The Theater of War

The November issue of Harper's has an interesting article by Lawrence Weschler, "Valkyries Over Iraq," about war movies and the relationship between Coppola's masterpiece Apocalypse Now and Jarhead. In Jarhead the unforgettable Apocalypse scene of helicopters  attacking the beach to the swell of  Wagner's "Ride of the the Valkyries" is used to work the already tightly wound Gulf War soldiers into a sort of berserker frenzy of battle anticipation. Weschler interviews Jarhead author Anthony Swofford and various key people involved in the creation of both films, including Walter Murch who edited scenes from the two films, as he tries to understand what we've learned, if anything, from these attempts to bring the reality of the battlefield home.