Valorizing Disobedience within the Ranks: Law and Resistance in American Military Films

Abstract

Over the past few decades, there has been a growing scholarship concerning the intersections between law and popular culture. Films, as one significant form of popular culture, can project and help shape public perceptions about various aspects of law and legal normativity. This article examines a series of American films as producers of a cinematic jurisprudence concerning the legitimate role of disobedience in military life. The author examines how a series of such films has stressed the importance of questioning orders and engaging in various forms of resistance to challenge illegal conduct. Through these stories, resistance is portrayed as legitimate and justified conduct when committed in favor of saving lives and exposing criminal conduct. In assessing this cinematic jurisprudence, the article also examines the narrow emphasis of such films on the role of male soldiers as agents and how females as resistive actors have largely been ignored.

Keywords: Law and Popular Culture, military, films, resistance, disobedience, narratives, war crimes, military films

JEL Classification: K19, K33, K42, K30, K10