Science – Fiction and it’s Allegorical

Representation of War

Mikey Masher

Allegorical – The representation of abstract ideas or principles by characters, figures, or events in narrative, dramatic, or pictorial form.

My thoughts about carrying out the investigation were that it might be an easy topic to cover because war is a big thing that happening in the world now but when trying to find some information about war and how it relates to my films is a different story, it is more difficult to find information but I am enjoying the topic I am doing because I like to watch sci-fi war films and also learn how and why they created the film in the first place.

My focus film would be Independence Day because from the trip at the BFI I found a lot more information on that compared to the other films. Also because my additional films are a Starship Troopers 1&2, there might be differences that could relate to Independence Day.

My additional films are Starship Troopers and Starship Troopers 2: Hero of the Federation. I chose these films because from watching them in a view to my small scale they had features that fitted into the Gulf and Iraq War.

The Persian Gulf War was a conflict between Iraq and a coalition force of 34 nations led by the United States. The lead up to the war began with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 which was met with immediate economic sanctions by the United Nations against Iraq. The coalition commenced hostilities in January 1991, resulting in a decisive victory for the U.S. led coalition forces, which drove Iraqi forces out of Kuwait with minimal coalition deaths.

Facts on Gulf War:

The overwhelming technological advantages of the US, such as stealth aircraft and infrared sights, quickly turned the air war into a "turkey shoot".

Following the Persian Gulf War, to protect minority populations, the US, Britain, and France declared and maintained no-fly zones in northern and southern Iraq, which the Iraqi military frequently tested. The no-fly zones persisted until the 2003 invasion of Iraq, although France withdrew from participation in patrolling the no-fly zones in 1996, citing a lack of humanitarian purpose for the operation.

From Watching ‘Starship Troopers’ at the start of the film we see a group of American scientists experimenting on the evil Arachnid’s planet, Klendathu. Although they were doing this and the Arachnid’s did not want them on their planet, so the Arachnid’s decided to kill the scientists and shoot meteors from their planet to Earth.

My theory from this would be that the storyline has the same aspects of the Gulf War because of the invasion from Iraq solders into Kuwait without authority and then immediate response from America by the President sending out troops to fight the Iraq forces out of the country. As did the American solders in Starship Troopers trying to fight the Arachnids off of the planet.

The Gulf War was marked by the beginning of live news on the front lines of the fight, with the primacy of the U.S. network CNN.In the first scene of Starship Troopers we see a reporter on the Arachnid planet streaming a live feed he then ends up getting killed by one of the bugs.

The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 – 28 February 1991), commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a U.N.-authorized coalition force from thirty-four nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of the State of Kuwait.

After the lengthy Iraq disarmament crisis culminated with an American demand that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein leave Iraq, which was refused, a coalition led by the United States and the United Kingdom fought the Iraqi army in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Approximately 250,000 United States troops, with support from 45,000 British, 2,000 Australian and 200 Polish combat forces, entered Iraq primarily through their staging area in Kuwait. (Turkey had refused to permit its territory to be used for an invasion from the north.) Coalition forces also supported Iraqi Kurdish militia, estimated to number upwards of 50,000. After approximately three weeks of fighting, Hussein and the Ba'ath Party were forcibly removed, followed by 9 years of military occupation by the United States.

Facts on Iraq War:

During the "post-war" Iraq occupation, occupying forces have turned their attention to enforcing order through patrolling. These patrols faced insurgents who conduct ambushes using assault rifles, rocket propelled grenades, and carefully placed and timed explosives. The patrols require armored vehicles capable of stopping at least small arms fire of 7.62 mm machine gun rounds along with mandatory external weapons platforms and tracking equipment.

The Iraq War began on March 20th, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by the United States under the administration of President George W. Bush and the United Kingdom under Prime Minister Tony Blair.

From this information on how the Iraq War started it is very similar to the way that Starship Troopers 2 begun, by the American solders invaded the planet Klendathu, the home of the enemy Arachnid’s.At the start of Starship Troopers 2 there is a news report which talks about how good it is to be in the war and serve your country but then when we see the next scene of the film the solders are scared and under heavy attack from the Arachnid’s.The film goes on to show that some of the soldiers retreat the location where they are and find an old military communications base, but the communications systems were damaged too much to work.This feature of the film would join with the Iraq War because of an American soldier (Jessica Lynch) was captured at the beginning of the Iraq War, and was also a Private like the main character in Starship Troopers 2 (Private. Lei Sahara).

From Independence Day a scene I would use is the scene where the alien ship destroys the white house and we scenes of buildings, car and people being disintegrated. Reason because that in an article I read about the Iraq War a writer says that it is the mass destruction of the American war power. 44:16 – 45:32??? (Change Film Clip Time!)

From Starship Troopers a scene I would use is the bombing scene from the American's onto the Arachnid planet. Reason because this scene would also back up my point from Independence Day because in this scene it is the American’s doing the bombing onto the enemy. 1:10:00 – 1:10:38

From Starship Troopers 2 a scene I would use is the beginning scene where we see the American soldiers fighting off the Arachnid’s, showing the representation of the American soldiers in Iraq during the war. 00:20 – 3:10.

From Independence Day, in the scene of the mass destruction from the aliens we see the civilians on the ground in the streets being disintegrated by the aliens weapon, but when we see the high officials e.g. the president he is in an airplane flying off to safety. From this scene it has a representation of government and civilians, the government being protected because they are a higher class to the civilians and the civilians would be represented as soldiers in the war because the civilians are dying because of the governments decisions. If the government would have ordered an emergency evacuation so some of the civilians would have survived the attack, as does government controlling the U.S soldiers commanding them what to do to defeat the enemy.

From Starship Troopers I chose a representation of the American war power as did from Independence Day, also in this scene I have chosen the look and location of the Arachnid’s and the planet Klendathu. The look of the Arachnid’s is like they are wearing a camouflage, as would have the enemy forces in the war against the American’s. the location when we see the bombs being dropped onto the Arachnid’s also looks a lot like desert that you would find in Iraq during the Gulf and Iraq war.