Limelight:
'...O!...The pity of it...'
By
Lubna Abdel-Aziz
What rapture, what comfort, what joy does war hold! Does history have no lessons to teach? Amidst the melancholy and despair of its spoils, there must be a deep human enjoyment that men seek, and war provides. For here we go again pursuing another good old war, embracing it like an old trusted friend. What a seething, restless place this world is! At nearly all times since the dawn of history some war is being waged somewhere, and still man loudly advocates his love for peace. Each war is equally scathing, mutilating and devastating, and the only change is the method of human slaughter -- "the urge to kill, like the urge to beget, is blind and sinister."
Sad beyond measure, war has a numbing silencing effect on ordinary folk "thrown in its brazen throat". Artists, on the other hand, turn to their pen, brush or flute, struggling to keep fresh the memory of its horrors in the vain hope that others might not repeat its infamy, depravity and futility. Their art brings about a catharsis, an unburdening through their own quiet mode of expression, too painful, too powerful to be proclaimed out loud. They become universal soldiers bound together fighting the savage attacks of violence, terror, blood and death. From Pearl Harbour to Palestine, from Hiroshima to Hanoi, from Moscow to Madrid, artists depict the disturbing realities of death, dismemberment and the violation of innocence.
What are those skillful tools, those mighty arms available to the artist! Is the pen really mightier than the sword? Writers try their best. Poets, with transparently sensitive and fragile souls, have used their searing words to express their deep revulsions and violent opposition to futile wars. The three best known anti-war poems in the English language are John McCrae's In Flanders Fields, Rupert Brooke's Soldier, and Alan Seeger's I Have a Rendezvous with Death. Both Seeger and Brooke died on the battlefield of WWI before reaching the age of 30: hence lies "the pity of it, O! The pity of it..." -- for it is the calamitous loss of youth, that needless dashing of hope, that senseless squashing of dreams that grips the human heart, leaving it to weep tears of bitter regret. Countless novels have highlighted the tragedies of war, conjured images of its drudgery and futility. German author Erich Maria Remarque's vehement anti-war sentiment caused his books to be banned, and his searing account of WWI -- All Quiet on the Western Front, was among the works consigned to be burnt by the Nazis. He eventually lost his citizenship and moved to Switzerland and later to the US. Another example of the anti-war novel is Russian Leo Tolstoy's electrifying War and Peace, set against a backdrop of Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia. Both novels found their way to the screen among others.
So does art benefit from war, or war benefit from art! Art inspired by the horrors of war, continues to prosper. Once upon a time painters depicted only the heroic glorification of wars in pre-19 century works. Essayist Robert de la Sizeranne wrote "the modern battle is of great use for writers, psychologists, poets, playwrights and moralists. But it is of no use whatsoever to painters." The camera replaced the brush on the battlefield, but not entirely. Art works persisted depicting violence, fear, suffering, pity and disgust. For those who have lived through war it is an abomination, a moral cancer that is nothing short of "socially sanctioned murder". A sketch of "church ruins, collapsed houses, or two bodies lying forgotten in a trench", appeal to the persistence of the human conscience enslaved by war. Picasso's La Guernica is considered the most powerful invective against violence in modern art -- "the spike tongues, the rolling eyes, the frantic splayed toes and fingers, the necks arched in spasm", make it the most visual, credible, political statement of the century. "Picasso could imagine more suffering in a horse's head than Rubens normally put into a whole Crucifixion", observes art critic John Berger.
Music has stirred the souls of many a pacifist in it's denunciation of the wickedness of war. The War Symphony by Russian composer Dimitri Shostakovich (1906-1975) quickly became a worldwide symbol of the struggle against Fascism. A huge work with menacing brass, and martial drums, is all the more harrowing in its expression of persecution of Russians under the Nazis, as well as Russians under their fellow Russians. Benjamin Britten's War Requiem was meant as a warning to future generations against the senselessness of taking up arms against fellow man.
While democracy may have planted its seeds in ancient Greece, as early as 600 BC, it was not until the 18th century that its seeds began to grow and multiply with France's immeasurable contribution of such political thinkers as Montesquieu, Voltaire and Rousseau. No less significant was the American Revolution sharing the same ideas of liberty and equality. After the collapse of empires following WWI the spread of democracy was unstoppable. Once silent, voices objecting to war grew bolder and louder.
The creation of the mass media aided the democratic process by providing a forum to dissenting voices of conscientious objectors. A budding film industry brought forth a whole new class of élites -- its film stars. No longer hiding their diminished heads in times of war, with a heavy sense of inadequacy, stars have now become mouthpieces for political causes. Contributing to the war effort by enlisting in the armed forces were such luminaries as Clark Gable, Humphrey Bogart, Tyrone Power, Paul Newman, Clint Eastwood and Elvis Presley, among many others.
No film of the period or any period saw war as heroic, most depicting the misery of waste as grey and undramatic as the theme demanded. While war films were infrequent during the industry's infancy, the human conscience was moved to produce such works as All Quiet on the Western Front (1930), considered one of the greatest films ever made against war, and the years have taken nothing from it. For all the horror of its setting, it was a film of restraint, its most moving moments isolated from the mindless turmoil around. It dared to see war from the enemy's point of view, and stated uncompromisingly that all war was hideous and wrong. WWII was the most popular war on the screen, but when its heroic expectations had worn out, they were replaced by an anti-heroic view of war as a powerful episode with little glory.
Viet Nam, the most unpopular of wars, prompted such 'mea culpa' films as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, Good Morning Vietnam, and Born on the Fourth of July. "Hanoi Jane" was the name given to actress Jane Fonda, the most vocal objector of that war, touring enemy camps, and recording anti-war messages on Hanoi radio. She has again surfaced adding her signature to a full page ad in the New York Times by a number of celebrities objecting to the Iraqi invasion. Stars rise and shine in defense of human rights. British actress Vanessa Redgrave has been valiant in her fight for the oppressed, whenever and wherever they may be. A string of celebrities like Madonna, Susan Sarandon, Robert Altman, Sean Penn and Martin Sheen have demonstrated their objections to Gulf War-II. Yet war wages on as operation: 'veni, vidi, vici' seems to have failed against Iraqi resistance.
Perhaps the most charming of war films, now a popular classic, is the enchanting science fiction fantasy, full of froth and frivolity -- Star Wars (1977), examining the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil. Would that all wars were like Star Wars. Man's only war should be his struggle between the power of good and the power of evil within his own heart and soul. For all the best reasons are the very worst reasons for having a war.
The bitter verses of poets, full of dread and shame, at the waste of youth on bloody battle grounds, bring a shiver and a tear at the ferocity, futility and yes "...the pity of it".
"You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
"Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
"Sneak home and pray you'll never know
"The hell where youth and laughter go!"
--
From Suicide in the Trenches
By Siegfried Sassoon
