The War Essay

In the movie "The War" a war veteran named Stephen is suffering because he can't obtain a job dude to his post traumatic stress causing him to spend time in a mental institution. He wants to prevent all violence, in and around his life because all violence has done for Stephen is caused him pain and long term suffering. For example, when Stephen left a fellow injured soldier on the battlefield, while he and the rest of his unit flew away in a helicopter. Trauma is later shown in the film effecting his son Stu. After this incident all he felt was pain, regret, and was also very traumatized. Violence is a recurring theme throughout the movie because a lot of the violence in this film was caused by anger which resulted in bullying and in turn backlash and anger and so on and so forth. Violence continues to plague the world, but it can be stopped and this film proves this statement through several events and examples.

One example of violence caused in this film starts with Mr. Lipnicki. Mr. Lipnicki abuses his kids and don't show them love. As a result of this Mr. Lipnicki's kids take out all their anger on the Mr. Simmon's kids. The Lipnicki kids are not bad kids, they are just troubled. Mr. Simmons sees this, so he decides to take part in a small act of kindness and gives cotton candy to a couple of the Lipnicki kids because "They look like they haven't been given anything in quite some time". Towards the end of the movie when the Simmons kids save Billy Lipnicki's life their was a beam of light shining in on them, symbolizing hope.

Stu Simmons suffers from post traumatic stress after his dad dies and they show this by Stu trying to distract himself by working hard on building his fort. Later in the movie he is more traumatized during the scene where there is an all out war at the fort. In the movie from Stu's point of view everything slows down, he observes the battle taking place, and he starts to hear helicopter propellors at full speed. This is the same sound Stu's father heard while taking off in a helicopter when he leaving a fellow soldier on the field. At which point they were both traumatized. Standing up for others is also a large theme in this film as well. An example of this is when Lidia Simmons stands up for Elvadine.

One can see how violence can really impact someones life. This movie through it's memoirs reveals this notion and goes into depth with it. We learn that violence doesn't solve anything and it can change people.