Oliver Stone is best known from his portrayals of Vietnam in film. His movies “Platoon” and “Born on the Fourth of July” have won him Academy Awards for best director. These movies not only depicted the violence of war, but also the cultural and psychological issues that the soldiers in these wars had to endure. The majority of his earliest and best known movies center around the Vietnam War. Oliver Stone’s experience in the military gave him a special insight that made his movies feel more authentic and convincing to audiences. These movies portray the struggles that soldiers and veterans of the Vietnam War had to face on and off the battlefield.
Platoon is Oliver Stone’s first film portrayal of Vietnam. The film starts off with main character Chris Taylor (portrayed by Charlie Sheen) arriving in Vietnam. A very important element about the character Chris Taylor is that he is a college student that dropped out by choice to join the war effort. This element helps contrast Taylor with supporting characters as most of them are people who were drafted and came to Vietnam against their will. “Mr. Stone, himself a Vietnam vet, observes the war through the short focus of a single infantry platoon, fighting somewhere near the Cambodian border in 1967.”(Vincent, “The Vietnam War in Stone’s ‘Platoon’”) Charlie Sheen’s character narrates the journey and struggles of the Platoon through notes to his Grandmother. “To all intents and purposes, Chris was Oliver Stone. ‘He was a stand-in. Alter-ego’ Stone would write similar letters to his grand-mother, telling her of ‘my wishes, my desires’.” (Salewicz 21) The choice in narration tells the audience that Taylor may have a closer relationship with his grandmother than his actual parents. There...
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...adaptation of Ron Kovic’s best-selling autobiography. Both of these movies depict real-life accounts of how war can change people both physically and emotionally. America is approaching the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War. Today’s students are much too young to remember this time in society. While textbooks have plenty of information regarding this time period, they do not have the emotional impact that these movies convey. In a case of life imitating art, Stone’s movies are the voice of a generation.
Works Cited
Canby, Vincent. "The Vietnam War in Stone's 'Platoon'." The New York Times 19 Oct. 1986: n. pag. The New York Times. Web. 8 Dec. 2013.
Salewicz, Chris. Oliver Stone. New York: Thunder's Mouth Press, 1998. Print.
"Oliver Stone." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1. Literary Reference Center. Web. 09 Dec. 2013
Dr. Wiest used the personal accounts, of the soldiers who fought or of their surviving families, to make this an excellent account of a war so few want to talk about. His exhaustive research and expert writing, lets the reader see the bonds of brotherhood that developed in this division. He shows the soldiers as not just soldiers, but as humans, who suffered both physically and emotionally, both during their year in Vietnam and in their life afterward. He has clearly written a book that is for anyone interested in the Vietnam War. It is a powerful book that shows both the brutality and the humanity of war, through the lives of a group of brothers known as Charlie Company.
In conclusion, the main point of The Green Berets was to convince its audience the Vietnam War was essential; conversely, the Ugly American attempted to berate it. However, it is also clear that both had a common goal; one that expressed the cruelty war can have. John Wayne’s defeat-all-communists approach was becoming a less popular opinion by the time the movie was released. Instead, the ideals The Ugly American conveyed were the most popular. Unless these two styles of thinking are reconciled, the countries of the world are destined to be trapped in a prolonged war.
Appy, Christian G. Working-class War: American Combat Soldiers and Vietnam. Chapel Hill: U of North Carolina, 1993. Print.
The Vietnam War has become a focal point of the Sixties. Known as the first televised war, American citizens quickly became consumed with every aspect of the war. In a sense, they could not simply “turn off” the war. A Rumor of War by Philip Caputo is a firsthand account of this horrific war that tore our nation apart. Throughout this autobiography, there were several sections that grabbed my attention. I found Caputo’s use of stark comparisons and vivid imagery, particularly captivating in that, those scenes forced me to reflect on my own feelings about the war. These scenes also caused me to look at the Vietnam War from the perspective of a soldier, which is not a perspective I had previously considered. In particular, Caputo’s account of
Fussell, Paul. "Vietnam." The Bloody Game: An Anthology of Modern War. Ed. Paul Fussell. London: Scribners, 1991. 651-6.
	The novel illuminates light on the situation not just during the Vietnam era, but also rather throughout all history and the future to come. Throughout mankind’s occupation of earth, we have been plagued by war and the sufferings caused by it. Nearly every generation of people to walk this earth have experienced a great war once in their lifetimes. For instance, Vietnam for my father’s generation, World War 2 for my grandfather’s, and World War 1 for my great-grandfather’s. War has become an unavoidable factor of life. Looking through history and toward the future, I grow concerned over the war that will plague my generation, for it might be the last war.
Even though the films “Battleship Potemkin”, “From Here to Eternity” and “Saving Private Ryan” are all movies based on military life during war time the variation in time periods and culture made each film very different. These differences did not take away from the impact the films had on their audiences at the time or the messages they were each trying to covey. The Horrific images and hear wrenching scenarios helped to evoke strong emotions and patriotic feeling from audiences allowing film makers to pass along their truths. Thru these films we are magically transported to several dark periods in the world history and left to experience the pain, fear, isolation and ultimately the triumph of these soldiers’ lives.
Hillstrom, Kevin and Hillstrom, L.C. (1998). The Vietnam Experience: a Concise Encyclopedia of American Literature, Songs and Films. Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, Inc.
The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.
- Dougan C. & Lipsman S. 1984 The Vietnam Experience: A Nation Divided. Boston: Boston Publishing
Finally, Tim O’Brien conveys how society’s view on courage plays an important part in the creation of guilt for soldiers in the Vietnam War. At the start of “On the Rainy River”, Tim O’Brien is drafted to be in the Vietnam War against his will. O’Brien says, “I was drafted to fight a war I hated...the American War in Vietnam seemed to me wrong.,” (40). However, regardless if one was against the war, they were forced to anyway. In adhesion, society developed one stance on the war pertaining to courage, which is that the man needs to do the bravest thing, which was to go to war and fight. Although this also ties with the theme of masculinity with men being tough, it more importantly exemplifies courage in going to risk your life for the good of the country.
Anderson, D. (2002). The Columbia guide to the Vietnam War. New York: Columbia University Press.
...ut the hidden thoughts and feelings of the narrator are the real things that need to be examined. The Vietnam War is so colluded with uncertainties that it's meaning and questions of why are still lingering in the minds of citizens of the United States.
...Robert S with Brian VanDeMark. In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam. Vintage Books Edition published by Vintage Books, New York, 1996. Original hardcover edition published by Times Books, New York, 1995.
As we got further and further into the Vietnam War, few lives were untouched by grief, anger and fear. The Vietnamese suffered the worst hardship; children lay dead in the street, villages remained nothing but charred ashes, and bombs destroyed thousands of innocent civilians. Soldiers were scarred emotionally as well as physically, as