Georgina Burros Media Popular films made about war often demonstrate our values and beliefs about

heroism; patriotism and militarism. They are often meant to show the positive stereotypes that glorify war in a way that is often unrealistic. However; sometimes war is truly illustrated by writing that exhibits the real brutality of war; whether this is newspaper coverage, documentaries or realistic fiction. We can compare All Quiet on the Western Front, an epic novel about how the war basically destroyed young men mentally, as well as physically, through the fighting in the trenches, with the Oscar winning movie, the African Queen, which focuses more on relationships, and has a more romantic view of war. Both are two different views about World War I. One is centered in Europe, in Germany where the narrator often seems to be experiencing the same emotions throughout the war, and writes about tragedies such as dying, injury, killing, and his own despair. The African Queen is set in (German controlled) East Africa, where they seem less affected by the war, and plot to blow up a German ship that stops them from returning home. The plot is more about their relationship than about the war, and does show German soldiers in a negative fashion through locals, and targeting the missionaries. In the movie, the African Queen, the plot is obvious in the whole movie that the heroes would succeed in blowing up the ship, the Louisa, and coming out victorious. In the book, as Paul starts to lose all of his friends, it starts to become obvious that he will die too, as he is losing his longing to go on. However, these two different representations of war both have one thing in common, their main characters, give up hope to go on and do not care about life anymore and are ready for death.

In these two representations of World War I; Germans remain present in both stories. They represent a different idea; as The African Queen depicts Germans as ruthless; merciless people who come to Africa and try to take over; and capture the people. The main characters, Charlie and Rose the heroes of the story dislike the Germans for their brutality and try to sink their ship. In the book; the narrarator; a German Soldier is an innocent person; a soldier who is fighting for his country and given strict commands to kill. The characters tell their story to convey what they experience; the corruption and innocence; but they have completely different opinions. . In the African Queen; the main characters live in Africa, and they want to escape and return home. The East African country, Kungdu, has Germans blocking their escape; so it portrays clearly the power of the German Army. When the Germans prepare to hang the heroes the movies show how evil the Germans are; and Rose and Charlie seem without hope, destined to die. This is a large theme throughout the War; and this movie is a great example of how war affects everyone whether they are fighting in the frontlines or not.

War appears less horrific in the movie than in the book as it is a romance and heroes return home in victory. It was predictable. However, the book, AQOWF is very realistic and has lots of detail, with horrific descriptions of the gore of war. The book follows a small group of people in one troop that are all killed at the end and there is a sense that war is nothing but a fight to the death. For me, war creates fear, anxiety, and disgust over the whole idea of killing each other, but the movie and book did not really tell us what the war was about.