Many movies of the 1940s dealt with the figure of the returning veteran, as it is expected because that was an important aspect of 1940s American life.
These soldiers had been away sometimes for years, into an environment that was utterly different from peacetime life. They had been separated from women, thrown in a context of extreme violence, where death was a very likely possibility and put in constant proximity with other men, with a degree of mutual dependence that was unmatched in civilian life.
Once home, they were still more comfortable in the company of other men and found it hard to cope with a lifestyle that didn’t allow violence as a problem-solving tool.
In The Blue Dahlia, Johnny comes home to find his wife had been unfaithful and is now particularly scornful of him. Johnny reacts to this with violence, which later points at him when his wife is found dead. Just in the premice, it is possible to see several of the returning veteran’s anxieties: betrayal from their wives, displacement from life as it has gone on at home, inability to handle difficult situations without recurring to violence. In one of Johnny’s friend, then, the film even touches on the problem of shock-shell, which many veterans suffered once at home and which in many ways amplified every veteran’s issue.
Veteran films betrayed a marked hostility toward (and by implication a fear of) postwar integration.
The returning veterans films (and many film noirs fall into this category) addressed this awkwardness, this uneasiness, even this disillusionment not by mirroring what happened in true life, but by engaging a series of complex transformations that pertain to the realm of storytelling. The damaged hero, the femme fatale, the criminal plan isn’t a faithful depiction of life as it was, but these symbols allow that reality to filter into the narrative structure. Film noir transformed social realities in mood and feelings, then codified them in terms of conventional narratives, subjecting them to logics and resolutions familiar to the viewers.
By transforming a chaotic reality into a regulated story structure, storytelling allows to sublimate and possibly decode that reality. To an extent, storytelling is a way to break the tension by giving tools to handle it.
What is significant about the returning veteran films of the mid-to-late 1940s isn’t the mere presence of such figure, but the fact that it received standardised addressing within the generic model of the thriller. These films deliberately drew upon the problem of postwar maladjustment because it was affecting the audience’s everyday life, and in a way, storytelling tried to offer relief.
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FILMS CITED
The Blue Dahlia (1946) by George Marshall
Discharged naval officer Johnny Morrison (Alan Ladd) returns to his wife, Helen (Doris Dowling), in Hollywood after fighting in the South Pacific, and with him are two military friends, George (Hugh Beaumont) and shell-shocked Buzz (William Bendix). Johnny is stunned to discover Helen’s unfaithfulness with a local nightclub owner named Eddie (Howard Da Silva), who then breaks it off with her. When Helen is found murdered, everyone seems to have a motive. (Google synopsis)
Dark Passage (1947) by Delmer Daves
Stark, claustrophobic thriller about an anti-Semitic soldier who kills a Jewish war veteran, evading detection because of his loyal friends’ protection. However, a detective is determined that the crime will not go unsolved and sets about laying a trap for the murderer. (Google synopsis)
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READ MORE ABOUT IT
Krutnik, Frank, In a Lonely Street. Routledge, 1991, London/NYC
Transatlantic Habit – The Returning Veteran in film Noir
Albeit – “War Scarred” Anti-Heroes in Film Noir
Featured image by AlexTeuscher
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30 Comments
Cheryl
These films deliberately drew upon the problem of postwar maladjustment because it was affecting the audience’s everyday life, and in a way storytelling tried to offer relief. What an astute observation. I would never have seen that.
Once home, they were still more comfortable in the company of other men and found it hard to cope with a lifestyle that didn’t allow violence as a problem-solving tool. Not much has changed, has it. I wonder how much the difference in warfare itself (less face-to-face combat) has affected that. Great, thought provoking post.
Calen~
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A to Z Challenge Letter U
jazzfeathers
I think that war, however is fought, will always affect people, being them soldiers or civialian victims of the war.
I do think that storytelling has an healing power that can help overcome this kind of traumatic experiences.
Sharon M Himsl
The problem of postwar maladjustment has never really stopped, but there appears to be more help for returning veterans today. Hollywood certainly has played a role in bringing this problem to light.
jazzfeathers
It is probably true. Even if it was done, like in film noir, in a subliminal way.
Margot Kinberg
So glad you mentioned The Blue Dahlia. It is, I think, an excellent example of the issue of the returning veteran. We still have a long way to go to support veterans who are struggling, but we’re a lot closer than we were. And it’s interesting to see the different explanations people had at the time for what we now call PTSD.
jazzfeathers
I suppose – but I don’t really know, I’ve not looked into it yet – that PTSD as we understand it today started to be seen after WWII. I know that WWI produced the same kind of illness, but back then it wasn’t really considered an illness, just one of the ‘side effects’ of war.
As Sharon suggested above, film (as well as literature) might have had a role in making the public aware of this condition.
Hilary Melton-Butcher
Hi Sarah – the films in that ilk certainly ‘looked similar’ yet portrayed different story lines as you’ve noted … and suggesting things that might make a difference to the returned soldier’s life … Fascinating to read about … cheers Hilary
http://positiveletters.blogspot.co.uk/2017/04/v-is-for-vaynol-cattle.html
jazzfeathers
Happy you found it interesting, Hilary. Thanks for stopping by 🙂
Eva
I found this post very interesting. I had never thought of the postwar problems reflected on noir films.
jazzfeathers
It is indeed an interesting subject. Film noir addressed the maladjustment of returnign veterans in many different ways, sometimes more direct, some Others more subtle.
Nilanjana Bose
‘hard to cope with a lifestyle that didn’t allow violence as a problem-solving tool.’
Seems to apply to some who have never been anywhere close to a battle front.
Nilanjana
Madly-in-Verse
jazzfeathers
I know what you mean.
Ishieta@Isheeria's
yes, all movies and tv seriels seem to focus on how tough and hard it was for the veterans to integrate. i wonder in those times of such hardships, having such films – did it have any entertainment relief?
jazzfeathers
I think so. I do think storytelling has an inherent power of healing by allowing people to share a common emotion. It allows the person who’s suffering to let go of some of that sorrow and the people who never experienced that suffering to get a hint at it and develope sympathy and understanding.
Sue Bursztynski
Things haven’t changed much. Our own veterans often suffer from PTSD and get very little help. Those who returned from Vietnam found themselves snubbed by both the anti-Vienam people, who didn’t believe they should have gone and those vets who didn’t see why they should get any benefits because they had been drafted instead of volunteering for war! The war had been traumatic enough without that sort of nonsense after it, and I recall they weren’t even invited to march in Anzac Day parades here for quite some time.
jazzfeathers
I think veterans always pause a great problem to peacetime society, if the war happened anyplace which is not home.
War will always give anyone involved (so soldiers as well) a different understanding of… well, everything… which is different from what a peacefull society consideres acceptable.
When these two world collid, there will Always be problems, I’m afraid. Peacetime societies will always be wearing of people who’ve lived in contact with (or worse, used) violence.
Tarkabarka
These are age-old story tropes too, the man returning from war to find that things have changed… it is eternal because, sadly, it keeps happening to men (and also women) we send to war.
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jazzfeathers
It is an eternal theme. I think this is actually one of the reasons why film noir, in spite of its many bonds to 1940s history and entertainment, is still meaningful for us today.
CD Gallant-King
It’s amazing how film and art of so many time periods are so closely linked to the societal ups and downs of the day. Did people realize it was happening at the time? Will our period be reminded by a particular style/genre of art? And what could it possibly be?
jazzfeathers
I’m not able to answer this.
But I do think art expresses the time it is produced. Often in a subliminal way (I think this is what happened to film noir too). So, yeah, the people living that time might not realise the trend.
Jacqui
Amazing how ‘returning vets’ has changed, depending upon the war.
jazzfeathers
And still, some things are sadly the same.
Arlee Bird
The plight of the returning vet received a lot of focus after Viet Nam until present, but I didn’t realize that it was also an integral aspect to many film noirs until the past decade or so when I started watching more of these films. The adjustment to regular life for a returning vet has always been a big deal for the individuals affected, but not always recognized by society as much as it should have been.
Arlee Bird
Tossing It Out
jazzfeathers
That’s true, Arlee. i think that in some very deep part of them, peacetime socitey are afraid of vetrans, of their familiarity with death and violence. That’s why sociaty as a whole is often weary of them.
Just my thought about it.
joy
good choice for V! I mentioned the wonderful Ronald Colman in my T post. Are you a fan?
Joy @ The Joyous Living
jazzfeathers
I’m not very familiar with him. But I’ll try to learn more about him 🙂
Sara C. Snider
Returning home for soldiers always is and was going to be hard, I think. The impression I have of the ’40s, though, is that there seems to have been a belief of vets needing to “get over” whatever difficulties they might have had. That it wasn’t really talked about. That had to have been really hard. I like to think maybe film noir helped some through the time, even if only a little.
jazzfeathers
I think a kind of storytelling like film noir might have well arose just becuase of the problems veterans were encountering. Because it wasn’t something you were supposed to talk abotu openly, this kind of film provided a subliminal way to do so.
Just my idea.
Carrie-Anne
The problems of returning vets were definitely most fertile ground for fictional treatments. So many people, vets included, felt the past should be left in the past, no matter how traumatic the memories were, nor how psychologically impacted they were. After fighting in a war, they couldn’t just come home and pick up where they left off like nothing major happened.
jazzfeathers
I couldn’t say it better, Carry.
Still, that’s what traumatised people always try to do. Leave the past in the past, hoping that it will leave them alone.
Which of course, will never happen.
But I think storytelling may help in these cases, even if the traumatised person doesen’t realise it.