World War II in popular American visual culture: Film and video games after 9/11

From the opening of the World War II Memorial at the National Mall in 2003, to the recently Oscar-nominated movie, Inglourious Basterds in 2010, to the immensely popular video game series first introduced in 2003 called Call of Duty, it becomes apparent that the first decade of the 21st century has witnessed a visual resurrection of scenes and themes from the Second World War. In turn, the context of the post-9/11 world, otherwise known as the "war on terrorism," changed the way representations of the Second World War are both created and perceived. This leads to the central question of this research---why is World War II an important subject in popular American visual culture after the events of 9/11? Consequentially, is the revival of World War II themes in recent popular American visual culture a venue to address problems of social values confronting American culture?;This research answers that question through an analysis and evaluation of the different intellectual, political, and emotional responses garnered by American audiences from specific films namely, Clint Eastwood's Flags of Our Fathers and Letters from Iwo Jima, Bryan Singer's Valkyrie, and Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds. As video games continue to gain prominence in being the most popular form of entertainment in American households, this research focuses on highly acclaimed first-person shooter games namely, Call of Duty, Medal of Honor: Airborne, and Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. The research makes a connection between the post-9/11 contexts from which specific movies and video games were created, presented, and received with World War II as its subject. Inquiries are made about their concept, treatment, and reception. Subsequently, a comparative analysis deciphers any trends the post-9/11 climate contributes to the popular American visual culture of film and video games.;Through this research it will be determined that World War II is an important subject in popular American visual culture because different angles of what it is to be "American" in this critical time of heightened anxiety are made available, today's American popular visual culture has branded was as entertainment, and the tradition of utilizing popular visual culture to dig deeper into the many political, social, and emotional facets of war continues to be more powerful than ever in a post-9/11 society.