Vietnam war and film

Vietnam War and Film Questions:

1) Both Coming Home and Born on the Fourth of July are based on Ron Kovic’s experience (loosely in the case of the former, explicitly in the latter). Both emphasize the challenges that wounded vets faced upon returning to the States. Interestingly, the films were separated only by only eleven years. Compare and contrast the two.

2) This week’s films (Coming Home, Born on the Forth of July) are full of themes larger than just the Vietnam War film genre. They touch on coming of age, innocence lost, impotence (literal and figurative), and redemption, among others. A couple of questions: 1) What is the larger historical significance; and 2) Have you seen these themes recur throughout the films we’ve watched or are they most glaring this week?

3) Analyze the politics of documentary filmmaking. Note in particular the year Hearts and Minds came out (1974); the United States withdrew combat troops from Vietnam in 1973 and Saigon fell to the North Vietnamese in 1975. Do you find the somewhat different theses of Hearts and Minds and Fog of War convincing?

4) Evaluate Robert McNamara’s lessons. How important do you think the passing of time was in influencing his thinking? Does McNamara contribute to the kind of healing and reconciliation that we discussed in previous weeks?

5) History rarely repeats itself, but its echoes never go away. What parallels can you draw to the Vietnam War from these two works of science fiction, Starship Troopers and The Forever War? What does the lens of science fiction provicixde that more plausible depictions lack?

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