Popular War Films

Popular War Films… How are they the same?

The Vietnamese war was a frequent inspiration to movie directors who wanted to tell their own tale of this less glorious part of the American history. Some of these movies were utter crap, some were successful, and others were just good oh war stories. However my two favorite Vietnamese war movies are Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Both of the films throw viewers into the midst of the chaos and brutality of the fray, giving audiences a taste of the violent, visceral nature of an armed conflict, while still allowing moments of honor and heroism to stand out.

The first thing that comes to mind from the two movies is comparison. Both sections show how the elements of war affect an ordinary person. The training and the fighting are always the challenges, but also take a toll on somebody since you’re always physically and mentally abusing from your own self. Both training and real war have their own points of brutality. Training has is strong point on being brutal on the human body and mind, it teaches you and beats you to pulp until you learn on how to act like an animal, how to kill on sight, and that takes a toll on a person, it changes you forever, and can no longer be the same person you were before, instead your mind is filled with hate, and filled with the urge and desire to kill somebody, you’ve just become a killing machine. There are no false heroics in these movies, and nor a standard hero; the narrators are quickly to the point of physical collapse, bedeviled by long marches, no sleep, ants, snakes, cuts, bruises and constant, gnawing fear. The first state of dehumanization has ended.

For some of these soldiers this war is a nightmare, and they want to go home, for others, it’s a heaven, and they kill people like crazy. It doesn’t show as much as in the first section but we can clearly see the second stage of dehumanization on how the trained killers react on a real life war environment....