Seminar Four

A FILM WAR

Required Readings and Viewings:

Required Readings and Viewings:

O’Nan, The Vietnam Reader, 259-277, 441-456

Robert Toplin, 'The Film Maker as Historian,' American Historical Review 93 (1988), 1210-1227. To read this article click on the following link http://uk.jstor.org/search?config=jstor&configissn=00028762&format=expandedgeneralsearch
Then type the word Toplin in the 'author' section, and click 'Begin Search.' Then click on the article to read it online, or to download or print it.

Please watch at least two films from the following list in preparation for the seminar discussion:

‘Go Tell the Spartans’ (1978)
‘Coming Home’ (1978)
Apocalypse Now’ (1979), or ‘Apocalypse Now: Redux’ (2001)
‘Cutter’s Way’ (1981)
‘First Blood’ (1982)
‘Uncommon Valor’ (1983)
‘Missing in Action’ (1984)
‘Platoon’ (1986)
‘Full Metal Jacket’ (1987)
‘Gardens of Stone’ (1987)
‘Good Morning Vietnam’ (1987)
‘Hamburger Hill’ (1987)
‘Good Morning Vietnam’ (1988)
‘Bat 21’ (1988)
‘Born on the Fourth of July’ (1988)
‘Casualties of War’ (1989)
‘In Country’ (1989)
‘The War’ (1994)
‘A Bright Shining Lie’ (1998)
‘Tigerland’ (2000)
‘We Were Soldiers’ (2001)
‘The Quiet American’ (2002)
‘The Fog of War’ (2003)

In preparation for this seminar, please read the extracts from O’Nan’s Vietnam Reader, and make sure that you have watched at least two of the listed movies in preparation for seminar. Then think about the following points in preparation for seminar discussion.

* How, according to Toplin, do filmmakers interpret and present history in general? How does he analyse the 1974 Vietnam War documentary 'Hearts and Minds'?
* The only Hollywood film made during the Vietnam War was ‘The Green Berets,’ a pro-war film. What kind of film was this, and what functions did it serve?
* Both ‘The Deer Hunter’ and ‘Coming Home’ are Vietnam War films in which the war itself is rarely seen. Why? What do these films do, and with what effect?
* How is music used in these films?
* How are American soldiers portrayed in these films? How is American society presented?
* Various directors (Francis Ford Coppola, Oliver Stone etc.) have claimed that their films show the Vietnam War as it really was. What do you make of these claims?
* How do various Vietnam War films reflect the values of America and Americans (and their attitudes towards the war) at the times the movies were made?
* How do ‘second generation’ films (made after 1980) present combat and the ordinary American soldiers who fought in Vietnam? Who, besides the Vietcong, are presented as the enemies in these movies? What does this suggest?