By the 1990s the Pentagon had greatly expanded its global and imperial reach and deeply embedded itself into the commerce and ideology of Hollywood war movies, video games, television, and the private arms industry. Post-Vietnam Hollywood attempted to resurrect the 'good war.' The Pentagon, Hollywood, video games, and the arms industry were now working in tandem, all hugely profiting. As always, paying the ultimate price for this commercial success were the working-class men and women who actually fight these wars. No other media genre more sharply illustrates the contradictions of American society - notions about social class, politics, and socio-economic ideology - than the war film. This book examines the representations of war in feature films and documentaries, television, and war video games since Vietnam to reveal how they illustrate the complexities and contradictions of America's post-Vietnam wars of 'discretion,' class issues, commerce, and politics.

Pt. 1. Evolution of American war cinema and media since Vietnam -- Introduction: American war cinema and media since Vietnam: politics, ideology, and class -- The worker as warrior: social class and political betrayal in literature from Homer to Heller -- Resurrecting the good war -- Culture wars and war: gender, race and class -- The role of media: from the manufacture of consent to the manufacture of dissent -- Pt. 2. Representations of workers as warriors in contemporary war cinema and media -- Class and politics: contemporary American war films and first person shooter video war games -- Ideological negotiation in the combat film -- The returning veteran and the home front melodrama -- Iraq and Afghanistan war films: where is the ruling class? -- Alternative media and representations of war -- Pt. 3. Appendices -- Master list of films since 1973 (alphabetical by title with release date) -- Chronology by year: historical events and relevant films and media.