Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television

Culture and the Moving Image

by Michael Anderegg

The Vietnam War has been depicted by every available medium, each presenting a message, an agenda, of what the filmmakers and producers choose to project about America's involvement in Southeast Asia. This collection of essays, most of which are previously unpublished, analyzes the themes, modes, and stylistic strategies seen in a broad range of films and television programs. From diverse perspectives, the contributors comprehensively examine early documentary and fiction films, postwar films of the 1970s such as The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now, and the reformulated postwar films of the 1980s--Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and Born on the Fourth of July. They also address made-for-television movies and serial dramas like China Beach and Tour of Duty. The authors show how the earliest film responses to America's involvement in Vietnam employ myth and metaphor and are at times unable to escape glamorized Hollywood. Later films strive to portray a more realistic Vietnam experience, often creating images that are an attempt to memorialize or to manufacture different kinds of myths. As they consider direct and indirect representations of the war, the contributors also examine the power or powerlessness of individual soldiers, the racial views presented, and inscriptions of gender roles. Also included in this volume is a chapter that discusses teaching Vietnam films and helping students discern and understand film rhetoric, what the movies say, and who they chose to communicate those messages. ExcerptRead an excerpt from Chapter 1 (pdf).ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction - Michael Anderegg 1. Hollywood and John Wayne and Jane Fonda as Discourse - Michael Anderegg 2. "All the Animals Come Out at Night": Vietnam Meets Noir in Taxi Driver - Cynthia J. Fuchs 3. Vietnam and the Hollywood Genre Inversions of American Mythology in The Deer Hunter and Apocalypse Now - John Hellmann 4. "Charlie Don't Surf": Race and Culture in the Vietnam War Films - David Desser 5. Finding a Language for Vietnam in the Action-Adventure Genre - Ellen Draper 6. Narrative Patterns and Mythic Trajectories in Mid-1980s Vietnam Movies - Tony Williams 7. Rambo's Vietnam and Kennedy's New Frontier - John Hellmann 8. Gardens of Stone, Platoon, and Hamburger Ritual and Remembrance - Judy Lee Kinney 9. Primetime Television's Tour of Duty - Daniel Miller 10. Women Next Door to China Beach - Carolyn Reed Vartanian 11. Male Bonding, Hollywood Orientalism, and the Repression of the Feminine in Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket - Susan White 12. Vietnam, Chaos, and the Dark Art of Improvisation - Owen W. Gilman, Jr. 13. Witness to Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic, and Born on the Fourth of July - Thomas Doherty 14. Teaching The Politics of Documentary - Thomas J. Slater Selected Bibliography Selected Filmography and Videography The Contributors IndexAbout the Author(s)Michael Anderegg is Professor of English at the University of North Dakota, and author of two other William Wyler and David Cynthia J. Fuchs, John Hellman, David Desser, Ellen Draper, Tony Williams, Judy Lee Kinney, Daniel Miller, Carolyn Reed Vartanian, Susan White, Owen W. Gilman, Jr., Thomas Doherty, Thomas J. Slater, and the editor.

Genres: Film, War

315 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1990

Reviews

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had high hopes for this book when I first discovered it, as the sub-genre of Vietnam War films is rich both in content and in meaning. I've seen quite a few of the more important entries in the genre (e.g. 'Platoon', 'Hamburger Hill', 'Green Berets', 'Apocalypse Now' etc) and some that are less renowned (e.g. 'Go Tell the Spartans', 'The Boys in Company C'), so I like to believe I'm familiar with the history and issues relating to studying these works. Unfortunately, my more populist or layman perspective on these movies was swamped by the academic writers of the essays included in Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television, leaving me battling through a veritable jungle complex of post-modernist criticism, arcane and obtuse literary criticism, and simply way over the top what the fuck did I just read material.

The first issue with this text is that it is old. Published 33 years ago it has problems with regard to what has been excluded due to the release of later films or TV shows. Oliver Stone's final Vietnam War movie 'Heaven and Earth' is one noticeable absentee, as is 'We Were Soldiers Once' from Mel Gibson. As might be expected, this book also is focused almost entirely on American experiences of the war and the relevant movies that were produced by that country; nothing is said about Vietnamese or Australian movies that are connected with the war, and more often than not the movies that are discussed are linked directly to depictions of combat in Vietnam. Movies that explore the experience of the Vietnam vet that are divorced from showing what happened to said protagonist during the war are also excluded.

So the scope of the movies (and TV shows) is less diverse than hoped for in Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television, and limited by age. This means that the contributors to the book direct the reader to some of the usual supsects, including some I've referred to previously, as well as well-known movies such as 'The Deer Hunter', 'Casualties of War' and 'Good Morning Vietnam'. As I read the essays I was glad to see the attention given to 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Hamburger Hill', as both of these movies are compelling entries in the genre. The article on Kubrick's movie made some interesting points but I thought its author went way way way overboard on the angle of it being an exploration of the feminine other in the western male worldview. The essay on 'Rambo' was suprisingly apreciative of Stallone's work, whilst the critique of 'The Deer Hunter and 'Apocalypse Now' is downed in hard to understand academic language.

One pleasing aspect of this book is that it makes a serious effort to explore two US commercial TV series that came out in the late 80s, 'China Beach' and 'Tour of Dutty'. Both of these programs made a considered, if flawed attempt to make episodic television drama out of the war, and perhaps they are somewhat forgotten today. I felt that the essay on the former series were a little too harsh, whereas the discussion of the latter offered a more positive perspective. Considering how fraught and limiting primetime network television was at the time, its easy to dismiss these efforts, particularly when contrasted to the movies of the era. It might be interesting to ponder what might be produced today, in the era of streaming, if one wanted to make such Vietnam War TV series now.

My biggest problem with Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television is that this book is not going to be accessible for the vast majority of people interested in the topic. I appreciate its academic purpose and content, but it's damned hard to stick with a book that makes one wade through all manner of literary and multimodal criticism to find the occasional nugget of truth, or at least interest. Is this the best book on films and the Vietnam War? No, I don't think so. Can I recommend it? No, unless you are a serious student of film with at least a graduate level capability to comprehend and respond to what is written herein.

[Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of essays. They vary in quality. The most interesting analyses are in the essays by Cynthia Fuchs, "The Animals Come out at Night..." and Thomas Slater, "Teaching Vietnam."
The essays on TV series were informative. Several of the other essays I thought were post-modernist "stretches," if not leaps of fantasy.

[Curtis Anthony Bozif · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really smart meditations on Vietnam War Films.