Scientists find the face to follow into battle, as Call of Duty: World at War launches
As a soldier steps onto the battlefield, he needs to be sure the guy leading the troops is up to the job, but is there a way to know for sure? According to research conducted by scientists at the University of Stirling, the structure of a person’s cheekbones, jawline and brow can be an indicator as to whether they have the perfect face for war, or if they would be better off at home.
To coincide with the launch of the video game, Call of Duty: World at War, Dr. Anthony Little used computer software to blend 3380 facial characteristics from the top 20 movie soldiers, including Michael Caine (The Eagle has Landed), Sly Stallone (First Blood) and Laurence Olivier (Battle of Britain), with the aim of investigating the typical facial traits of the ultimate soldier. The result of this experiment showed that, outside of Hollywood, a face affects military rank in the real world, too.
Facial traits of the ultimate soldier
In the Call of Duty franchise, the player is the ultimate soldier, however in film, the perfect warrior has classic masculine facial traits. Dr. Little’s research team used facial metrics to look at five key characteristics and found that the face that most embodied the ultimate soldier had larger jaw lengths relative to their face length, lower eyebrows, and a more prominent brow ridge - like fictional squaddies, such as Steve McQueen in The Great Escape.
As part of the research, released today, people were asked to rate facial traits on how much they conveyed trust, heroism, masculinity, leadership and fitness. The face of the perfect soldier, right, is the result of blending 169 key locations on each face of the top 20 war movie heroes.
Life imitates art
As well as finding the face of the Supreme Soldier, Dr. Little also morphed the faces of Hollywood legends Kiefer Sutherland and Gary Oldman, who provide voiceovers in Call of Duty: World at War, to show what they would look like as the Supreme Soldier.
Activision UK's Marketing Director, David Tyler said: “The Call of Duty franchise is one of the world’s most popular video games, with millions of gamers across the globe vying to be the ‘Supreme Soldier’. So we wanted to see how our supreme soldier compared to traits portrayed in the movies, as well as in the real world.”
Dr. Anthony Little, of The University of Stirling University said: “The face of the perfect soldier, as selected by Hollywood, is a face that is masculine, physically fit and heroic looking. As our selection is based on movies that span a range of decades, we can see that the traits are the same for all soldiers no matter what time. For this reason it seems likely that this image of the Supreme Soldier reflects a good soldier in any period of history.”
Call of Duty: World at War is out now and has already been tipped by industry insiders to be the number one game this Christmas, for more information visit www.callofduty.com <http://www.callofduty.com>
Top 20 movie soldiers used in research
1. Charlie Sheen - Platoon
2. Michael J Fox - Casualties of War
3. Tom Hanks -Saving Private Ryan
4. Martin Sheen - Apocalypse Now
5. Robert De Niro - The Deer Hunter
6. Alec Guiness - Bridge over the River Kwai
7. Laurence Olivier - Battle of Britain
8. Richard Todd - The Dam Busters
9. Steve McQueen - The Great Escape
10. Sean Penn - The Thin Red Line
11. Matthew Modine - Full Metal Jacket
12. Tom Cruise - Born on the Forth of July
13. Michael Caine - Zulu / The Eagle Has Landed
14. Josh Hartnett - Black Hawk Down
15. Richard Burton - Where Eagles Dare
16. Mel Gibson - Gallipoli
17. Clint Eastwood - Kelly's Heroes
18. Sly Stallone - Rambo
19. John Wayne - The Sands of Iwo Jima / The Longest Day
20. William Dafoe - Platoon