Blog Assignment # 5: Images of War

The concern among the portrayal of images of war is the idea that some photos should be altered or not shown at all to avoid certain reactions from the viewers. In Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan Sontag argues, “With our dead, there has always been a powerful diction against showing the naked face” (70). I believe Sontag is correct in assuming that the closer we feel or relate to the individuals in a certain photograph, the more likely we are to depict them in death without revealing their faces entirely. Take for example the events of the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001. There are no pictures that exist of the dead that were found among the rubble and ruins of the buildings. Americans did not want other Americans to get emotionally disturbed or to cause chaos if pictures of the dead had been released in mainstream media. It seems that the farther away a disaster or war occurs in, the more likely we are to show photographs of the victims as naturally and revealing as possible. The idea is that maybe if we separate ourselves from those we see in the photographs, it will be easier to view them as they are in death. Surely, this would not be as easily done for the families or friends of the victims. Another example is Letters from Iwo Jima, which is a 2006 war film directed and co-produced by Clint Eastwood. The film portrays the Battle of Iwo Jima from the perspective of the Japanese soldiers. While this film is suppose to portray the way the Japanese would have written a war movie, the film still contains evidence of American viewpoints. To prove this, there are numerous scenes in the movie that show the Japanese soldiers getting killed or hurt, all the while showing their faces up close. A gruesome example of one of these scenes was when all the Japanese soldiers decided to commit suicide in the cave rather than submit to the enemy. Another scene in the film showed the Japanese capturing an American soldier, but the film does not show the American’s face up close as they stab him to death. The camera actually moves to the wall of the cave simply to show the blood splashing across the wall. The concern is whether we can view pictures as raw as they come even when they appeal to those who we can relate to. While concealing the images of war, we cannot fully consume artistic images as they should be shown, raw and unaltered.