not universally true, but very often

[kindkit]

I've decided that the biggest difference between British war films and American ones is that in American films, the hero lives and usually triumphs. In British ones, he dies, and not always gloriously.

Draw from this what conclusions you will.

Comments

[ethelmay.livejournal.com]

Reminds me of what one of my professors said about the difference between Norse and Anglo-Saxon battle poetry. The Anglo-Saxon stuff tended to be like the Battle of Maldon, all about the bravery in defeat, while the Norse stuff tended to end in victory.

[kindkit]

Huh, that's interesting. I don't know this literature at all except for having read the famous Anglo-Saxon poems (Beowulf, The Dream of the Rood, The Wanderer, the Seafarer) in translation. Certainly there's a lot of focus in those on defeat of one kind or another.

[hunningham]

Coming in weeks late, but Captain Scott is the quintesstential British hero. We wouldn't care about him as much at all if he'd suceeded (or lived). It's all about glory in defeat.