Asking questions about war

War films aren't just about war. They’re also about morality, racism and national identity. Marsha Gordon, an associate professor of Film Studies, points to Sam Fuller’s 1951 film The Steel Helmet, set in the Korean War, as a perfect example of the complexities of a war film.

“There’s no talk about why we fight, no glorifying of the mission,” Gordon says. “What Fuller gets at is the bigger question of conflict and what that makes people do and feel. Also to reflect what’s happening on the homefront with issues like racism. He has Japanese American and African American characters as key figures in the close unit that’s depicted in the film, and there’s a lot of discussion in the film about the way they’re treated at home and why they’re fighting for their country when they don’t have equal rights at home.”

Gordon introduces and screens The Steel Helmet on Wednesday, Feb. 15, 7-9 p.m. in the Hunt Library Auditorium. After the screening, she will lead a Q&A about the film and sign copies of her new book Film is Like a Battleground: Sam Fuller's War Movies, which will be available on site for purchase from the NC State Bookstores. The program is organized by NCSU Libraries Presents.

The Steel Helmet’s depiction of soldiers dealing with moral and racial identity crises remains one of the director’s most gripping, realistic depictions of the blood and guts of war, and was so controversial that Fuller became the target of an FBI investigation.

“Fuller fought in WWII and was tremendously patriotic. He also believed that being a patriot meant always questioning, that that was the essence of being a good American, to not just accept things for what you were told they were,” Gordon says. “How you justify killing people is one of the great questions in every Fuller war film. And the struggle to make that decision to do that on behalf of your country.”