Name: War and Cinema
ISBN: 9780860919285

Paul Virilio

Looking at how the technologies of cinema and warfare have developed a fatal interdependence, this book explores these conjunctions from a range of perspectives. It gives a detailed technical history of weaponry, photography and cinematography, with accounts of films and military campaigns.

The Logistics of Perception

War and Cinema

Reveals the convergence of perception and destruction in the parallel technologies of warfare and cinema.

Mindblowing. Very cool ideas/explanations. Not here to rehash them, but they’re worth everyone’s time. I don’t think Virilio necessarily lets you get away with any problematic reactions while reading this, but the sense of awe he generates, just in terms of moments of “so that’s how war/the world works,” defined my experience. Yet the indictment is radical: cinema accelerates — gets more and more “lifelike” — only because that kind of surveillance wins wars. Then the technology gets handed down to Kubrick or Lucas.

Film recommendation: “Figures in a Landscape” by Joseph Losey

Alex Noble

Mindblowing. Very cool ideas/explanations. Not here to rehash them, but they’re worth everyone’s time. I don’t think Virilio necessarily lets you get away with any problematic reactions while reading this, but the sense of awe he generates, just in terms of moments of “so that’s how war/the world works,” defined my experience. Yet the indictment is radical: cinema accelerates — gets more and more “lifelike” — only because that kind of surveillance wins wars. Then the technology gets handed down to Kubrick or Lucas.

Film recommendation: “Figures in a Landscape” by Joseph Losey

War and Cinema The Logistics of Perception

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