Formal Film Study: Films about the Vietnam War

My formal film study consists of three films that depict the Vietnam War. The first movie I watched was Platoon (1986), directed by Oliver Stone. The second was Full Metal Jacket (1987), directed by Stanley Kubrick. The third was Apocalypse Now (1979), directed by Francis Ford Coppola.

I chose to do this study on these because I didn’t know a lot about the Vietnam War, and I thought it would be interesting to learn about it through three iconic movies. They all were different depictions of the war by different directors. While each had distinct differences, they all had clear overarching similarities.

Platoon follows the character Chris Taylor, played by Charlie Sheen. He drops out of college to volunteer as a soldier in Vietnam. He quickly finds out that his inexperience leaves him disrespected by the Staff Sergeant Barnes. He eventually makes friends with a few of the others, namely a soldier named Elias, and finds a way to escape from the pressures of war through drinking and drug use. As the war goes on, Vietnamese attacks threaten their safety and sanity. Many times in the movie friendly fire occurs and misjudged punishment leaves Taylor confused and unstable. During one of these attacks, Barnes kills Elias and comes back to the platoon drunk, taunting Taylor and the others. Taylor’s relationship with Barnes widens further. In another attack, a Vietnamese soldier runs into Taylor’s foxhole with a grenade and kills everyone inside, except for Taylor and Sergeant Barnes. In the chaos, Barnes threatens Taylor to shoot him, which Taylor does. The ending scene of the movie shows an injured Taylor returning home, crying while flying over the dead bodies of his friends and enemies.

The second film I watch was Full Metal Jacket. It follows the story of Private Joker, a naïve, yet smart soldier new to the aspect of war. The movie begins on Paris Island, where the recruits shave their heads and begin their training under the extremely strict Drill Instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman, played by R. Lee Ermey. The recruits all progress in their training except for one, Private Pyle. Pyle does not understand how to be a proper soldier and is thus not respected by the others. As his mistakes pile up, the other privates take it upon themselves to punish him. After their punishment of Pyle, he begins to become a well-rounded, ruthless soldier, much to the delight of Sergeant Hartman. However, his mental state deteriorates and he begins talking to his rifle and showing signs of a breakdown. The first part of the movie ends when Pyle shoots Hartman, and then shoots himself. The second part of the movie follows Joker’s role as a military journalist correspondent for the Stars and Stripes magazine. The others in his squad doubt his experience, as they mock his lack of a “Thousand yard stare”. Joker is sent to a different part of Vietnam, where their platoon is attacked. As they scout the area, they find there is only one sniper, who is wounded by one of the men. The men tell private Joker to kill the sniper, who is a young girl. After hesitating, he shoots her and the movie ends with his statement that he is glad to be alive and no longer afraid.

The last film I watched was Apocalypse Now. It follows the story of Capitan Willard, played by Martin Sheen, a retired Special Operative. He is summoned to perform a final mission, to go into Cambodia and kill Colonel Kurtz, who has apparently gone insane and taken command into his own, dehumanizing hands. Willard’s journey up the Nung River starts with his encounter with Lieutenant Kilgore, who demands a deadly napalm airstrike on innocent civilians, just so that he can surf on the beach nearby. As the travel up river, their boat is attacked by Viet Cong fighters and leaves only Willard and Two others alive. Their journey eventually leads to the domain of Kurtz, where an entire army of brainwashed men is waiting for Willard’s arrival. The omnipotent Kurtz knows of Willard’s arrival and leaves him caged, waiting for death. As the mental state of Willard deteriorates, he is still motivated to complete his mission and kills Kurtz with a machete, leaving Kurtz’s last words, “the Horror” resounding in his head as he slowly walks back to the boat.

Differences:

Of the Three, Platoon was the most accurate at depicting what the war was actually like. The Director, Oliver Stone, was a soldier himself and used his experience to make a truly realistic representation. The theme of unjustified punishment paralleled between the copious amounts of friendly fire shown through the movie, and through the soldier’s mistreatment and cruelty towards the native Vietnamese civilians. The whole movie echoes as a tragic drama about how the soldiers themselves faced the issues of Vietnam. It was extremely effective at summarizing the confusion and hopelessness that America felt regarding this unwinnable, endless war.

Kubrick’s representation of Vietnam used its big budget (IMDb box office/ budget) to publicly portray the war in an entertaining way. From what I saw, this is really two movies in one. The first being the recruit’s training on Paris Island, and the second being Private Joker’s actual combat in Vietnam. The first half of the movie was intense, using plenty of cinematographic elements such as perspective, to highlight importance. In addition, the first half of the movie developed characters beautifully, which was helpful in the transition to the entirely different second half of the movie. Full Metal Jacket did not try to be realistic; rather it was Kubrick’s own unique depiction of how innocent soldiers are turned into ruthless killers. It also served as a satire of our poorly designed strategy and politics during the war.

Apocalypse Now was the most thought provoking of the three. Because it was made in 1979, it serves as a portrayal of the nation’s attitude towards the war as it was happening. Coppola’s depiction highlighted madness, using Colonel Kurtz as the ideal example of what Vietnam turns normal men into. The random, disgusting violence that is so apparent becomes almost casual by the end of the movie, which is a testament to what the soldiers felt being in Vietnam. The whole movie was extremely chaotic, and its biggest theme was the psychological horror that plagued the minds of each soldier. One thing that stood out to me was the music, when I expected music there was no music at all, and when I expected dramatic music they played almost comical songs. This juxtaposition was a clever device that Coppola used to convey the message of confusion and unexpectedness. Of the three, Apocalypse now was my favorite film.

Similarities:

Although each of these films had distinct differences that set them apart from each other, there were some similarities that allowed me to form a comprehensive account of the Vietnam War. One thing I thought was interesting was that Apocalypse Now and Platoon used Martin and Charlie Sheen as their main actors. The two brothers played extremely important roles in these iconic movies. Another interesting thing was that all three movies didn’t have any love interests or women involved in a main way. I thought that this was really surprising; almost no movies completely ignore a love story. I also think that this is telling of the war itself, it shows the brotherly bond that the soldiers shared; in the army there really was no womanly influence. 

The main, overarching discovery I found was the central theme of moral ambiguity. These three movies all drive the point home that in Vietnam, you cant tell what’s right from what’s wrong, and these directors made it clear that the line between good and evil was extremely ambiguous. The efforts of the soldiers to retain their morals were fruitless in a war where killing is essential. This moral ambiguity was a problem that was hard for U.S. citizens to understand about the war, and I think that the purpose of these movies was to portray this theme back home.