My Grandfather fought in WWI, got gassed, but recovered enough to become a policeman. My father fought in WWII during Operation Market Garden and was badly shot up. However, the same German soldiers that did it also saw what a young man he was (18)and instead of putting a final bullet in him, patched him up as best they could,gave him a cigarette and left him for the Allies to pickup. That saved his life, and,eventually, allowed mine and my sisters. The effects of the war stayed with him forever, and haunted him to the day he died, but he never really talked about it, until he himself was close to death. And it took watching "Band of Brothers" to do that . In my opinion there is nothing so damaging to the human soul than the horrors of true warfare.
I get what you are saying about the films, but they are just sheer escapism and entertainment, yet The WInter Soldier ,like all the best fiction also had some very subtle and profound truths about human nature buried in it, and I thought , the moral conflict of being a person fighting a war, yet choosing why he fights and what he fights for. That WHY I really appreciated just how well the script was written and just how much more they brought to the Caps character than in the original. And thats why I'm going to see it again tomorrow.
As I've got older and the people I've know have started to disappear from the world, the more I've come to appreciate the sacrifice those generations of young people made for us so we can live we can lead today. And they continue to do so.