poem by Mark Twain.
The Great War channel on YouTube.
For fiction: Band of Brothers.
I haven’t watched it, but They Shall not Grow Old (2018) (TMDB) may also be of interest.
A user review says it takes a neutral position, and while it shows negative consequences, it also shows people liking comadery etc. So not sure if it would serve your goals in particular.
Letters from iwo jima. I think of this film time to time
This film had just come out when we had family friends come and visit us from the states. There were kind of tragic circumstances because my dad’s friend, who he’d met on a student elective in the 70s in New York, had recently killed himself but he’d always loved visiting Scotland. His brother, nephew and uncle were visiting to see what had resonated with him so much about Scotland.
Anyway this movie came up in conversation around the kitchen table and my dad asked his deceased friend’s uncle if he’d seen it. He replied, “No sir, I fought at Iwo Jima so I don’t much care for war movies.”
The Dispossessed
You should watch In the Army Now.
I subscribe to the philosophy that there is no such thing as an anti-war film or story. They all romanticize and dramatize war in a way to captivate the audience, and to where the horrors of it are observable, yet not experiencable and therefore not understandable.
There are some… of course, but for some reason these are first I recalled at this moment - some bands a military colleague had been listening back in the days, on fields.
The band name is Lyube (Любэ). There’s a YouTube channel, and some of the titles I still recall he listened to:
- А зори здесь тихие-тихие - Любэ;
- Там за туманами - Любэ;
- Комбат- Любэ;
Another song he had been listening was Чей чай горячей by Чайф.
And though I am not very fluent in Russian, his rare but tears made me believe these were incredibly significant for him, and represented the unbearable sorrow…
The Lord of the Rings is (among many other things) a book about how the common man deals with the trauma of war.
I haven’t watched it, but I’ve heard Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket is a pretty brutal anti-war piece by the end.
1917 the movie feels very anti-war imo
most of them are pretty right wing, so its mostly propaganda anyways, the MSMs are pretty much this.