9 War Movie Tricks That Totally Fooled You

War movies, arguably more than most other genres, put a specific importance on things feeling real and authentic. War is hell, and barring those genre efforts that skew more towards pulp and irreverence, the main focus tends to be on making things as convincing as possible.

This is in spite of the fact that audiences know they are being tricked. They know what happens on screen before them is either a work of fiction, or a dramatised retelling of true or vaguely true events, rather than the actual events themselves. Even though everyone is fully aware that what they are watching is essentially an illusion, it is vitally important that the illusion is done well.

Whether to flesh out a battlefield with more bodies, find a way to bring to life the armed forces in a believable way, or hide the fact that production was taking place nowhere near the location it was portraying, war films are arguably more proficient in trickery than any other genre short of science fiction.

There are countless ways war films have been crafted to be as entertainingly immersive and real as possible, but some of these tricks are true achievements, and produced results so effective that you'd never even know you'd been tricked at all (unless someone on the internet put them together in a convenient list, of course).

As said in the introduction to this article, authenticity is incredibly important when it comes to war movies. Yes, an audience will typically have to suspend its collective disbelief for a couple of hours, but with a subject matter as heavy as war, it needs to feel as immersive and real as possible.

For those films that depict the United States' armed forces, the US Department of Defence will often lend a hand, whether that be with equipment, costumes, or location. Typically, this will come as a trade-off, with the DoD being able to look over the script ahead of time and implement changes regarding its depiction of the American military.

This was a benefit that wasn't granted to Oliver Stone when he directed the seminal Vietnam War drama Platoon in 1986. The DoD reportedly felt that the film gave an unglamorous depiction of the US armed forces, and so declined to offer its services.

Instead, with shooting taking place in the Philippine jungle, the production looked to purchase and borrow equipment from the Philippine Military, much of which had already been procured from the US to begin with. This undoubtedly helped in terms of realism and authenticity, and was a factor in Platoon becoming one of the best Vietnam War movies of all time.