Defeated Masculinity: Post-traumatic Cinema in the Aftermath of War

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The Accelerated Lover. The Function: To illustrate the compression of life. War forces emotional velocity; romance burns bright and fast because the fuel (time) is scarce.

The earliest days of Hollywood war cinema were surprisingly bold, though they quickly settled into a recognizable pattern of romantic melodrama. In the silent era, films were already exploring love on the battlefield. The 1927 Best Picture winner Wings , directed by William Wellman, is a prime early example. The saga of small-town rivals turned WWI flying aces is "chockfull of romantic melodrama, as the boys pine for the same girl," while also featuring moments of surprising sensuality, "complete with fleeting nudity". This boldness, however, faded as the studio system matured and the restrictive Hays Code was enforced.