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_D
ay
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