War Story

Although War Story is in some respects an intensely personal videotape, it is true to say that my task would have been impossible without the practical assistance and advice offered by others I can only plead that without, Sands of Iwo Jima, The Big Red One, The Longest Day, Platoon, Das Boat, Rambo, Fire Fox, Full Metal Jacket and a good many more besides this videotape could never have been made.

War Story is a pastiche of umpteen war films about a patrol behind enemy lines - a kind of tabloid impression of war, a war film in fast forward (the only way I watch war films) or even the reduction of the complex issue of war to the time span of a television commercial

The videotape is shaped as a struggle between good and evil, the tussle between agents of social change (the goodies) and the status quo (the baddies). Our intrepid heroes (the baddies) do battle with unseen agents of social change that threaten to take over Melbourne Is nothing sacred?

War Story says nothing about war in lived experience and/or social reality, but very much about representations of war In fact, the only war I have seen and/or experienced has been 'film' war. It is a surrogate (as are all war films) of the Real-Thing. The depiction of war has become moving wallpaper, and its familiar patterns no longer horrify us. Lest we forget

Randelli, June 1988