The War

Mankind works in a complicated way as violence has continuously been used as a way to solve all conflicts. With the wide range of cultures, society has experienced a difficulty in the ability to understand one another. The War illustrates violence and how it works in unique ways and situations and how it can be toned down for society to come to equal terms. Stephan Simmons, a Vietnam War veteran, deals with PTS and his attempts to teach his children that fighting isn’t the answer to any conflict. This heartfelt movie demonstrates how issues that are solved with violence never lead to a set solution and how issues that use nonviolent solutions can lead to a better understanding between societies that were once in battle. 

The War is about two groups of children that come from two different backgrounds and how they portray important lessons about fighting and and whether or not it should be used to solve arising conflicts. The first group of children, the Lipnickies, live in a junkyard with their Dad who is constantly getting drunk and abusing them. The second group of children, including Lydia and Stew Simmons, come from a healthy functioning family with money problems. These two groups of children are constantly in a dominance struggle over each other. Lydia and Stew’s father, Stephan, becomes aware of this existing conflict and tells Stew about his experience in the Vietnam War and how he had lost his best friend, Dodge, to the indescribable violence. The images in the film of his recollection are horrific and convey the immense sadness that Stephan felt as that moment that he had chosen to leave Dodge behind in order to save himself. Stephan attempts to give Stew the understanding that violence only leads to negativity and will not make him a better person, nor will it solve his problems. After hearing his dad’s war story, Stew attempts to ignore the other group of children and their harassing remarks while at a fair with his father. Stephan, who is holding two cotton candies, walks up to the girl and boy who were making the rude remarks and gives them each a cotton candy. Angrily, Stew informs his Dad that those where some of the children that had just beaten him up and he demands to know why he just gave them the cotton candy that was meant for his sister and mom. His father responds by saying, “It looks like they haven’t been given anything in a long time.” By performing this act of kindness, Stephan was role modeling for his son to be nice to his enemies as it can result to positive outcomes and less violence. Exemplifying kindness can only be be returned with kindness. The overall lesson the father is attempting to provide Stew with is to be civil when it comes to solving conflict. When Stephan was not busy trying to teach his children to steer away from fighting, he was battling his own crisis with PTS. After landing multiple jobs, he only lost all of them in a short period of time because of the fact that he had spent some time in a mental hospital in order to have some PTS therapy. Eventually he finds a job draining water in a cave with another man. One evening, rocks cave in and end up pinning down the man that Stephan was working with. This time Stephan was not going to leave his friend behind so he tries and tries and finally gets the large rock off of his friend. Immediately, more rocks cave in and slam Stephan in the face, sending him to the hospital. Since Stephan chose to save his friend this time, he sacrificed himself. Giving in to his injuries, Stephan passes away. Lydia, who once found her father to be a dead beat was finally seeing how hard his father worked to get a job and how he really did care about providing for his family. Stew, who had listened to his father’s war stories, was now left with the lessons that came with them. The main lesson in this part of The War, is to not take your family for granted. 

Not only does The War demonstrate the act of conflict being solved in a civil manner, but it illustrates how it can be solved with fighting. Men are more prone to solving issues through a physical manner opposed to women who are more likely to use their words. When Lydia and her two best friends went to class one day at summer school, their teacher arranged the class so that the white children sit in the front while the black children sit in the back. Lydia’s best friend, who was seated in the back, begins to argue with the teacher about how it is unfair that she is placed in the back where she can’t even see the board very well. When the teacher snaps and tells her to go to the principle’s office, Lydia stands up and shares her view on the whole situation. She argues that it is wrong the way the way the teacher is treating everyone and that she will give up her seat in the front so that her friend can sit there and see the board. The teacher finally sends both of the girls to the principle’s office where they receive their punishment. After school, Lydia and her two friends are hanging out with Stew and his friends when they see the Lipnickies come barreling through the forest straight for their fort. Learning from his father that fighting is not the answer, Stew attempts to talk out the newly raised conflict. However the Lipnickies ignore him and take over the fort. Giving up what his father said about physical fighting, Stew and the other children dig in to their father’s Vietnam trunk and take all the war paint and smoke bombs to attack the Lipnickis in the fort. The children set out for their surprise attack planting bombs and dropping a bees nest in the fort. The Lipnickis, not holding back, fight back even harder. In the midst of it all, Stew looks around him and the images and sounds are just like the ones his father had described to him when he was telling Stew of his experience in Vietnam. In the end, the fort was destroyed leaving both sides to walk away with nothing gained. The lesson here is that fighting does not solve anything. 

Many cultures fight against one another in an attempt to understand each other while at the same time trying to be dominant over the other. The War clearly emphasizes the meaning of war and how it works in different scenarios between the two groups of children and within the Vietnam War. Stephan Simmons believed in nonviolence after he had gone through his traumatizing experience in the Vietnam War. He tries to get his children to understand that war leads to only more negativity, but for the kids, war is the only way to get a solution. How is it that multiple cultures can come to equal terms if only a few of them believe in nonviolence?