The cultural impact of the Falklands War spanned several media in both Britain and Argentina. Combatants United Kingdom Argentina Commanders Sir John Fieldhouse Sir John Woodward Margaret Thatcher Leopoldo Galtieri Mario Menéndez Casualties 258 killed [1] 777 wounded 59 taken prisoner 649 killed 1,068 wounded 11,313 taken prisoner The Falklands War (Spanish: ) was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the United Kingdom...

Books and fiction

The war provided a wealth of material for writers, and many dozens of books came from it; in the UK the definitive account became Max Hastings and Simon Jenkins' The Battle for the Falklands. Other titles focused on the Sea Harrier (Sharkey Ward's Sea Harrier over the Falklands), the land battles leading up to the Argentine surrender (Christian Jennings and Adrian Weale's Green Eyed Boys), and the general experience of battle (Ken Lukowiak's A Soldier's Song). Jack Higgins' thriller Exocet dealt with one of the war's most famous "buzz-words"; for many years afterwards, "Exocet" became synonymous with "missile" in the UK ("Yomp" and "Task Force" also entered the language). Raymond Briggs' picture book The Tin-Pot Foreign General and the Old Iron Woman (1984) is a scathing denunciation of the Falklands War. Sir Max Hastings is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. ... Sir Simon Jenkins (born June 10, 1943) is a British newspaper columnist currently associated with The Guardian after fifteen years with News International titles. ... Storm Warning, 1989 U.S. paperback edition Jack Higgins is the principal pseudonym of British novelist Harry Patterson (born July 27, 1929). ... The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, and airplanes. ... Yomp is Royal Marines slang describing a long distance march carrying full kit. ... A task force (TF) is a temporary unit or formation established to work on a single defined task or activity. ... Raymond Briggs in his studio Raymond Briggs (born January 18, 1934) is a British illustrator, cartoonist, and author who has achieved critical and popular success among adults and children. ...

The famous Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, himself partly of British descent and bilingual in Spanish and English, wrote in 1985 a short poem (Juan López y John Ward) about two fictional soldiers (one of each side) that died in the Falklands, which he refers to as "islands that were too famous". He also said about the war: "The Falklands thing was a fight between two bald men over a comb." Jorge Luis Borges (August 24, 1899 – June 14, 1986), was an Argentine writer who is considered one of the foremost literary figures of the 20th century. ... See also: 1984 in literature, other events of 1985, 1986 in literature, list of years in literature. ...

A large amount of poetry has been written on both sides, regarding the war. An Argentine example, is Elegy for the Argentine Dead Boys, in the South Atlantic by Salvador Oria.

Films and television

A small number of films and television productions emerged from the conflict.

• One of the first was 31 May 1988 BBC drama Tumbledown, which starred Colin Firth in an early starring role. It told the story of Robert Lawrence MC, a junior officer in the Scots Guards left paralysed down his left side by a gunshot wound to the head inflicted by an Argentinian sniper on Mount Tumbledown during the final push for Stanley, and his adjustment to disabled life after the war.

• On 13 June 1992 the BBC screened An Ungentlemanly Act, relating the story of the initial defence of the Islands during the Argentine Invasion, with Bob Peck as Major Mike Norman and Ian Richardson as Governor Rex Hunt.

• Although the drama by Ian Curteis that became known simply as The Falklands Play was originally commissioned by the BBC in 1983 and then temporarily set aside until 1985, the Corporation subsequently gave a number of reasons why it could not be made, including that it would have been broadcast too close to the 1987 General Election. Curteis maintained that the generally sympathetic portrayal of Margaret Thatcher, and his refusal to include material that was contrary to both the official record and what his interviews with the major protagonists had revealed, went against a perceived BBC anti-government bias, citing the fact that Tumbledown - which he and others claimed was more "anti-establishment" - was made and broadcast. Curteis's play was eventually recorded in a truncated form and screened by the digital satellite channel BBC4 in 2002.

• The character of Grant Mitchell from the soap opera EastEnders was written as a traumatised Falklands veteran.

• The aforementioned Simon Weston, a Welsh Guardsman who had suffered serious burns during the bombing of Sir Galahad, became a popular figure due to British media coverage. A series of television documentaries followed his progress and eventual recovery from his injuries (Simon's War being the first).

• The film version of Whoops Apocalypse features a conflict very similar to the Falklands War between the United Kingdom and a fictional country Maguadora over the fictional Santa Maya.

• The 2005 Argentinian film Iluminados por el Fuego ("Enlightened by Fire") [1], directed by Tristán Bauer and starred by Gastón Pauls, received a San Sebastián Festival special award. The film tells about a veteran's memories, re-awakened after he learns of the suicide of a former soldier comrade.

• The 2006 British film This is England [2], directed by Shane Meadows, is set in July 1983 in a small coastal town in England and includes documentary footage and pieces of radio broadcasts about the Falklands War. The main character of the film is 12-year-old Shaun whose dad was killed fighting in the Falklands War.

• In the fictional TV series Auf Wiedersehen Pet, "Oz" and "Barry", two of the main characters, served together rebuilding the damaged infrastructure of the island in the years immediately after the war (most likely 1983-4).

Tumbledown is a Made-for-TV drama, starring Colin Firth, centering on the experiences of an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands Campaign of 1982 in which he was wounded at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown and his subsequent rehabilitation. ... Colin Andrew Firth (born 10 September 1960) is an English actor. ... The Military Cross (MC) is the third level military decoration awarded to officers and (since 1993) other ranks of the British Army and formerly also to officers of other Commonwealth countries. ... The term junior officer is sometimes used to make clear that an officer in a military or para-military command is not in over-all command. ... The Scots Guards are a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division, and have a long and proud history stretching back hundreds of years. ... An Ungentlemanly Act is a 1992 BBC television film about the first days of the invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982. ... Bob Peck as Ronald Craven, the role that brought him widespread recognition, in Edge of Darkness. ... Ian William Richardson CBE (April 7, 1934 – February 9, 2007) was a Scottish actor best known for playing the Machiavellian politician Francis Urquhart in the House of Cards trilogy for the BBC. // Richardson was born in Edinburgh and educated at Tynecastle High School in the city and trained at the... The Falklands Play is a 90-minute television play, written by Ian Curteis about the 1982 conflict between the British and Argentinian forces over the Falkland Islands. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion... Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher, LG, OM, PC (born 13 October 1925), is a former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, in office from 1979 to 1990. ... Tumbledown is a Made-for-TV drama, starring Colin Firth, centering on the experiences of an officer of the Scots Guards during the Falklands Campaign of 1982 in which he was wounded at the Battle of Mount Tumbledown and his subsequent rehabilitation. ... Not to be confused with antidisestablishmentarianism. ... BBC Four is a BBC television channel available to digital TV (Freeview, satellite and UK. Contents // Categories: Stub | BBC television channels | British TV channels ... Grant Anthony Mitchell was a fictional character in the British soap opera EastEnders. ... For Philippine soap opera, see Teleserye. ... EastEnders is a popular BBC television soap opera, first broadcast in the United Kingdom on BBC1 on 19 February 1985[3] and continuing to date. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... The Welsh Guards is an infantry regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division. ... Whoops Apocalypse was originally a six-part 1982 sitcom by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, made by London Weekend Television for ITV. Marshall and Renwick later reworked the concept as a 1986 movie with almost completely different characters and plot, although one or two of the original actors returned in... This is a list of film-related events in 2005. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The San Sebastian International Film Festival was founded in 1953 in San Sebastian, Spain. ... // Please note that following the tradition of the English language film industry, these are the top grossing films that were first released in the United States and Canada in 2006; because they may have made most of their income in a later year, they may not be the top-grossing... This Is England is a 2006 film written and directed by Shane Meadows. ... Shane Meadows (born 26 December 1972) is a British film director and screenwriter, from Uttoxeter, Staffordshire, England. ... July is the seventh month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1983 (MCMLXXXIII) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Motto: (French for God and my right) Anthem: God Save the King/Queen Capital London (de facto) Largest city London Official language(s) English (de facto) Unification    - by Athelstan AD 927  Area    - Total 130,395 km² (1st in UK)   50,346 sq mi  Population    - 2006 est. ... Auf Wiedersehen, Pet is a popular British comedy-drama series created by Franc Roddam and mostly written by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, who had also written The Likely Lads, What Ever Happened to the Likely Lads? and Porridge. ...

Theatre

• British playwright Steven Berkoff wrote the highly critical satirical play Sink the Belgrano! about the British decision to go to war and the sinking of Belgrano.

Steven Berkoff (born August 3, 1937) is an actor, writer and director. ...

Sport

Tottenham Hotspur's popular Argentine midfielder Ossie Ardiles had helped beat Leicester City one day after the invasion, to no ill effect, although he subsequently left the UK for a year, of his own volition. Ardiles' cousin, José Ardiles, a fighter pilot, was killed whilst on service in the War. The war also created heightened passions between Argentina and England in the 1986, 1998, and 2002 FIFA World Cups, featuring memorable performances by Diego Maradona, Peter Shilton, and David Beckham. (See Argentina and England football rivalry.) Tottenham Hotspur Football Club is an English professional football club, who play in the FA Premier League. ... Leicester City Football Club, (also known as The Foxes) are an English professional football club based in the city of Leicester. ... First International Scotland 0 - 0 England (Partick, Scotland; 30 November 1872) Largest win Ireland 0 - 13 England (Belfast, Northern Ireland; 18 February 1882) Worst defeat Hungary 7 - 1 England (Budapest, Hungary; 23 May 1954) World Cup Appearances 11 (First in 1950) Best result Winners, 1966 European Championship Appearances 7 (First... The 1986 Football World Cup was held in Mexico from May 31 to June 29. ... The 1998 Football World Cup was held in France by the FIFA decision in July 1992. ... The 2002 Football World Cup (Official name: 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan) was held in South Korea and Japan from May 31 to June 30. ... Diego Armando Maradona (born October 30, 1960) is an Argentine former football player regarded by many as the greatest football player of all time. ... Peter Leslie Shilton OBE (born Leicester, England, 18 September 1949) was an outstanding goalkeeper who holds the record for playing more games than any other player. ... David Beckham David Robert Joseph Beckham OBE (born May 2, 1975) is an English footballer born in Leytonstone, London. ... The Argentina and England national football teams have shared a fierce rivalry for many years, and matches between the two teams often have a particularly competitive and sometimes bellicose edge. ...

Music

Music referencing the war includes:

• Pop musician Elvis Costello wrote the song "Shipbuilding" (1983) in response to the Falklands War. With the opening line "Is it worth it?"[3], it is considered to be a protest against the war.
• Much material produced around this time by the anarchist punk band Crass was extremely critical of the war and its aftermath, in particular the album Yes Sir, I Will and the singles "Sheep Farming in the Falklands" and "How Does it Feel to be the Mother of 1000 Dead?" The latter, intended as a statement directed at Mrs. Thatcher, led to questions in parliament and a request for prosecution for obscenity from Conservative MP for Enfield North Timothy Eggar [4]. Crass were also responsible for Thatchergate, a hoax tape, originally attributed to the Soviet KGB, on which the spliced voice of Margaret Thatcher appears to imply that the HMS Sheffield was deliberately sacrificed in order to escalate the conflict.
• The Falklands War provided much of the subject matter for Pink Floyd's 1983 album The Final Cut, written by Roger Waters. The lyrics are highly critical of perceived British jingoism and of the Thatcher government's actions. A specific lyric protesting the sinking of ARA General Belgrano reads: "Brezhnev took Afghanistan; Begin took Beirut. Galtieri took the Union Jack. And Maggie, over lunch one day, took a cruiser with all hands... apparently to make him give it back."
• The folk rock band The Levellers wrote and produced the song "Another Man's Cause" featuring the lyrics "Your daddy well he died in the Falklands."
• Macclesfield based punk band The Macc Lads penned a typically un-PC song called "Buenos Aires (1982, Falklands War Mix)" which included lyrics such as "Costas Mendes lives in fear / Of men who drink real beer!" and "hey hey hey / The Boys are on their way / With their planes and tanks and tommy guns / and their bellies full of Boddingtons."
• The song "Como Estais Amigos" written by heavy metal band Iron Maiden is a tribute to the Argentinian people and those who fought and died in the Falkland Islands war.
• On their album From Here to Eternity: Live The Clash, substitute a line in Career Opportunities for "I don't wanna die, fighting in the Falkland Strait".
• Some people in Britain took the song "Six Months in a Leaky Boat" by the New Zealand pop group Split Enz to be a criticism of the war, and the song was banned by the BBC. The group denied that this was the song's intent [5].
• Relating to the sinking of the Belgrano, British garage band Thee Milkshakes recorded the instrumental song "General Belgrano" on their fourth album "The Men With The Golden Guitars" released in 1983. The song begins with the sound of a submarine's sonar.
• Punk band New Model Army's "Spirit of the Falklands" took a highly critical stance of the war and its 'selling' to the public by the British Government.
• In 2006 Swedish power metal band Sabaton released the album Attero Dominatus, featuring a song entitled "Back In Control", whose subject is the Falklands War. It features lyrics along the lines of "Back in control, push them further out to sea / Falklands in our hands, back under British reign".
• Political Singer / Songwriter Billy Bragg's 1983 album Brewing Up with Billy Bragg featured a song Island of no Return, in which a soldier details his experiences 'fighting fascists in the southern sea'. Bragg joined the British Army in 1981, but bought his way out a few months later.
• The Falklands Hymn by Iain Dale
• The song 'Uninvited Guest' by British group The Christians mentions the Falkland Wars briefly in its lyrics.

Declan Patrick MacManus (born August 25, 1954, in London), better known by his stage name, Elvis Costello, is an English musician, singer, and songwriter of Irish ancestry. ... Anarchism is a generic term describing various political philosophies and social movements that advocate the elimination of hierarchy and imposed authority. ... Punk rock is an anti-establishment music movement beginning around 1976 (although precursors can be found several years earlier), exemplified and popularised by The Ramones, the Sex Pistols, The Clash and The Damned. ... For information about the anarchist writer see Chris Crass Crass were an influential English anarchist punk rock band. ... Yes Sir, I Will, released by Crass in 1983 (see 1983 in music), was the bands final official album. ... Since 1857, a series of obscenity laws known as the Obscene Publications Acts have governed what can be published. ... Enfield is the name of several places. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Thatchergate was the colloquial title of a hoax perpetrated by members of the anarcho-punk band Crass. ... A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real. ... Soviet redirects here. ... The KGB emblem and motto: The sword and the shield KGB (transliteration of КГБ) is the Russian-language abbreviation for Committee for State Security, (Russian: ; Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti). ... Pink Floyd are an English rock band that earned recognition for their psychedelic rock music, and, as they evolved, for their avant-garde progressive rock music. ... The Final Cut is a rock album by Pink Floyd recorded at several studios in the UK from July to December 1982. ... Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev  listen? ( Russian: Леони́д Ильи́ч Бре́жнев) ( December 19, 1906 – November 10, 1982) was effective ruler of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982, though at first in partnership with...   (August 16, 1913 – March 9, 1992) (Hebrew: מְנַחֵם בְּגִין) was a Polish-Jewish head of the Zionist underground group the Irgun, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and the first Likud Prime Minister of Israel. ... For other uses, see Beirut (disambiguation). ... The Levellers are a popular English band that plays Folk-rock or Indie rock influenced by Punk and traditional English music. ... The Macc Lads – the self proclaimed rudest crudest lewdest drunkest band in Christendom – formed in the late 1970s in Macclesfield, UK. Their career spanned the years 1981 to 1995 and they become notorious for their foul mouthed lyrics, political incorrectness, drinking, sexism and homophobia. ... Political correctness is the alteration of language to redress real or alleged injustices and discrimination or to avoid offense. ... Iron Maiden are a British heavy metal band from east London. ... From Here to Eternity: Live is a compilation album of live material released by The Clash in 1999. ... The Clash were an English punk rock band who were active from 1976 to 1986. ... See Career Opportunities (film) for the movie of this same title. ... Split Enz was a successful New Zealand band during the late 1970s and early 1980s featuring brothers Tim Finn and Neil Finn. ... The British Broadcasting Corporation, usually known as the BBC (and also informally known as the Beeb or Auntie) is the largest broadcasting corporation in the world in terms of audience numbers, employing 26,000 staff in the United Kingdom alone and with a budget of more than GB£4 billion... Pinhole photograph of Billy Childish by Wolf Howard Billy Childish (real name Steven John Hamper) or William Charlie Hamper (born December 1, 1959) is a British artist, author, poet, singer and guitarist. ... New Model Army are a British rock band. ... It has been suggested that True metal be merged into this article or section. ... Sabaton are a power metal band from Sweden formed in 1999. ... Attero Dominatus is the third album by Swedish power metal band Sabaton. ... Stephen William Bragg (born December 20, 1957), known as Billy Bragg, is an English musician renowned for his blend of folk, punk-rock, and protest music, and his poetic lyrics dealing with political as well as romantic themes. ... Second album by Billy Bragg, released in 1984. ... The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. ... The Christians were a soul band from Liverpool, scoring several UK chart hits in the late 1980s and early 1990s. ...

Computer games

• The popular computer games Harrier Attack and Yomp presented unofficial portraits of the fighting.
• The naval strategy game Strike Fleet included a scenario set in the Falklands, where the player took control of British destroyers under attack from Argentine submarines.
• Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis is a critically acclaimed tactical shooter and battlefield simulator released in 2001. The game is set in 1985 on a small island of peaceful civilians, overrun by a hostile invading force. Although the combatants in the game are American and Russian, there are very obvious parallels with the Falklands campaign. There is also an unofficial mod (1982: Flashpoint in the Falklands) [6] for the game that explicitly deals with the Falklands war.
• Malvinas 2032 is a real-time strategy game, in which the player has to command the Argentine forces and re-take the Falkland Islands for Argentina, developed by Sabarasa Entertainment.
• Falklands War - 1982 — This scenario collection, created with the Harpoon3 naval warfare simulator, is intended to accurately recreate the real-life war from 1982.

Harrier Attack was a game for the Amstrad and Spectrum from the early 1980s. ... Yomp was a computer game for the ZX Spectrum released in 1983. ... Strike Fleet is a 1987 computer game developed by LucasArts and published by Electronic Arts. ... Tactical shooters include games of the first-person shooter (FPS) and third-person shooter genre of video games that generally simulate non-fictional, squad-based combat. ... A simulation is an imitation of some real device or state of affairs. ... Mod or modification is a term generally applied to computer games, especially first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. ... First Argentine release of Malvinas 2032 One of the 23 misions of Malvinas 2032 Malvinas 2032 is a real-time futuristic belic strategy game by Argentine developer Sabarasa Entertainment, first released in 1999 for PC. It was the first game to involve Falklands War. ...

State Recognition

Monument for the fallen soldiers, Buenos Aires

The war is commemorated as Día del Veterano de Guerra y los Caídos en Malvinas (Veterans and fallen soldiers of the Falklands Day), a public holiday in Argentina, usually on the first Monday of April. It is sometimes referred to as Malvinas Day. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1151x606, 609 KB) Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Falklands War User:Soman User:Soman/Template:SomanPhotos ... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1151x606, 609 KB) Licensing File links The following pages on the English Wikipedia link to this file (pages on other projects are not listed): Falklands War User:Soman User:Soman/Template:SomanPhotos ... For other uses, see Buenos Aires (disambiguation). ... This is a table of national public holidays of Argentina. ... Malvinas Day (Spanish: Día de Malvinas), officially Day of the War Veterans and the Fallen in the Malvinas Islands (Día del Veterano de Guerra y los Caídos en las Islas Malvinas); the islands are usually known in English as the Falkland Islands. ...

In Britain, those who lost their lives are remembered as part of Remembrance Sunday. In the United Kingdom Remembrance Sunday is the Sunday nearest to 11 November - Remembrance Day, which is the anniversary of when hostilities in the First World War ended at 11 a. ...

External links

• Poetry of the 1982 conflict