The War Film - Women's Roles

The purpose of women roles in typical war films is to bring sexual dynamics into the masculine war films. War films are mostly about battle and war, but women bring the typical Hollywood plot that centers on love, into the film. In war films women are usually desired by the soldier, and sometimes two or more soldiers. By soldiers competing over the women it makes the women’s part in the movie important, and it provides a good romantic structure for the movie. In the movie Hot Shots the character that Charlie Sheen played and his rival pursue the same girl. Because they both have sexual relation with the same girl they form a relationship with each other, and their rivalry become a form of not sexual competition, but of exchange. Women also cause many threats to men by bringing the emotional element known as a man’s vulnerability. Usually in war films, men with wives end up dying before the end of the movie. This suggests that the women bring vulnerability to the men and end up destroying the man. The role of women in war films brings sexuality to it, and helps form a romantic structure between them and soldiers in the movie.