Vietnam Metamorphosis Of A Nation Term paper
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VIETNAM METAMORPHOSIS OF A NATION
" Rejoice O young man in thy youth..." (Ecclesiastics). This quote begins the movie, Platoon, and serves as an ironic comment on what is to follow. Both the interviews in the text and the movie, Platoon, attempt to explain a significant human experience, one that was essentially a metamorphosis for many who took part in it. Vietnam was crucial to all who experienced it. The one constant thing is change.
Each of the people interviewed, explained the changes they went through. Some were drafted, some enlisted, most entered Vietnam with a naive, youthful attitude. They were hardened, their souls rapidly aged. Most left, having changed drastically in their attitudes toward our involvement as a country, as well as their own personal involvement. Many despised the protesters at home, and ended up despising the Vietnamese people.
Chris Tucker (Charley Sheen) was the focus for change in the movie. He was surrounded by stock characters from whom he could take or leave whatever they had to offer. He was the one to watch, the moral center of the film whose experience would explain it all for us.
The film is told from his point of view. He wanted to live up to what his grandfather did in World War I and what his father did in World War 2, just as Mike, one of the interviewees, felt he had an obligation to live up to his family's heroics (Wheeler/Becker 273). And, just like Mike, Chris Tucker dropped out of college to do so. Chris Tucker jumped into the war not fully knowing what to expect. He vomits at his first sign of violent death, and can hardly keep up on his first search and destroy mission. But after some exposure to the war he feels as if he were born of two fathers. One, whose morals have not been pillaged and burned by his exposure to death. And one who embraces death and kills without guilt.
The character of Sgt. Barnes (Tom Berringer) in Platoon, represented what was worst in the range of reactions to the hell that is war. Sgt. Barnes displays vicious, unexplained wounds on his face. He makes no attempt to hide these. From one view he looks normal, from another he looks positively robotic. He is literally mean as a snake. These are the exact words that MM uses to describe himself. He says he "freaked a little,...the Army objected to the way I started taking enemy scalps and wearing them on my pistol belt" (Wheeler/Becker 278). Both of these characters are alike in their violent reactions to their war experience. While that seems redundant, war of course is violent, both these reactions were extreme. Sgt. Barnes ends up dead, shot by his own man. MM is at loose ends without a job, restless, (Wheeler/Becker 279).
The soldiers in this war were not supported in many ways that soldiers in other wars were. They definitely did not have the support of the American people judging from the interviewees' experiences; "It was worse when I got home. I came back into the Los Angeles airport and was spit on and called a baby killer and a mother raper" (Wheeler/Becker 275). They also did not have the support of the people whom they were trying to help, the South Vietnamese. This was illustrated in the movie and expressed by the interviewees, simply put, "The Vietnamese hated us' (Wheeler/Becker 278).
The South Vietnamese were caught between a rock and a hard place. If they associated with American soldiers they would be punished by the Vietcong. If they associated with the Vietcong they would be punished by the Americans, as was the village in the movie. It was their country and they had everything to lose.
One device used in the film, Platoon, was portraying the American soldiers as being very extreme. They were either psycho baby-killers or total cowards who would hide under...
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