How has WW2 been represented in popular culture?

By Alex Newton-Green & Will Adkin

Video Games

• Video games made by Britain/America are very biased against the Germans e.g. in ‘Call of Duty: Black Ops – Zombies’ the enemies are un-dead Nazis.

• However, German games show the Allies as the ruthless enemies e.g. Red Orchestra 2 is entirely from a German point of view.

Video Games (cont.)

• In the game ‘Medal of Honor’ there was no blood which made it and unrealistic view of the war. However, it did reveal a good point of view as it was as if it were your own eyes. It also showed what it was like for the Germans as in part of the game, you go into a tower and see them shooting the Allies.

Films

• Films such as ‘Saving Private Ryan’ portrays the war well as it shows the feelings the soldiers had while their friends were dying all around them. There is a lot of gore on the beach which is very realistic.

• Other films such as ‘Harry Potter’ show the dark side mimicking the Germans in WW2 e.g. the Death Eaters killing random muggles – the SS killing random Jews.

Comics

• War comics in Britain only showed the Allies doing anything good. They always portrayed British soldiers being strong and fearless, however in real life it wasn't that simple.

Books

• ‘The Machine Gunners’ is a good book to read when it comes to points of view. It shows both sides of the war and both sides not liking it.

• There are other books, however, that are biased towards one side e.g. ‘Turning the Tide’.

Songs

• The song ‘Primo Victoria’ by Sabaton is a rock song made about D-Day. It outlines the basic principles of that day such as the line ‘kill or be killed’. Another line suggests the soldiers were ‘going to hell’s beach’ which shows what they were feeling.

TV

• Recently there has been a BBC docudrama which shows the point of view of the Germans before and during D-Day. It was filled with facts about it and there were first hand accounts of the day. It also showed a bigger picture and showed interpretations better than games, for example.

Link to D-Day Video

• http://ww2history.com/videos/Western/D_Day

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