Armed Farces: Essays on War-Themed Film and Television Comedy

This wide-ranging collection of essays considers comedic screen depictions of war and conflict from the very beginning of film to today. Topics include how films and television are made, from creative choices in their scripts to their cinematography, the impact they have on audiences, and the controversial receptions these works have received.

Major works examined include Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Wilder's A Foreign Affair, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Other essays shed light on less familiar works including the controversial sitcom Heil Honey I'm Home! and some of the earliest sitcoms made in the first Golden Age of Television. Collectively the essays suggest that since the earliest days of the moving image, film and subsequently television creators have been able to make important and even serious messages about war, peace, combatants and the impact of conflict through comedy that can be satiric, romantic or affirming of a nation's ideals.