Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television

Michael A. Anderegg

Jan 1991 · Temple University Press

About this ebook

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 This collection of essays, most of which are previously unpublished, analyzes the themes, modes, and stylistic strategies seen in a broad range of films and television programs.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 Vietnam: 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 Film: 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 Hill: Ritual and Remembrance - Judy Lee Kinney 9. Primetime Television's Tour of Duty - Daniel Miller 10. Women Next Door to War: 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 War: Oliver Stone, Ron Kovic, and Born on the Fourth of July - Thomas Doherty 14. Teaching Vietnam: 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 books: William Wyler and David Lean.Contributors: 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.

Ratings and reviews

i dont even have to buy this book to realize this author is full of crap. after reading the section about aliens i feel the author has never wathed the film, he says, " after a fire fight ensures the marines rupture the cooling system. leaving the protagonists a few hours to re group and get to theyre space ship before a nuclear explosion engulfs them along with the aliens" this is a major lie because any one who has seen the film knows that the cooling system was not ruptured causing a catasrophe. it was deliberatley activated to detonte at the end of the film. . he then goes on to say" even the films subplots such as ripley and burke struggle for control over the troops" did i miss something here i believe this was military operation and sgt. apone was in command. after the futile escape of the cooling towers, coporal hicks is second in command where leads to the scene " pharoa do you copy stand by for immediate EVAC i say we dust off and nuke the entire sight from orbit" which confirms my earlier point........... anyway my point about this is if the author cant get basic facts like that right, then i dont think his book would be worth reading because you know it will be full of fabricated lies and exagerated outcomes and conclusions

almost like waking up to Christmas X-mass everyday¿?🐩

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About the author

Michael Anderegg is Professor of English at the University of North Dakota, and author of two other books: William Wyler and David Lean.