The New US Soldier: The Patriot superhero, the disillusioned drop out and the burned out gamer. The development of the Hollywood war film after 2010 through the archetypal character of the US soldier.

This study is intended to demonstrate how the image of the US soldier is presented and changes in Hollywood war films from 2010 until the present day, specifically the ones dealing with the conflicts in the Middle East. Previous academic studies have looked at these films, focusing on American soldier and the character's role within the war genre, and concluded that the Iraq War film proved to be critically and financially a failure. This study looks at Iraq War films after 2010 in order to find whether this trend continues into the next decade and whether the genre shows any signs of evolution. Through the character of the US soldier, their politics, motivations and role within the conflicts in the Middle East, it aims to find out, whether the genre is developing towards originality and realism or toward the evasion of harsh facts and headed towards myth. To achieve these aims the primary materials that will be used are feature films, chosen by their main subject and their use of war genre conventions; the secondary sources, used to back up conclusions, range from soldier's autobiographies to cinema studies. Both types of sources are used to present a complete picture of the films discussed, put them in social and historical context and through analysis of mise-en-scene, dialogue, imagery, and themes this study wants to show that the image of the US soldier fighting in the Middle East reflects real anxieties present among the population. The final conclusion of this paper provides very interesting insights on the current films about the Middle Eastern conflicts and signs that the genre has begun to change.