10 War Movie Cliches That Annoy EVERYONE

Traditionally used to represent memories of happier times, the nostalgic flashback represents one of the most frequently used and exhausted tropes in all of cinema. There's a particular brand of flashback associated with this cliche for war movies, one that takes the form of an array of blurry shots that usually feature a giggling wife and children. In some cases, the faces of the soldier's loved ones can remain maddeningly obscured.

This cheesy narrative device can feature in several different situations in the context of a war movie. Most frequently, it is used to highlight a soldier missing home, but it can also be used as a means of depicting their emotional final thoughts after receiving a fatal wound in combat. Unfortunately, this well-meaning cliche has arguably been so overused that it seriously detracts from the quality of any film that features it. 

When it comes to the type of emotional impact that this trope is attempting to leverage, it's nearly always much more powerful to say nothing at all.  As such, the use of the nostalgic flashback remains one of the genre's most common and irritating cliches.