Vietnam war films.

[chuckwoww]

The MASH talk (I know that was set in Korea) has got me thinking about Vietnam War films. Of all the movies which do you think was the most influential in shaping public opinion?

 

For me it has to be Apocalypse Now.

[elef]

CW, you changed the question - OK, still think it was MASH even if it officially was about the Korean war.

 

The Deer Hunter was probably the film giving the deepest impression, but The Green Berets the one I liked best.

[Pom Michael]

I think Platoon actually opened up the USA to really think about what happened in Vietnam. At least for my generation (HS grad in 1983).

 

 

[elef]

Note that Deer Hunter was made in 1978.

[Guest lazyphil]

well NOT Full Metal Jacket, parts were filmed at bassingbourn barracks a stones through from me, any vietnam film using locations within 40 minutes of my home really lose any credibility

 

apocalypse is a good choice, have u seen hearts of darkness-a film makers apocalypse....very interesting film....

[chuckwoww]

CW, you changed the question - OK, still think it was MASH even if it officially was about the Korean war.

 

Sorry about that elef. I said 'most accurate' originally and changed it to 'most influential'. I think accuracy is too much of a value judgment.

 

No Phil....not seen the movie whereof you speak but I know Apocalypse was based on the Conrad novel.

[elef]

Also it also was a time when niggers were asked to fight and die for the USA but at the same time couldn't vote in some states, couldn't eat in white restaurants, couldn't use white seats in a bus. The VN war was not just a military defeat, it was also the victory for the rights of blacks, Black Panther Party was big in Sweden and also a White Panther Party which were white guys supporting the blacks. Nothing else than black was acceptable, not negro or even worse the southern nigger.

 

Now black is out and it's afro-american which is PC. Mexicans must be spanish-americans, red indians = american-americans and the rest irish-americans... or...

[Pom Michael]

Yes, and I think Platoon came out in 1986?

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platoon_(film)

 

Yes. But before that there was really no critical discussions on the war, at least not in my high school or college until that point.

 

Stanley Karnow's book is still the best single source for the war - and I presently still have about 1,500 books on the war sitting in storage somewhere. Wish I could read them all!

 

http://www.amazon.com/Vietnam-History-Stanley-Karnow/dp/0140265473

 

 

 

 

[Guest lazyphil]

so you're not obsessed then?

[Boring_Man]

I don't think any movies actually made during the war were particularly influential, though one could make an argument for The Green Berets. I think the other movies were more reflective of certain pockets of opinion rather than shaping opinion in general in the United States of Amnesia (Gore Vidal's apt phrase).

 

I'll happily blame The Deer Hunter for helping along the maudlin self-pity trend which surrounds military service, but a more sophisticated influence? No.

 

Unfortunately some of the most influential postwar movies were the Missing in Action films and their ilk, which helped launch the whole missing vet movement, which also ties neatly into the self-pity theme.

 

One good movie no one has mentioned is Go Tell the Spartans, the first movie to approach the war from a more realistic viewpoint (released before The Deer Hunter, by the way).

 

By the way, Michael Herr, one of the writers of Apocalypse now, also wrote Dispatches, one of my favorite Vietnam books (Tim O'Brien's If I Die in a Combat Zone and his novel, Going After Cacciato are the others).