Throughout History, art has always represented wars and battles, in general terms, for two main reasons: first, art deals with war topics as an epic exaltation of glory, honor, and national values; and second, art deals with the human individual experience of the atrocities of war.
The first perspective responds to a more traditional and conservative idealization of war, and many Hollywood war movies follow, at least in some aspects, this current. Examples of these movies are <em>Saving Private Ryan</em> and <em>Pearl Harbor</em>.
The second perspective responds to a Humanist approach to war that puts the focus on the individual level, which can be traced in the history of art as far as the beginning of the 19th century. Hollywood movies that follow this perspective are <em>Apocalypse Now</em> and <em>Born on the 4th of July</em>.
