Attitudes towards war in the film vary, we see Forest who is extremely proud to be part of this happening, then we see Lieutenant Dan who is a racist who is also negative towards certain aspect of the war, but still he seems happy to be there, partly because he feels it is his duty to be there and die there. Again we have to ask ourselves, is this representative of war, a racist man who can’t treat Blacks and Whites in the same way as they fight for the same country. I don’t think this is very representative of war.
In the war scenes we can see an attack on the troops, we must look and see if this is representative of war. After doing this I believe that parts of the scene is quite representative of the troops, but also some points don’t portray the war in a believable manor. For example the Guerrilla attack, in my view this was well represented, as we know the Vietcong was known as the unseen and unknown enemy. The American troops had to be careful about what they did and how they did it, this is well portrayed in the film, Lieutenant Dan says when they are out for a “long walk”,
“Get down, shut up”
This shows Lieutenant Dan being cautious and suspicious of what could be around the corner. The troops had to walk quietly, looking and listening for any noise. They had to always put up with a tense atmosphere. They could do nothing, they were victims of the Vietcong, and they could never retaliate because they couldn’t see their attackers.
I think this represents the feelings of most soldiers well because all of the soldiers felt the same no matter how intelligent they were, they all knew they could be killed.
In the actual attack we see mass caution and panic within the group of soldiers. This, I think, is well represented because in a case like this when they were under attack they all fear for their lives and did what they though best, some ran, some stood waiting to die, some tried to hide. Perhaps some troops even tried to retaliate by shooting back at the unseen enemy. I think this shows commitment to your country, when you are determinate to fight even at the point when you know you are a target.
We can see in the film the panic and destruction this is quite representative of the American troops. We see men dying and being injured also.
We can also see loyalty in the part of Forest, he goes back to rescue his comrades even when he knows of the dangers. This shows bravery but it is not very representative of he American troops. Not many men could have got out of there alive and uninjured let alone go back in to find comrades. I think this could have been better portrayed. He risked his life for his comrades in the Jungle while a Vietcong attack was happening.
Aspects of the hospital scene are well represented, we see the attitudes of soldiers in the Vietnam war. Lieutenant Dan lost his limbs in the Vietcong attack and the person who played this role displayed a very realistic dramatisation of how a person in that situation would have related to being saved by a comrade. The scene is packed with great anger and emotion and I could imagine the scene in real life, because it must have been very traumatic to come to terms with such a loss. It made me think of the hundreds of Veterans who had similar thoughts and feelings. The film also adjusted to civilian life, the hurt he felt by being looked upon as a cripple. He became dejected and unattractive and he had emotional and psychological problems. I feel this is very representative of the problems veterans in similar situations experienced after coming out of Vietnam.
Overall I believe that the American soldiers were represented well in the film but certain aspects could have been different, but as I said before, this film was not made to inform us about war, it is a love story.
