War, Brotherhood, and Women (a way-late movie review and the start of a sociological commentary) -

What are movies if not a means to compel a viewer–to thoughts and feelings… to carry them within the journey of a character, a storyline so that they may glean something from it. Whether it be a laugh, an escape, or–my favorite–something much bigger. Something new. Different. Something that can shift your perspective, imprinting far beyond a film’s duration.

This bigger function of movies I had almost completely dismissed in our current times. One cynical theory is that current films are imitating current life, which can be superficial and vapid. And that perhaps the profit-hungry Hollywood formula of rehash forgoes quality because quality is not necessarily the collective priority of mass audiences. Whether this is true in any degree or just another opportunity for this grouch to go on about quality and standards, I do go to the movies much less and I’ve learned to manage my expectations. Though I love how you can reserve your seats now!

With these managed expectations, I saw Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk., the story of the evacuation of 300,000+ Allied troops from the shores of Dunkirk, France during World War II, told in three perspectives (land, sea, air). It is one of the best movies I’ve seen in quite some time, perhaps in about a decade. The film, which has very little dialogue, accomplishes far more visually, thanks in part to Nolan’s eye but more from the strict recreation of true events–history, a military conflict so great as to involve almost the entirety of the world. Within this place, from start to finish, the film carries a steady tension that did not need to be developed and could not be adjusted, though the film’s score did help to distinguish scenes and create the feel of sequence. The characters were developed by their actions within this conflict. And just as you reveal your true character in trying times, in the film’s quest for survival, we were given just the essential understanding of the characters in Dunkirk. No tropes. No allegory. No hyperbole. And, also, though Nolan took creative liberties with his characters, these characters matched their setting in every way; they did not have a misplaced knowledge of today’s values that often has film characters discrediting the historical setting they are within simply to convey some trite message or social commentary. (I’m sure I agree with that message most of the time, but I resent it breaching the continuity of a film’s setting.) He created men who seemed to truly exist. Some sort-of did (Check out how the film correlated with true events and real people here.) Other characters could have… but more so, in reality, hundreds of thousands did. This film honors them. And that honor is a one of the reasons why I left the film the way I did–moved and filled with thoughts.

I left with thoughts on war, on men and brotherhood; and women. The first two, things I don’t understand–but try to–in the ways that being the last thing allows me in some capacity, using the honed tools I have always been free to use–intuition, empathy, emotional understanding. But there is a relationship between war and men that I have been protected from, historically, as war was traditionally reserved for men. And while the plight of women included (includes, still) different pains–possibly a metaphorical warfare, it wasn’t warfare in the traditional sense.* I am not trying to make some grand comparison, really. I am just saying that as a woman, still bound by traditional gender roles in many ways, I see how the traditional male role–as protectors, as soldiers, within trauma and inside the worst of humanity–could have bound them also. Even more, bound them without allowing them to freely use the emotional tools to process. The ones, I believe, that allowed women to strengthen in time.

*Bottle Rocket*, my favorite bromance movie. But what do I know.

Given this, comradery, kinship with other men who share similar experiences, played an invaluable role in a man coping. The history of bromance. Though now treated as fodder for cheeky movies and advertisements, it was psychically necessary. To communicate simply with other men pushing down a daunting complexity. To not have to face it, discuss it… look it in the eye. But to let its underlying pervasiveness distinguish the necessity of not facing and not discussing it. Together, men could validate that all was okay… without needing to face, declare, describe and analyze.

In general, there were ways that women and men were that left imprints, for better, for worse, on all of us nowadays. We’ve had different struggles and benefits–men and women. And though we have always been within a patriarchy, men have always had their share of struggles dealing with the power and responsibilities they inherited. And though voiceless in many ways, women have benefited from being protected by their men, in a protected country that asked them to stay at safe at home. But just as the development of a working class that did not have to toil their day away laboring gave way for artistic rebirths simultaneously rooted a system of class division that we still struggle with today, these matters are complex. It brings to mind Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Men were fighting to maintain the fundamental need: safety–for their country, community, and family. A woman’s struggle was built on that foundation of safety. Protected, women had to space to grow cognizant of their oppression through the years. Protected, they became aware of how much they were sacrificing on the sidelines. Then they used all that may lay dormant to fight for or evolve toward equality. Men had the power, but still struggle, still perpetuate battles of being handed down by the men before them. And behind a man, always, a woman–his mother, his wife or partner–that knows just how vulnerable her man is. And conversely, he knows her strength is formidable. Perhaps if everyone extended this understanding on a broad scale, some real sociological shifts can take place.

This is just a start of a thought. As a woman, I am wholly fascinated by men… as I am fascinated by woman, all of humanity and how they are: together. The awe of our complexity speaks to how impossible it is to generalize, how futile a quest it is to make sense of it all, but I try in the labored and impractical way I tend to most things.

In dedication to our men, the men that made us, a slideshow of family and like-family’s family.