In this article I will argue that understanding the context of a film is vital to a deeper understanding of it and I will achieve this through an in-depth analysis of the following films: Flowers of War, Edge of Heaven, Battleship Potemkin and Big Heat. Furthermore, not only knowing the historical, social and political context of a film and how the ideas in this film were formed, but also how this film influenced society and the point of view of individuals, because after all the film is not influenced only by the context in which it was created, but also influences individuals, being a catalyst for change in societies and cultures. I understand that there is merit in watching a film from scratch and not knowing the context, but I have the feeling that you gain much more from the film after knowing the historical, social and political context of a film, because then you are in able to capture the subtler aspects of films that make them great, particularly themes and symbols. Flowers of War is a Chinese historical war film directed by Zhang Yimou about the but...