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--- 329:question:329--week_14_questions_comments-2018 [2018/11/29 11:29] – [Things the Movie got right] wroszell
+++ 329:question:329--week_14_questions_comments-2018 [2021/04/09 06:45] (current) – old revision restored (2018/11/29 08:02) 40.77.167.99
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 - Johana Colchado
-Ron ended up serving from 1961-1967 and did two tours in Vietnam. Most soldiers did one year in Vietnam, as we learned in class, to try and attempt further PTSD in soldiers. Although Ron signed up, and he could have always asked to extend his tour. The movie did accurately portray the continuous turn over of soldiers in Vietnam, as shown with Wilson and Ron later commenting with Wilson's family that they rarely talked to new guys. -Amiti Colson
 ====== Things the Movie got right ======
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 The film showed the status of the V.A. hospitals from Kovic's perspective and his experience. The hospitals were very understaffed and underfunded. The movie did show the bad conditions of the hospitals but it showed the staff as more supportive than Kovic had experienced in the beginning of his time in the V.A. hospital. Then later the film shows how bad the V.A. really was to these veterans as Cruise shouts "I just wanna be treated like a human being". --Jack Hagn https://historyengine.richmond.edu/episodes/view/6476
-I did some searching around on Youtube and found some footage of the 1972 Republican National Convention and you can see Kovic protesting during Nixons speech. https://youtu.be/3fXkuyWBF8Y?t=395 -William Roszell
+I did some searching around on Youtube and found some footage of the 1972 Republican National Convention and you can see Kovic protesting during Nixons speech. https://youtu.be/3fXkuyWBF8Y?t=395
 The movie did a good job allowing the audience to feel immersed in the setting of the war. Graphic scenes were avenues for the film to explore the horror of war. The scene in which the family was killed in their home was extremely powerful because it allowed for the audience to get a sense of the total warfare lodged in Vietnam. It connects ideas about the horrors of war and the effects it has on those who witness its brutality. --Grace Corkran
 Dr. McClurken had mentioned last class how vets had formed a group called VVAW. It was good to see that this important part was included accurately in the film.
 - Johana
-It was a common belief that most veterans were drafted into the war, but in reality 2/3rd of them signed up. This is accurately shown in the film. Also, of those killed in Vietnam 61% of them were under 21 years old. This is also accurately displayed in the film with Wilson's death who was just 19 years old when he died, also the average age of the soldier in Vietnam. https://www.uswings.com/about-us-wings/vietnam-war-facts/
--Amiti Colson
 ====== Questions about interpretation ======
 I am wondering about the prevalence of cartwheels going on in the background of the high school scenes. Were the 1960s just a time when people cartwheeled a lot? Because this movie has at least two cartwheels per tracking shot of the high school. (Justin Curtis)
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 I agree with the earlier comments about a lack of representation, but I would amend it slightly, to say that there is very little depiction of African-Americans in this film in a way that portrays them as being on equal footing to their white counterparts--both in the anti-war movement and in Vietnam. Did anyone else notice that both times that Kovic was carried from the "battlefield" (after being wounded in Vietnam and after being rescued from police in Miami), a black man was carrying him? This seems to suggest a narrative of a white savior--that someone like Kovic is so essential to the plot of the film that token people of color should risk their own lives and freedom for his--all during a time when, as the male orderly put it earlier in the film, people of color were still fighting for their own freedoms. ~Will Everett
-It's interesting how the family started off as the all American family in the beginning of the film. They went to parades, he played baseball, was this star wrestler, who lost and wanted to make his family proud. There was a lot to do with pride in this film. I was wondering what the filmmakers were trying to convey through the mother character. How she represent all who thought they knew what was holy and good American at the time, but she seemed to be a very flawed and overall disappointing character. Also Ron blames her for him joining the marines, she just overall represented an interesting catalytic character in the film. -Amiti Colson
 ====== The movie as a primary source of its time ======
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 The movie represents the end of the 80s as a time when people were becoming more and more fed up with wars that the people felt had little to do with them or the way the government supported and promoted conflict within communist countries.  The way that the young boys are told about the dangers of communism can be comparted to the way Reagan pushed against communism during the 80s. The portrayal of African Americans in the film also says a lot about the age the movie was made in as they are given only a few lines about how little rights they have, yet are still expected to go fight. However, after this line, they are really not present for most of the movie in any major way. –Sky Horne
-The film does a remarkable job of portraying the ugliness of war and the aftermath it has on the soldiers. This contrasted with the initial beliefs and sentiments Ron has towards the war only goes to show how fighting in a war can change your perception. It is a good primary source of its time since it captures the challenges vets went through during the war, afterwards, and dealing with society’s treatment.- Johana Colchado
 ====== Comparing the reading to the movie ======
 In //The Things They Carried//, O'Brien mentions that soldiers had to attack and burn villages without ever knowing what the purpose was, which became an endless cycle. The film shows this aspect of soldiers' involvement in Vietnam. Kovic and his comrades are sent into a village thinking that enemy soldiers are present, but civilians get caught up in the fight instead. -Maddie Shiflett
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 The focus on this movie as being after the war rather than during the war is important. In a similar fashion to the “Best Years of Our Lives”, the focus is on reintegrating to society, but in a much more visceral manner. The scene at the veterans hospital in particular is incredibly moving, and the continued portrayal of PTSD throughout the movie as something that could happen at any time and be triggered by anything helps the audience start to understand what life was for returning veterans. –Sky Horne
-Ron Kovic lost out on a huge part of his life fighting in a war that was ultimately lost, and by the end of the movie he didn't even know what he had been fighting over there for. When he comes back home he's expecting to be treated the way veterans of other wars had been treated, only to either be spit on or ignored. Oliver Stone being roughly the same age as Kovic and having also fought and been wounded in Vietnam probably had an effect on his portrayal of pointless carnage in this movie and of war as being an ugly and anti-romantic thing. - Sam Hartz