An introduction to and overview of the Hollywood war movie, a linchpin in American cultural imagination. The book considers the history of this genre, one of continuing significance, from All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) to We Were Soldiers (2002). Guy Westwell focuses in particular on representations of the Vietnam War ( Apocalypse Now [1979], Rambo [1985] and Platoon [1986]) and the more recent return to and reexamination of the Second World War ( Saving Private Ryan [1998]).