"In The Fatal Alliance the acclaimed film critic David Thomson offers us one of his most provocative books yet--a rich, arresting, and troubling study of that most beloved genre: the war movie. It is not a standard history or survey of war films, although Thomson turns his typically piercing eye to many favorites--from All Quiet on the Western Front to The Bridge on the River Kwai to Saving Private Ryan. But The Fatal Alliance does much more, exploring...

When victims of oppression are considered inherently inferior, little thought is given to the imposition of psychological abuse or the persistent and often capricious measures of establishing control. Even attitudes regarding physical punishment become morally blurred. While many documentaries have shed light on the chronic educational famine of the inner-city child, there has been no film to date that deals with the inescapable oppressive abuse that...