Well, isn't it kinda obvious? Wars are products of governments, and they're disgusting.
One of the reasons why I regard Come and See as the greatest movie ever made is that it portrays war as nothing to glorify. It's a situation in which the survivors envy the dead.
François Truffaut once said that it's almost impossible to make an anti-war movie, because cinema glorifies whatever it touches. He was right. I don't love the war movies that glorify the process.
The war movies that strike me to the core are the films that dig to the core of what it really means to fight one. It's the stories of the men on the ground that I find compelling.
When a movie manages to depict war as something that you don't wanna be a part of, that's a major win. Come and See did that better than just about any film. Saving Private Ryan did that. I remember talking to a man who took his young son to see Blackhawk Down in a theatre because he wanted to discourage his son from joining the army.
I do have reverence for people in the service. My big sister was a drill sergeant. My dad was drafted during Vietnam. My eldest nephew was in the army. I have nothing but reverence for our men and women in uniform. I probably would have been in the military if it weren't for respiratory problems.
I can still hate war while appreciating the bravery of the people who were involved in it. It's a valid fascination. I wanna make my own war movie someday, and I think that my hatred of war will make it better.