American History on Film-The Platoon Movie and the Vietnam War
Introduction
The Vietnam War occurred in the period of 1955 to 1975 in Asian parts of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. The war is at times referred to as the second Indochina War because it followed the first Indochina War. The war was fought between North Vietnam and South Vietnam. Southern Vietnam was supported by United States of America (U.S.A) in the war against Northern Vietnam which had a communist based government. This Southern Vietnam alliance was also assisted by other anti-communist nations whereas the North got support from communist allies. The U.S had joined the war because it wanted to prevent the take-over of Southern Vietnam by the communist. The war ended in 1975 after the capture of Saigon by Northern Vietnam forces and later in 1976 Northern and Southern Vietnam were unified. The cold war military conflict led to numerous fatalities. The U.S lost 58159 soldiers whereas, 3 t0 4 million Vietnamese got killed. The fatalities also included 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians and Laotians (Hickman, nd).Motion pictures on Vietnam War have been produced to depict the aspects of the Vietnam War which was greatly contentious in terms of U.S engagement. These motion pictures have tried to capture the real picture of the conflict with varying degrees of success. Amongst these motion pictures there are a few that stand out as the most elaborate and clear capture of the war’s happenings. Oliver Stone’s (Director) ‘Platoon’ is one of these motion pictures that give a clear picture of the war on the frontline.
Oliver Stone’s ‘Platoon’ and American History
The Platoon’s motion picture settings are in the wilderness of Vietnam (actually shot in the Philippines) and it starts off directly on a war scene at night. Unlike many traditional war movies the producer directly goes to the war without reviewing its historical follow up. The movie captures a clear picture of combat in the frontlines in Vietnam and gives an answer as to why most casualties were as a result of friendly fire. The historical high numbers of American friendly fire casualties in Vietnam may be attributed to combat at night in strange wild, jungle settings as depicted by the movie. The settings with night scenes show that there was a lot of confusion for newly deployed soldiers that were fighting in unknown territory. The movie shows more on the war front and neglects the historical background of the war. This is because the movie does not have highlights on historical tensions or preparation of war back in America or Vietnam but, rather starts off at a point in the warring process.
Therefore, the movie lays its emphasis on the turn of events on the battle frontline as well as the daily survival and challenges of the jungles of Vietnam. The movie’s focus on the battle-front and the aftermath of great casualty numbers clearly accentuates the historical records of high numbers of fatalities that occurred as a result of the war.Though the settings seem to perfectly fit the Vietnam War environs of combat the plot of the movie fails to highlight all the elements of the Vietnam War. The movie omits highlights on the historical development of the war as well as the aftermath of the war. It does not show anything about the end of the war, its causes and its final effects both on Vietnam and America. Though, we know historically the war led to changes in the terms of U.S engagement in war and later on the Vietnam division ended in a union of the Northern and Southern Vietnam (Dudley, 1998). The movie is thus, a soldier’s view on the war in Vietnam rather than a political or strategist’s view, who may be seated in some office.Stones production techniques especially in night scenes lit by flares gives a vivid picture of a night battle scene full of action and the horror of death.
The sound track songs to the movie at times elicit a feeling of sadness whereas, at times they provide relief from the action of war-especially in the merry making scenes where soldiers get drunk in a bid to drown their sorrows and the exhaustion of battle. The occasional in-fighting and brawls show the agitated mental state that the war has put the soldiers into as a result of the battles. The animalistic reaction of soldiers when they witness the dismembered bodies of their colleagues portrays the instinctive reaction that existed in the war’s encounters (Kopelson & Stone, 1986).Stone’s production is semi-autobiographical in nature because he was involved in the battles of Vietnam as an American Soldier. His characterization and casting is almost perfect because it gives different characters that are based on experiences from the people he served with in the war. Stone’s characters do not differ greatly from historical service-men characters that were involved in the war in Vietnam. Stone’s variation in terms of characterization depicts how individual’s characters show up during war times under different manifestations distorted by the effects of war. Other similar movies based on the same context-Vietnam war- include ‘Full Metal Jacket’ by Stanley Kubrick (June, 1987) and ‘Hamburger Hill’ by John Irvin (August, 1987).
The two can be termed qualitatively effective but, none came closer to capture the essence of the Vietnam War frontline battles and life like the ‘Platoon’ did capture. Though approximately produced at the same time neither did achieve the effect that ‘The Platoon’ left on its audience. The movie has been praised by service-men that were in Vietnam for being a true representation of the battles in Vietnam than any history book could show in writing (Berardinelli, 2003).The movies emphasis on battle is perhaps an intentional plan by Stone to avoid dwelling on the issues of politics. Any inclusion of political elements would have called for a lot of criticism. Thus, Stone avoided highlighting any political issues related to the war in Vietnam. Instead he chose to dwell only on the war (Berardinelli, 2003).Conclusively, Stone gives a vivid and clear recount of the battles and encounters in Vietnam as his priority. He shows the bare survival that the soldiers had to live in, in their struggles against their enemies the Viet-congs. His emphasis is laid on showing the fatalities and destruction of war rather than the political history or causes of war. By avoiding highlighting the whole story Stone does not change the history of the war but, rather avoids the uglier part of the war-the cause of the war. He goes ahead to show the negatives of the actual war battles and leaves the audience to seek answers for themselves about the war.
Works Cited
Berardinelli, J. (2003). Platoon: A film review. Viewed at, http://www.reelviews.net/movies/p/platoon.html, on 12th May 2010.
Dudley, W. (1998). The Vietnam War: Opposing view points. Farmington Hills, MI: Green haven Press.
Hickman, K. (n.d). Vietnam 101: A short introduction, viewed at, http://militaryhistory.about.com/od/vietnamwar/p/VietnamBrief.htm, on 12th May 2010.
Kopelson, A. and Stone, O. (1986). Platoon. United States of America. Orion Pictures.
Stone, O. and Dye. D. (1986). Platoon. Pennsylvania: Charter Books Publishers.
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