Vietnam at 24 Frames a Second: A Critical and Thematic Analysis of Over 400 Films About the Vietnam War (Texas Film and Media Studies Series) (Paperback) - Common

by Jeremy M. Devine

Beginning in 1948 with Paramount's Saigon and Universal's Rogue's Regiment, Hollywood has produced over 400 features and made-for-television films about Vietnam and the ensuing conflict. With the exception of The Green Berets (1968), few were designed to rally Americans to the cause as earlier war movies had done. Many were not even combat films, instead dealing with such domestic issues as protests, veteran reintegration, MIAs and POWs. Arranged chronologically, this is a critical analysis of Vietnam War films from 1948 through 1993. Recurring themes are stressed along with the ways that movie America reflected the national reality, with essays blending plot synopses and critical commentary. The movies run the gamut of dramas, action, adventure, horror, comedies and even one musical.

421 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 1994

Reviews

[Kerstin Tuttle · Rating 2 out of 5]

The body text of this book ends on page 365 which seems fitting as it felt like it took a year to get through. This book toes the line (for my own personal purposes, at least) between "helpful and informative" and "painful to read." Never in my life have I seen so many exclamation marks in a critical text, each one more jarring than the last. Chapters are focused on specific time periods paired with a theme that captures the major preoccupations of the films produced in that period, though Devine struggles to organize his chapters internally and variously floats through chronology, medium (made-for-TV, major theatrical releases, and B-movies), and thematic connections. More frustrating are the dating errors (Dead of Night/Deathdream was released in 1974, not 1972 as this book claims) and Devine's habit of referring to film characters solely by the actor's name. Many films are over-summarized and under-analyzed; commentary and interpretation are lacking in comparison to the other contexts provided (given the number of films Devine attempts to tackle, this is unsurprising... over 400 films are examined, though The Deerhunter, Platoon, and Apocalypse Now are over-represented -- I don't need a 10-page summary of The Deerhunter!)

For my personal purposes, the final chapter "To the Gulf War and Beyond, 1990-1993" is most interesting and promising; generally speaking, much less scholarship exists on the relations in representing the Vietnam War in the wake of the Gulf War (and vice versa) than on the previous decades' Vietnam-focused productions. However, the final conclusions of this chapter are hurriedly crammed into two miniature paragraphs, resulting in an unsatisfying closure. I would have preferred an afterword, epilogue, or other additional conclusion.