Eric Lougher - Arizona State University



Vietnam – A Different Kind of War, A Different Kind of Movie

By: Eric Lougher

“Horror. Horror has a face... and you must make a friend of horror,” proclaims Colonel Kurtz in the movie Apocalypse Now. The horror of war has not always been illustrated fully by the film industry. Yes, movies such as Saving Private Ryan include grievousness and death, but they also contain a certain element of heroism and glorification. American movies that depict wars other than Vietnam mainly serve to glorify soldiers for their valor in battles. Many Vietnam movies, in contrast, portray a different kind of soldier: regular humans flawed by temptation and rash decisions, who eventually become dehumanized by the psychological effects of the war. In the aforementioned quote, Colonel Kurtz attempts to describe the atrocities he witnessed in the Vietnam War. This quote would not be found in a movie regarding any other American war, but Vietnam movies, like Apocalypse Now, were produced with such a dismal light because of the cultural revolution during the era. Because of this new generation’s disapproval of the Vietnam War, many films such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter depict misguided soldiers helplessly trapped in a world in which they do not belong.

The “Good” Wars

War movies that the culture of the time viewed positively such as the Revolutionary War, World War I, and World War II are usually produced in a manner that convinces the audience of the righteousness of the military’s patriotic efforts. Although the American soldiers suffered millions of casualties in these wars and were traumatized by the psychological effects of the war, the films neglect to show this and instead “depict and glorify wartime heroic exploits while embellishing the military experience itself” (Pollard 121). The soldiers shown in these movies of American wars are depicted as dutiful, devoted, decent soldiers who are proud to fight in a war with a purpose bigger than their own. Movies released before the Vietnam Era, in particular, were very propagandistic in nature and praised the military’s victorious battles. For example, The Longest Day, filmed in 1962, depicts D-Day as a glamorous and monumental day for the Allied Forces. Over time war movies, especially of World War II, became very formulaic. Films such as Pearl Harbor, Saving Private Ryan, U-571, and The Thin Red Line consist mostly of an isolated male group composed of distinctly varied personality types and function as a “group hero”. The men, although maybe not initially, are stoic and professional in the face of danger. Any outsiders who enter the group are forced to earn their admission by accepting the groups’ ethos and stoicism when confronted with death (Robert 113-118).

American soldiers are honored in these movies for their valiant service because America mainly supported the wars, and the deaths incurred were for the greater good. Can you even imagine a movie about the Revolutionary War that does not glorify the colonists’ courageous efforts? The American culture during these wars valued the military and its purpose, and the films, therefore, reflected and amplified these feelings. During the Vietnam Era, however, a fledgling generation began to show their discontent for such means of dealing with global conflicts.

The Cultural Divide of Vietnam

In the mid-1960s Americans, especially the youth, were becoming less obedient and beginning to question traditions as a rift between generations began to emerge. The climax of the separation was reached in 1970 after the youth revolted in response to President Nixon’s announcement that American troops would be moving into Cambodia to clear out North Vietnamese sanctuaries. College campuses across the nation erupted in disgust with protests and riots. With tempers flaring, National Guardsmen opened fire on a pack of protesting students at Kent State University; a massacre that fully ignited the younger generation. “For some, the lesson of Kent State had an even wider application. On the Ohio campus, as they saw it, a decade of simmering conflict between the younger and older generations had finally come to a boil. ‘Don’t trust anybody over thirty,’ Jack Weinberg warned his fellow activists early in the 1960s” (Bates 175). The media, now with the ability and latitude to film on the actual battlefield, de-insulated the Vietnam War and further fueled antiwar sentiments. The news coverage showed vivid, grotesque images of dead soldiers, cold blooded murder, and mutilated Vietnamese children, scorched by the Napalm used by the military. The Vietnam War created controversy not only among American civilians but also in its soldiers.

The shift of the attitudes and values of the younger generations permeated onto the battlefield as reflected in movies such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and The Deer Hunter. Oliver Stone’s movie Platoon is the quintessential depiction of the deep cultural divide of the 1960s. SSgt. Barnes and his squad represent the old-fashioned American values: sexists, boozers, and unapologetically male. Led by the young Sgt. Elias and Private Chris Taylor, the contrasting faction within the platoon exemplifies the new values of the youth. As the film progresses, the divided groups of soldiers begin to fight each other instead of the real enemy. If new values are to prevail, the young squad must destroy the father figure, Barnes, who describes himself as “reality” (Rollins 30). “The polarization that Oliver Stone dramatizes in Platoon wisely shows that the tension went deeper than politics - to a struggle over such fundamental principles as the meaning of citizenship, life styles, and gender roles” (31).

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Platoon (1986)

The cultural divide of the Vietnam War is also portrayed in the concluding scene of Michael Cimino’s film The Deer Hunter. After living through the gruesome experiences of the war, the surviving soldiers are back at home singing “God Bless America” with their womenfolk and friends who were not drafted into the war. According to Leslie Fiedler,

[by] singing [“God Bless America”], the aging survivors pledge allegiance to the traditional values to which their parents had earlier painfully learned to assimilate: the values of a middle-aged middle America, symbolized not just by the flag they bless, but the church, home, marriage, and the family to which they have returned. What defeat in the war has delivered from them is the illusions by which adolescents think they can live forever, a false utopia of irresponsibility, male bonding, booze, casual sex, and justified murder. (395)

Michael Cimino uses this scene in his film to show how America’s pullout of the Vietnam conflict symbolizes the transition of the new values once embodied by the youthful generation. The rebellious generation ultimately resorts back toward the traditional values of their parents in a harmonious manner.

The Vietnam Soldier

The conflicts among the cultures at the time of Vietnam affected the way the populace viewed the American soldiers. Because the American youth were not in support of the war, the soldiers of the Vietnam War are mainly portrayed in films as men trapped in a horrific situation. Oliver Stone’s movie Platoon is partially based on his own experiences in the Vietnam War and shows soldiers aloof from the reality they know and consequently turn to drugs as a means of escape. The soldiers burn down villages as well as brutalize and kill innocent civilians without question because of the frustrations and psychological effects they were experiencing.

The soldiers had become dehumanized by the war, as similarly depicted in the movie Full Metal Jacket, which uses extremely dynamic characters to prove that point. The infantry troops begin their tour of duty as an eclectic group of everyday people. As the movie progresses they transform into characters stripped of their individuality and compassion not only because of their experiences in war but also because of their condescending drill sergeant. The cultural divide is also symbolized in the Full Metal Jacket by the duality of the character Joker, who sports a combat helmet that reads “Born to Kill”, accompanied by a peace sign. Joker’s conflicting symbols represent the cultural struggle the soldier is faced with: stuck in a war opposed by his generation.

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Full Metal Jacket (1987)

The crew accompanying Captain Willard in Apocalypse Now starts out ignorantly excited about their mission; however, by the end of the movie they can hardly discern morality. As Willard and his crew travel deeper into the jungle of Cambodia, they experience chaotic battles and are soon changed by the overwhelming powers of death. They become so accustomed to death that going back to normal civilization is absurd from their perspective. Similar to characters in Platoon, Willard’s crew in Apocalypse Now attempts to escape their madness by using drugs. “Coppola’s film portrayed war as essentially evil in itself, the quintessential outpost of hell on Earth” (Pollard 128).

In The Deer Hunter a group of close friends from a small town are drafted into the war and captured by the Vietcong where they are forced to play a version of Russian roulette against each other. After their escape, the soldiers witness a Vietnamese soldier kill a civilian family with a hand grenade. In response, Michael executes the soldier with a flame-thrower. The characters have become so numb to death and so psychologically affected that they can find no other means of dealing with their emotions than resorting to death.

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Michael incinerates an allied Vietnamese soldier in The Deer Hunter

Later in the film, Michael’s friend, Nick, participates in Russian roulette in a bar, but this time for money. The soldiers cannot find peace with themselves after their traumatic experiences in the war, and are out of tune with reality. Nick’s mindset has become so distorted that he would risk killing himself for a few, measly dollars. “With characters forced to endure mental and physical anguish and torture, being driven to the point of suicide, it would be difficult for audiences to perceive Vietnam as anything akin to a ‘good war’” (127).

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The Deer Hunter (1978)

The movies of Vietnam collectively show that the human soul is very malleable and fragile, and when presented with a certain situation, even the most pure soul can be dyed black. The soldiers in the movies do not reflect that proud feeling of fighting for something bigger than themselves, but instead resent war and its violence and are ultimately corrupted by it.

Where is the Enemy?

In addition to the negative portrayal of the Vietnam soldier, many Vietnam films neglect to fully portray the North Vietnamese enemy. Unlike movies about other wars, such Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor, which depict the enemy as grotesque and purely motivated to kill by their passionate hatred of America, Platoon shows the Vietcong as shadowy, abstract forces lurking in the jungle. By creating a faceless enemy, Oliver Stone effectively distances Platoon from the typical ‘good war’ film in which enemies are depicted as sub-human stereotypes (Pollard 129).

In Apocalypse Now, the Vietnamese enemy is similarly depicted as faceless by long shot and quick camera transition techniques. For instance, during the film a helicopter point-of-view is used as the Vietcong are blown off water buffalo-drawn carts (Woodman 49). “The defacing of the enemy has the brilliant effect of making the audience question the righteousness and effectiveness of the war” (Pollard 129). These techniques further aid the image of the ruthless, merciless American soldier.

The Legacy of Vietnam

According to Vietnam film expert Dr. Lawrence H. Suid, “filmmakers will never be able to show the United States winning glorious victories and making the world a safer place as they could with the nation's earlier wars” (127). The movies of Vietnam opened up the eyes of film viewers and makers across the nation. After war has been depicted so dismally, with such a lack of purpose, it is difficult to return to days of glorified, victorious war scenes without a subconscious feeling of disbelief. Film makers are creating war movies with more recognition of the atrocities of war.

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Full Metal Jacket (1987)

For example, in Saving Private Ryan the first twenty minutes show the Allied forces dramatic charge up the beaches of Normandy, this time, with more of a focus on the tragedy of the massive deaths incurred during the battle. In The Longest Day, this scene was shown with a focus on victory. Vietnam had such an impact on America and its culture that it necessitated all war movies to evolve in essence. In order to make an effective film, film makers can no longer create war movies without a significant element of death because Vietnam movies have already helped to educate audiences of the brutality of battle.

So Now What?

After all of this effort has been made to describe the horrors of the Vietnam War, will our perspective as an audience of combat movies ever be reconciled with the days of glory? A Harris Poll statistic shows that, “90 percent of Vietnam veterans are proud that they served their country and have great difficulty understanding why their country men are so bitter toward them for their service” (Rollins 31). The soldiers of the Vietnam War fought for the freedom and democracy of another country; their efforts should be commended, right? Unfortunately because a generation of American citizens did not approve of the purpose and sacrifice of the war, Vietnam veterans still have not received full praise for their efforts. Even though the soldiers of the Vietnam War were heroic in that they risked their lives for the sake of others, the American film makers decided not to focus on the soldiers’ courage, but instead painted a scene of humans trapped in an atrocious war without a purpose. The soldiers are not depicted as obedient, virtuous soldiers, but rather soldiers who have become so accustomed to death that they will kill without question. Movie producers concentrate on dramatic character change triggered by the war. They also often employ other techniques to depict a faceless enemy, which further aids in the film makers’ goal of showing trapped soldiers, easily dehumanized into killing machines. This type of film has therefore set a new standard for war movies. The days of the “good” wars are gone; abandoned along with the fading traditional culture. The American culture has become a synthesis of these contrasting views. Today, many Americans support the soldiers in Iraq, but have a better understanding of the brutality of the war. How will the dichotomy of this culture be reflected in future movies about the conflict in Iraq?

Works Cited

Bates Milton J. The Wars we Took to Vietnam: Cultural Conflict and Storytelling. Berkeley: 1996.

Doherty, Thomas. "Full Metal Genre: Stanley Kubrick's Vietnam Combat Movie." Film Quarterly 42.2 (1989): 24-30.

Fiedler, Leslie A. "Mythicizing the Unspeakable." The Journal of American Folklore 103.410 (1990): 390-399.

Pollard, Tom. "The Hollywood War Machine." New Political Science 24.1 (2002): 121-139.

Robert, Ray. A Certain Tendency of the Hollywood Cinema, 1930-1980. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985.

Rollins, Peter C. "United States-Vietnam Reconciliation in 1994." National Forum 74.4 (1994): 30-34.

Suid, Dr. Lawrence H. "Hollywood and Vietnam." Air University Review XXXIV.2 (1983): 121-127.

Woodman, Brian J. "A Hollywood War of Wills: Cinematic Representation of Vietnamese Super-Soldiers and America's Defeat in the War." Journal of Film and Video 55.2/3 (2003): 44-58.

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