Existentialism and Freedom in WWI Films: The Soldier as Being-for-Itself

Drawing on Jean-Paul Sartre's concepts of being-in-itself and being-for-itself, this article examines how war reduces soldiers to cogs in a war machine and transforms individuals into soldiers whose sole function is to fight, thereby reducing them from what Sartre terms free beings- for-themselves to limited beings- in-themselves. However, despite such attempts to impose constraints on human freedom, individuals can still exercise their freedom through acts of choice. I will examine two films set during World War I, Wooden Crosses (Raymond Bernard, 1932) and Paths of Glory (Stanley Kubrick, 1957), to explore the problem of radical freedom in existentialism. This article ultimately suggests that Sartre's existentialism enables a reading of war films that recognises that individuals assert their freedom and shape themselves even under the most constraining circumstances.