Home » Annotated Bibliography of Vietnam War Film Criticism » Chronological Arrangement

Annotated Bibliography of Vietnam War Film Criticism Chronological Arrangement by Decade

1966 1968 1969 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003

Compiled by John K. McAskill, Systems Librarian, La Salle University

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1966

MacFadden, Patrick. “The jaundiced screen” Take one 1/1 (Sep-Oct 1966), p. 8-10.

|Film as war propaganda with reference to four unnamed North Vietnamese documentary films then circulating and To the shores of Hell which was made with U.S. Defence Dept. assistance|

“Propaganda and films about the war in Vietnam” Film comment 4/1(fall 1966), p. 4-39.

|Visuals and narration from Viet Cong films; narration of Why Vietnam?; synopsis of The rising storm (Noi gio); production notes on Days of protest; introduction, narration and visuals of While brave men die|

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1967

“Kill Cong” Nation 204 (Apr 10, 1967), p. 453.

|Hollywood’s loss of interest in the Vietnam War after The Green Berets|

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1968

Madsen, Axel. “Big silence: the Vietnam War” Sight and sound 37/1(winter 1967-68), p. 18-19.

|Discusses The Green berets and films in development|

___________. “Vietnam and the movies” Cinema 4/1 (spring 1968), p. 10-13.

|“Reflecting the visceral frustration of the American people over the conflict that no one wanted, the American cinema is sitting this one out.”. Discusses The Green berets, Loin de Vietnam, Vivre pour vivre, and a Samuel Fuller project called “The rifle”|

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1969

Bayer, William. “Films in Vietnam” Film comment 5/2 (spring 1969), p. 46-80.

|Series of interviews of an anonymous former film officer with the USIS who spent two years in Vietnam. He describes USIA/USIA and South Vietnamese propaganda films, the National Motion Picture Center of South Vietnam, NLF films, etc. See also Bayer (1970)|

“Films from North Vietnam and the NLF” Film comment 5/2 (spring 1969), p. 85.

|Titles and descriptions|

Hitchens, Gordon R. “Filmmaking under the bomb” Film comment 5/2(spring 1969), p. 86-7.

|Discussion with North Vietnamese and NLF filmmakers|

Penn, Stanley. “Focusing on youth: A new breed of movie attracts the young, shakes up Hollywood: Low cost films win raves: Dramas portray rebels’ battles against society” Wall Street journal (Nov 4, 1969), p. 1, 27.

|The success of Easy rider and Alice’s restaurant illustrate a new type of low-budget carefully crafted film bearing the stamp of an individual director or producer and tailored to a young audience. They tell stories small in scope but intense in drama and feature young, usually unknown, performers|

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1970

Bayer, William. “Letters” Film comment 6/2 (summer 1970), p. 56-8.

|Comments and corrects errors in his interview which he says was published without his permission|

Connolly, Keith. “Vietnam on film” Cinema papers n.21 (May-Jun 1970), p. 334-8.

|Discusses five films. Questions their lack of political or social rationale. Asserts they are typical of their genre in presenting nationalistic propaganda, rather than reflecting reality. He suggests “… old war films never die-they just mutate.”|

Dougall, Lucy. War/peace film guide Berkeley, Calif. : World Without War Council,1970.

|Teaching aids for an anti-war film program. Some reference to relevant feature films, but chiefly documentaries. Bibliography and filmographies. Subject index|

Farber, Stephen. “Movies from behind the barricades” Film quarterly 24/2 (winter 1970-71), p. 24-33.

|Hollywood’s attempts to exploit campus rebellion and student protest as film subjects have been commercial disasters. Public reception was negatively affected by the student deaths at Kent State and Jackson. The movies would always seem inaccurate and incomplete because a large segment of their target audience considered themselves expert on the subject. Examines The strawberry statement, Getting straight, and The pursuit of happiness in some detail|

Napalm. “Army flicks” Great speckled bird 3/50 (Dec 14, 1970), p. 6. Pietlock, S. (see under Sheehan, C.) Sheehan, C. and Pietlock, S. “Use of film in world resistance” Amex-Canada 2/4 (Jun 1970), p. 26+

|How anti-Vietnam War activists and deserters are using film to spread their ideas|

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1971

“Flicks against the war” Augur |Eugene, Or.| 2/7 (Jan 14, 1971), p. 18.

|Announces an anti-war amateur film contest|

Shain, Russell Earl. An analysis of motion pictures about war released by the American film industry, 1930-1970 Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1971.

|In the light of the growing rejection of Cold War assumptions, the author analyzes a selection of feature war films from the preceding 40 years. He divides the films into three distinct periods and explores their social, political and economic influence on American life. The analysis includes A Yank in Vietnam and The Green Berets as well as seven other Vietnam War related films. Bibliography and filmography|

|Revised and published: Shain, 1976|

Silber, Irwin. “Revolting isn’t revolution” Guardian |New York| 23/15 (Jan 9, 1971), p. 13.

|Chiefly a review of MGM’s attempts to profit from “hip ‘revolution’ films” like Strawberry statement and Zabriske Point|

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1972

Daniel, Joseph. Guerre et cinema : grandes illusions et petites soldats 1895-1971Paris : Colin, 1972.

|Study of French war films with some discussion of feature films and documentaries of the Indochinese War, decolonization, and the Vietnam War. Bibliography and index. In French|

Hennebelle, Guy. “Decouverte du cinema vietnamien” Ecran 5 (May 1972), p. 22-4.

|Brief history of Vietnamese cinema from 1910 to the present. In French|

Rodney. “Vietnam films” Great speckled bird 5/23 (Jun 12, 1972), p. 6.

|Brief reviews of films to be shown in conjunction with anti-war demonstrations during a Nixon visit to Atlanta|

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1973

C., H.. (see under “Films voor Vietnam”)
Dougall, Lucy. War/peace film guide 2nd ed. Chicago, Ill. : World Without War Publications, 1973.

|Update ed. of Dougall, 1970|

“Films voor Vietnam” Skrien n.34-35 (May/Jun 1973), p. 37-9.

|Survey of filmmaking by the NLF and North Vietnam. In Swedish. Signed H.C.|

Geerling, S., et al. “Films voor Vietnam” Skrien n.34-35 (May/Jun 1973), p. 17-19.

|Survey of the cinema in Vietnam and interview with Luong Xuan Tam about problems of filmmaking in Vietnam. In Swedish|

Giachetti, Romano. “Il cinema americano e la guerra nel Vietnam” Cinema nuovo 22 (Nov/Dec 1973), p. 440-45.

|How could American film and television represent a war in which Americans had attacked, tortured and violated a population which was among the most peaceful on earth? Bibliographical references. In Italian|

H. C. (see under “Films voor Vietnam”)
Hennebelle, Guy. “Le cinema vietnamien” Ecran 14 (Apr 1973), p. 29-32.

|Chiefly an annotated filmography of North Vietnamese fiction films with an added section and filmography of documentary or propaganda films produced by the National Libaeration Front. In French|

Lefevre, Raymond. “Le Vietnam, c’est aussi l’Amerique” Cinema 73/178-179 (Jul/Aug 1973), p. 236-8.

|Effects of the Vietnam War reflected directly and indirectly in American film|

Ringe, Paul. “Films: Vietnam – a bust at the boxoffice too” Show 3 (Apr 1973), p. 50-51.

|Confused national opinion led Hollywood to avoid the Vietnam War. Two people and Limbo are cited as two examples of Hollywood’s confused and cliched approach to the war|

Smith, Julian. “Between Vermont and violence: Film portraits of Vietnam veterans” Film quarterly 26 (summer 1973), p. 10-17.

|Analyzes some twenty films then extant with Vietnam veteran characters, compares them with films about World war II veterans, and finds: “…the majority of films about veterans of Vietnam present them as violent drifters, brutalized and threatening figures reflecting (if not created by) unconscious attitudes toward the war and the men who fought it.”|

__________. “Look away, look away, look away, movie land” Journal of popular film 2/1 (1973), p. 29-46.

|Hollywood’s avoidance of the war as a subject is hard to explain. Some explanations advanced by others include: Hollywood was not willing to commit to one side or the other; a large part of the audience was opposed to the war or just did not want to know about it; and saturation coverage by television diminished the audience. “Vietnam’s disorienting effect on our society, the indeterminate nature of this war we can’t seem to win or abandon, is reflected in our filmmakers’ inability to find an appropriate format…” Bibliographical references|

Tuchman, Mitchell A. Structure of cinematic thought : American political films 1968-1971 Thesis (Ph.D.)–Yale University, 1973.

|In the years 1968-1971 commercial and independent American filmmakers turned their attention to temporal issues and social and political life. Selects 103 dramatic and documentary films of the period (41 with Vietnam War connections) for analysis. The camera serves as an extension of human perception and the author hypothesizes that films of historical events and political attitudes are homologous with the perceptual frames of reference of the filmmakers. The viewer may learn what the filmmaker has discovered of the ‘deeper’ significance of historical events. Filmography and bibliography|

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1974

Chang, Cha. “… O mire, o druzhbe” Iskusstvo kino n. 1 (1974), p. 124-6.

|In Russian|

Fargier, Jean-Paul, et al. “Cinema vietnamien” Cinethique n.17-18 (1974), p. 108-15.

|An introduction to North Vietnamese cinema with mention of many documentaries and a few dramas. In French|

Film u. Fernsehen in Vietnam, 1920-1974 : Dokumentation : ausfuhrliche Darstellung der Vietnam-Berichterstattung des Westdeutschen Fernsehens 2., verb. Aufl. Koln : Initiativkomitee fur die Starkung des Vietnamesischen Film- und Fernsehwesens, |1974|?

|With contributions from Truong Chinh, Ha Xuan Truong and Willi Ludecke and a filmography of Vietnamese daramatic and documentary films since 1953|

Ha, Xuan Truong (see under Film u. Fernsehen in Vietnam, 1920-1974)
Initiativkomitee fur die Starkung des Vietnamesischen Film- und Fernsehwesens (see under Film u. Fernsehen in Vietnam, 1920-1974)
Le, Dan. “Le cinema vietnamien: Des hautes et des bas” Cinema Quebec 3/9-10 (Aug 1974), p. 77-8.

|Survey of South Vietnamese film history from 1900-75|

Ludecke, Willi (see under Film u. Fernsehen in Vietnam, 1920-1974)

Nghi, Pham Thanh (see Pham, Thanh Nghi)

Pham, Thanh Nghi. “The rise of cinema in South Vietnam = L’essor du cinema dans la Republique du Sud-Viet-Nam” Young cinema and theatre 4 (winter 1974), p. 7-10.

|Origins and development of revolutionary film production in South Vietnam. In English and French|

Truong, Chinh (see under Film u. Fernsehen in Vietnam, 1920- 1974)
“La USIS en Vietnam: Entrevista con un ex-oficial de cine del gobierno de los Estados Unidos” Cine cubano n.86-88 (1974), p. 109-32.

Wikarska, Carol. “Interview with Tra Giang at the Moscow Film Festival” Women and film 1/5-6 (1974), p. 45-7, 110.

|In an interview at the Moscow Film Festival, actress Tra Giang discusses the role of women in North Vietnam and the difficulties of filmmaking there|

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1980

Ahlander, Lars. “Tran Vu, vietnamesisk film-veteran” Chaplin 22/1 166|

(Feb 1980), p. 31-2.

|Brief interview with the veteran director Tran Vu on the current state of the Vietnamese film industry. Includes citations of war related films. In Swedish|

Britton, Andrew. “Sideshows: Hollywood in Vietnam” Movie 27-28 (winter-spring 1980-81), p. 2-23.

|Examines how Hollywood portrayed the war in such 1970’s films as The deer hunter, Apocalypse now and Coming home|

Brode, Douglas. Films of the sixties Secaucus, N.J. : Citadel Press, 1980.

|Discusses nine films with Vietnam War connections|

Cavallero, Joseph. Reflections on a little war : the Vietnam conflict as portrayed in selected examples of art, literature, film, and popular music Thesis (M.A.)–Northwest Missouri State University, 1980.

|Examines how the war has been portrayed as a way of better understanding U.S. motives for going to Vietnam. Discusses The Green Berets, Coming home and The Deer hunter. Bibliography|

Chyong, Kha Suan. “… Svoe nepovtorimoe siovo : Nastoishoee iskusstvo ne stareet” Iskusstvo kino (1980) n. 1, p. 79-82.

|In Russian|

Dowling, John. War/peace film guide 3rd ed. Chicago, Ill. : World Without War Publications, 1980.

|Updated ed. of Dougall, 1973|

Emerson, Gloria. “Forum: How films lie about Vietnam” National Catholic reporter 17 (Nov 14, 1980), p. 7-9.

|The author, who covered the war as a New York times correspondent, reacts to television broadcast of Vietnam War films (theatrical and made for television). “Nothing on commercial television is going to teach Americans the real reasons we went to war in Vietnam, why we tried to destroy it, who defied us, why we were destined to lose the war and how much we now hunger for revenge”|

Eysakkers, Harry. “Hollywood in Vietnam” Andere sinema 15 (Jan 1980), p. 32-8.

|Discussion of Hollywood’s approach to the Vietnam War through the first wave of post-war films. In Dutch|

Ferrario, Davide. “Qui e altrove” Cineforum n.195 (Jun 1980), p. 350-59.

|Discusses Apocalypse now, The Deer hunter, Coming home, Go tell the Spartans, Tracks, and Who’ll stop the rain. In Italian|

Foll, Jan A. “Melodram o deziluzi vietnamske valky” Film a doba 26 (May 1980), p. 291.

|On the first wave of Vietnam War films. In Czech|

* Garcia Tsao, Leonardo. “Las guerras ya no son como antes: Viet-Nam derrota a Hollywood” Imagenes 1/9 (Oct 1980), p. 47-54.

|Compares Hollywood’s treatment of the Vietnam War with similar attitudes in other American films. In Spanish|

Hibbin, Nina. “Hollywood-filmen och kriget i Vietnam” Chaplin 22/6 |n.171| (1980), p. 238-42.

|Surveys Hollywood films which describe the war (including Custer’s last stand (67) and Castle keep (70), films not previously identified by other authors). In Swedish|

Ignatovski, Vladimir. “Novite izmereniia na vietnamskiia sindrom … “ Kinoizkustvo 35/9 (Sep 1980), p. 20-29.

|Films effected the Vietnam War, especially Hair and Apocalypse now. In Bulgarian|

Kerr, Paul. “The Vietnam subtext” Screen 21/2 (summer 1980), p. 67-72.

|Portrayal of Vietnam in recent American films and consideration of problems raised by critical approaches adopted at a recent Manchester SEPT weekend school|

Kranz, Rachel C. “Apocalypse now and The Deer hunter: The lies aren’t over” Jump cut 23 (Oct 1980), p. 18-20.

|“Although both films evoke the superficial horrors of Viet Nam, they obscure the very realities most crucial to understanding it. The war in Viet Nam is hidden behind a filmic style that finally reinforces the futility of any attempt to understand or prevent war.” (p. 18)|

Lenihan, John H. “Cold war-path,” chapter 3 in his Showdown : confronting modern America in the western film Urbana, Ill. : Univ. of Illinois Press, 1980. (p. 24-54)

|Describes the influence of the Vietnam War on western films of the late 1960s|

Linenthal, Edward Tabor. “From hero to anti-hero: The transformation of the warrior in modern America” Soundings 63/1 (1980), p. 79-93.

|Describes a shift in American perceptions of the nature of the war and the symbol of the warrior. Traditional martial imagery of righteousness and honor has been turned upside down by the Vietnam War. Bibliographical references|

Marin, Peter. “Coming to terms with Vietnam: Settling our moral debts” Harper’s (Dec 1980), p. 41-56.

|Consideration and avoidance of moral questions raised by the Vietnam War in literature, in the first wave of Vietnam War films, and by veterans|

Nave, Bernard. “Vietnam et fiction dans le cinema americain” Jeune cinema n.126 (Apr-May 1980), p. 6-13.

|American cinema has the capacity to speak to political reality and integrate this in its productions. Numerous films have been effected by the military and political fiasco in South East Asia. Discusses a dozen such films made since the end of the war. In French|

Palmer, William J. “The Vietnam War films” Film library quarterly 13/4 (1980), p. 4-14.

|Discusses the early failure of Hollywood to cover the war, producing instead pseudo-Vietnam War films like Taxi driver and Rolling thunder. In contrast, late 1970s films like The Deer hunter and Apocalypse now are seen as successful portrayals of the war in both realistic and symbolic terms|

Rachleff, Owen S. “Vietnam in living color” Midstream 26/1 (Jan 1980), p. 41-5.

|The Vietnam War was a positive catalyst in American history, sparking the youth rebellion of the 1960s which involved changes in “the mores, music, and the basic gas-guzzling American way of life.” Films produced in the first wave after the war relish the anti-heroic, even anti-patriotic aspect of American involvement. Analyzes Apocalypse now, The Deer hunter, and Hair|

Sayre, Nora. “At war in the movies: Film teaches us – sometimes – to know our enemies or ourselves” Progressive 44/2 (Feb 1980), p. 51-4.

|First wave of Vietnam War films contrasted with films of World War II and Korea. Filmmakers of the 1970s are sensitive to the intense feelings of audiences on the subject of Vietnam|

Suid, Lawrence. The film industry and the Vietnam War Thesis (Ph.D.)–Case Western Reserve University, 1980. (vii, 288 leaves)

|For more than 70 years, the film industry has helped shape the perceptions the American people have had of war and the armed forces. Until the mid-1960s, Hollywood generally produced movies containing a positive image of the American military. The breakdown of the studio system resulting from the onslaught of television and the subsequent rise of young, independent producers not beholden to the traditional relationship between the film industry and the military led to the making of a series of movies that showed the armed forces in a new and less favorable light. Ultimately, however, the Vietnam War, not Dr. Strangelove, Fail Safe, or Seven Days in May caused the American people to rethink their perceptions of the United States military. Movies about Vietnam that went into release beginning in 1977 have portrayed the military and war in negative terms. For the most part, the officers commanded incompetently, the fighting men used drugs and killed innocent civilians, the war was a surrealistic nightmare rather than a patriotic adventure, and the men who returned home suffered physical and mental wounds that prevented them from assuming normal lives. Filmography and bibliography|

Tsao, Leonardo Garcia (see Garcia Tsao, Leonardo)

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1981

Adair, Gilbert. Hollywood’s Vietnam : from the Green berets to Apocalypse now London ; New York : Proteus Books, 1981.

Reprinted as: Vietnam on film New York : Proteus, 1981; and in a revised and updated edition as Hollywood’s Vietnam London : Heinemann, 1989.

|Chronological analysis of the first wave of American Vietnam War films in the 1960s and 1970s, with emphasis on The Green berets and Apocalypse now. Notes Hollywood’s self-censorship, use of other genres and the reversal of chronology in covering the war. The subject was too complex to be confined in closed plot structures. Even coverage of the youth culture tended to reveal contradictions rather than substance. Beyond mere documentation, the absence of movies on Vietnam makes it worthy of study. Filmography and index|

Auster, Albert and Quart, Leonard. “Man and superman : Vietnam and the new American hero” Social policy 11 (January/February, 1981), p. 60-64.

|Vietnam War films create a mythic fabric that helps the public comprehend the war and integrate it into the American imagination and psyche. This is done with two archetypal heroes: the wounded veteran and the superman. Each provides a convenient symbol for a war that was impossible to deal with in the traditional Hollywood manner|

Bui, Phu. “Nang tien bay tren que huong dat Viet” in his Dien anh qua nhung chang duong Ha Noi : Van Hoa, 1981.

|Translated into Italian as “La settima dea” in Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema (19th : 1983 : Pesaro, Italy). Cinemasia. Venice : Marsillo, 1983. |v. 1. Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia| (p. 22-60)|

|Translated into English as “The seventh goddess” in Framework25 (1984), p. 70-93|

|General history of filmmaking in Vietnam With references to the international background. This chapter traces the origins of Vietnamese cinema through the colonial traditions they resisted|

Diem, Chin Mai. “Vsegda s naradom” Iskusstvo kino (1981) n.5, p. 138-46.

|In Russian|

Douglass, Wayne J. “The criminal psychopath as Hollywood hero” Journal of popular film 8/4 (winter 1981), p. 30-9.

|Describes how traditional gangster film heroes have become criminal psychopaths in post World War II films. Makes reference to Targets, Dirty Harry and Taxi driver. This last film and others are cited as examples of the use of the alienated Vietnam veteran as the latest manifestation of the psychopathic hero|

Lam, Toi (actor). “Sobytie v istorii v’etnamskogo kino” Iskusstvo kino (1981), no. 11, p. 17-19.

|Survey history of Vietnamese cinema|

Maxwell, Richard. “Film: Military movies and the contradictions of American culture: The crazed war veteran has transcended his ideological origins and become a film staple” Cressett 44/9 (1981), p. 24-6.

|How the outcast war veteran appeals to both left and right and has been used in films like Escape from New York, Breaker Morant, and Cutter’s way|

Modleski, Tania. “A father is being beaten: Male feminism and the war film” in her Feminism without women : culture and criticism in a “postfeminist” age New York : Routledge, 1981. (p. 61-75)

|Uses Full metal jacket, Heartbreak Ridge, Lethal weapon, Platoon and Top gun as examples. Bibliographical references and index|

Quart, Leonard (see under Auster, Albert)
Scheurer, Timothy E. “Myth to madness : America, Vietnam, and popular culture” Journal of American culture 4 (summer 1981), p. 149-65.

|Since formal disengagement in 1975 artists and authors have been trying to make sense of our role in Vietnam. Describes novels, feature films (Apocalypse now, Coming home, Deer hunter, Go tell the Spartans, and Who’ll stop the rain) and a TV movie (Friendly fire) of the late 1970s which are representative of this effort|

Stephens, Philip (see under Thompson, Lawrence)

Suid, Lawrence. “Hollywood and Vietnam” Journal of American culture 4/2 (1981), p. 136-48.

|On Hollywood’s response to Vietnam thru the first wave of Vietnam War films. Americans turned against the war because it lacked moral and political justification, and because we were losing. With the exception of John Wayne’s The Green Berets, Hollywood reflected this attitude. Mark Robson’s 1973 Limbo “was the only other Hollywood feature film to explore any aspect of the American experience in Vietnam until 1977” (p. 137). In 1977 a number of films explored the POW experience. “With the release of Coming home in 1978, however, Hollywood finally indicated a willingness to deal directly with the ramifications of America’s experiences in a losing war” (p. 139). Discusses The boys in Company C, Go tell the Spartans, The deer hunter, Hair, and Apocalypse now. Bibliographical references|

Thompson, Lawrence; Welch, Richard and Stephens, Philip. “A Vietnam filmography” Journal of popular film and television 9/1 (spring 1981), p. 61-7.

|Annotated list of 37 American films dealing with the war, as well as pre-1960 films on the country and some films which include Vietnam veteran characters|

Thomson, David. “The end of the American hero” Film comment (Jul/Aug 1981), p. 13-17.

|Discusses Zabriskie Point and Taxi driver in light of the classic American film ending which seeks vindication|

Toi, Lam (see Lam, Toi)
* Viguier, Jacques. Films americains sur la guerre du Vietnam Thesis (Ph.D.)–Toulouse, 1981.

Welch, Richard (see under Thompson, Lawrence)

* Whiteman, Y. “Vietnam on film” Films 1/5 (Apr 1981), p. 18-21.

|On changing attitudes towards the representation of the war on film|

Wierzewski, Wojciech. “Filmowe echa studenckiej rewolty” Kino 16/2 (Feb 1981), p. 33-6.

|Survey of US films of the 60s and 70s on student demonstrations. In Polish|

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1982

Adatto, Kiku. American fantasy : social conflicts and social myths in films of the 1970s Thesis (Ph.D.)–State University of New York, Stony Brook, 1982.

|Examines the portrayal of American institutions in dramatic films of the 1970s in light of the cultural crisis engendered by the Vietnam War and Watergate.. Uses content analysis to examine the foreground and background of the ten top grossing films of the decade as well as films receiving major awards. Found that two thirds of these films dramatized institutional corruption and ineffectiveness. They rarely presented role models of individuals reforming or transforming these institutions. The heroes are mavericks who resist or deviate from institutional goals. Reformers or protesters are rarely presented as heroic role models. Bibliography and filmography|

Auster, Al and Quart, Leonard. “The wounded vet in postwar film” Social policy (fall 1982), p. 25-31.

|Traditional shallow Hollywood treatment of the disabled began to change after World War II. Vietnam War veterans, not having fought for a good cause however, were often stereotyped as some variety of madman. Films like Coming home and Cutter’s way have begun to treat disabled veterans with greater greater realism|

Bereznitskii, Ian. “Gollivud i uotergeit, ili kino dlia ‘Molchalivogo bol’shinstva’” Iskusstvo kino 2 (1982), p. 134-62.

|In Russian|

Farocki, Harun. “Hund von der Autobahn” Filmkritik 26/1 (1982), p. 5-32.

|Essay on the Vietnam War and its images. In German|

Hellmann, John. “Vietnam and the Hollywood genre film : Inversions of American mythology in The Deer hunter and Apocalypse now” American quarterly 34/4 (1982), p. 418-39.

|Analyzes the narrative formulas and connections underlying two of the most significant Vietnam War films of the first wave. Bibliographical references|

Kagan, Norman. Greenhorns : foreign filmmakers interpret America Ann Arbor, Mich. : Pierian Press, 1982.

|Analysis of seven films, four of which (Made in U.S.A., The model shop, Taking off, and Zabriskie point) have Vietnam War references. Filmography and bibliographical references|

Kieffer, Anne. “Sur le cinema vietnamien: Un entretien avec Tham Vo Hoang” Jeune cinema 141 (Mar 1982), p. 13-16.

|Difficulties of filmmaking in Vietnam in time of war and current handicaps. In French|

Mikhailov, Bozhidar. “Vietnamskogo kino dnes” Kinoizkustvo 37 (Dec 1982), p. 66-70.

|In Russian|

Pham, Ngoc Truong. “Dien anh o Viet Nam truoc cach mang thang tam” Dien anh 28/2 (Apr 1982), p. ?

|Survey of cinema in Vietnam during the French colonial period from 1895-1945. In Vietnamese. Translated into Italian, Pham, 1983|

________________. “Su ra doi cua dien anh dan toc 1945-1953” Tap chi dien anh 31 (Sep-Oct, 1982), p. 4-5.

|Continues the survey of cinema in Vietnam thru 1953. In Vietnamese|

Quart, Leonard (see under Auster, Al)

Rosenbaum, Jonathan. “Vietnam dispatches : Vietnam was the great crisis of conscience in modern American history, but its meaning has continued to be evaded by Hollywood” in The world at war (edited by Ann Lloyd) London : Orbis ; New York : RCA Direct Marketing, 1982. (p. 79-82)

|Discusses the major first wave films. “Casting the Reds as the bad guys helped to assuage the American guilt about Vietnam atrocities” (p. 80)|

Viguier, Jacques. “La guerre du Vietnam au cinema” Cinema 82 n.281 (May 1982), p. 16-29.

|Films about the war made in the US thru 1981. In French|

Wilson, James C. Vietnam in prose and film Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1982.

|Illustrates how the Vietnam War has been misrepresented in literature and film. The emphasis is on literature with just one chapter analyzing films. Filmography, bibliography and index|

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1983

Barton, Kenneth G. The celluloid legacy : the Vietnam War portrayed in Hollywood films, 1977-1979 Thesis (M.A.)–Georgetown University, 1983. (xii, 106 leaves)

|An evaluation of the “Vietnam experience” by examining how the war is portrayed in commercial film to see how these “reflect the societal values, fears and myths that generated America’s tragic intervention in Vietnam.” (p. viii). Since the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine in 1947, finds three periods of filmmaking about Vietnam: the pre-war years (1948-63); the crisis years (1964-75); and the post-war cycle (1976-79). In the last period, the author finds three subcategories of film: the veteran on the home-front; the soldier in combat; and the epic (The deer hunter). Analyzes The Green Berets, the documentary Hearts and minds and eight other films of the 1977-79 first wave. Bibliography|

Bui, Phu. “La settima dea” in Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema (19th : 1983 : Pesaro, Italy). Cinemasia. Venice : Marsillo, 1983.

|v. 1. Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia| (p. 22-60)|

|Translation of “Nang tien bay tren que huong dat Viet” in his Dien anh qua nhung chang duong (Bui 1981)|

|Traces the origins of Vietnamese cinema through the colonial traditions they resisted. In Italian. Includes polyglot filmography with Italian, French, English, and Vietnamese titles|

Dolmatowskaja, Galina. “Das Vietnamsyndrome” Beitrage zur Film-und-Fernsehwissenschaft 24/3 (1983), p. 95-114.

|Discusses US films of the first wave with analysis of Coming home, The Deer hunter, Apocalypse now, and The Stuntman. Concludes that the lessons of Vietnam are an as yet unexploded mine in the body of America. In German|

Ibragimov, Azbar. “Oderzhav istoricheskuiu pobedu …” Iskusstvo kino (1983) no. 4, p. 138-44.

|Survey of Vietnamese filmmaking. In Russian|

Jacobson, Harlan. “Thunder on the right” Film comment 19 (Jul/Aug 1983), p. 9-11, 74.

|In the past six years the military image and its attendant mythology has rebounded from the negative effects of the Vietnam War. Star wars began a wave of films romanticizing the military, overcoming “the futility films of Apocalypse now, The Deer hunter, and Coming home. In these the heroes lost their legs, lost their wives, lost their hearts, minds, and lives.” (p. 10)|

Just, Ward S. “Images of war: How America re-creates the ‘blood and darkness’” TV guide (Jan 29, 1983), p. 2-4.

Ly, Thai Bao. “30 nam nganh dien anh, Xiet bao gian kho nhung rat tu hao” Tap chi dien anh 33 (Jan-Feb 1983), p. 2-5.

Norden, Martin F. “The fantasy films of post-Vietnam America” Focus : teaching English language arts 10 (fall 1983), p. 70-8.

|These films provide clear-cut distinctions between good and evil and easily recognizable ‘innocent’ heroes. They meet the popular cultural needs created by the Vietnam War and Watergate. Bibliographical references|

Olla, Gianni. “Vietnam: Politica e sentimenti” Cineforum 23/226 (Jul-Aug 1983), p. 18-25.

|Report on Vietnamese films shown at the festival of Pesaro in 1983|

Pham, Ngoc Truong. “Cinema Vietnamita dalle origini al 1945” in Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema (19th : 1983 : Pesaro, Italy). Cinemasia. Venice : Marsillo, 1983. (v. 1. Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia, p. 16-21). Filmography|

|Translation of Pham, 1982|

“Rozhdennaia v. bor’be: K 30-letiu v’etnamskoi kinematograffi” Iskusstvo kino (1983) no. 4, p. 133-8.

|Survey of thirty years of the cinema in Vietnam. In Russian|

30 years of Vietnam’s cinema art Ha Noi : The Vietnam Film Archives, 1983. (64 p.)

|Highlights of the first thirty years of official Vietnamese filmmaking, heavily illustrated, with filmographies and credits of Vietnamese dramatic and documentary films that have won national and international awards. In English|

Trung Son. Cau chuyen lam phim ve Bac Ho Hanoi : Van Hoa, 1983.

|Film production in Vietnam and films about Ho Chi Minh in particular. In Vietnamese|

Xuan, Lam. “Organization of the Cinema and Television Branch in Vietnam”

|unpublished paper|

|Translated into Italian as “Organizzazione del settore Cinema e Televisione in Vietnam” in Mostra internazionale del nuovo cinema (19th : 1983 : Pesaro, Italy). Cinemasia. Venice : Marsillo, 1983. |v. 1. Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines, Indonesia| (p. 61-71)|

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1984

Banh, Bao and Huu, Ngoc. L’itineraire du film de fiction Vietnamien : experiences vietnamiennes Hanoi : Editions en langues etrangers, 1984.

|History of dramatic filmmaking in Vietnam. Includes filmographies for 1959-83 with Vietnamese and French titles and credits|

Bassan, Raphael. “Paris” revue du cinema n. 397 (1984), p. 85-6.

|Report on a Vietnamese film festival in Paris, June 20-26, with reference to a number of films on the war. In French|

Bui, Phu. “The seventh goddess” Framework 25 (1984), p. 70-93.

|Translation of “La settima dea”: Bui, 1983|

|Traces the origins of Vietnamese cinema through the colonial traditions they resisted|

Cagin, Seth and Dray, Philip. Hollywood films of the seventies : sex drugs, violence, rock n’ roll and politics New York : Harper & Row, 1984.

|Analyzes eighteen feature films with Vietnam War connections. Bibliographical references and index|

Delmas, Ginette and Tournes, Andree. “Semaine vietnamienne” Jeune cinema n.161 (Oct 1984), p. 16-18.

|Article on films shown at a Vietnamese film week in Paris, with reviews of Pour l’avenir and Le village d’Antan|

Di Francesco, Anthony R. Vietnam journey : Psychohistorical contexts of post traumatic stress as reflected by myth in film Thesis (Ph.D.)–California School of Professional Psychology, Berkeley, 1984.

|How filmed depictions of the war contribute to PTS in Vietnam veterans. Bibliography and filmography|

Dolmatowskaja, Galina. “Der Vietnamkrieg und seine Darstellung im internationalen Film” Beitrage zur Film-und-Fernsehwissenschaft 25/3 (1984 special issue), p. 7-211.

|Russian analysis of the place of the Vietnam War in international film. In German. Translated into Russian, Dolmatowskaja, 1985|

Huu, Ngoc (see under Banh, Bao)

* Jensen, K. B. “Gensyn med Vietnam” Levender billeder 10 (Jun 12, 1984), p. 8-9.

Nghi, Pham Thanh (see Pham, Thanh Nghi)

Pham, Thanh Nghi. “Vietnamese cinema – from its origins to 1945” Framework 25 (1984), p. 64-70.

|Problems of creating a Vietnamese cinema under French colonial rule|

Quart, Leonard (see under Auster, Al)

Richman, Liliane G. Themes and ideology in the Vietnam films 1975-1983 Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Texas, Dallas, 1984. (vii, 306 leaves)

|Analysis of a body of twenty films which are a collective expression of the ideological, psychological, and philosophical climate in America during the Vietnam War and the period following. They provide indices of American attitudes toward the war, those who fought it and toward returning veterans. Through content analysis of Vietnam War films the permanent impact of the war on American society can be more precisely defined and better understood. Bibliography|

Rollins, Peter C. “The Vietnam War: Perceptions through literature, film and television” American quarterly 36/3 (1984), p. 419-32.

|General review of information sources and films with descriptions of three major collections: The Vietnam War Veteran Archives; The Vietnam War Literature Collection; and the Indochina Studies Project of the Institute of East Asian Studies|

Smith, Claude J., Jr. “Clean boys in bright uniforms: The rehabilitation of the U.S. military in films since 1978” Journal of popular film and television 11/4 (winter 1984), p. 144-51.

|The first wave of Vietnam War films in the late 1970s “were either critical of the military, especially the officer corps (typically depicted as incompetent, corrupt, and self-serving), or critical of our involvement in Vietnam, or they depicted anti-heroes as protagonists in ambiguous moral situations.” Officer and a gentleman (1982) , however, “marks a full-fledged reversion to films of the 1940s… The wide audience acceptance of this film suggests an approbative change in attitude toward the military.” The author then describes what caused the change: an American feeling of weakness and vacillation (which lead to the election of Reagan) and a desire for a value system to believe in which replaced the ennui and malaise following Vietnam. The age of the typical moviegoer (25) also makes the anti-military attitude of the Vietnam generation irrelevant. Bibliographical references|

Spark, Alasdair. “The soldier at the heart of the war: The myth of the Green Beret in the popular culture of the Vietnam era” Journal of American studies 18/1 (1984), p. 29-48.

|The Green Beret is “the soldier most intimately associated with the Vietnam War in the public mind” (p. 29) and serves as a vehicle in film and literature to express the experience of Vietnam. Discusses the use of the Green Beret in several first wave films with detailed analysis of The deer hunter and Apocalypse now. Bibliographical references|

Stringer, Kenneth Thompson. A substitute for victory? : fictional portraits of the American soldier and combat in Vietnam Thesis (Ph.D.)–American University, 1984.

|Fictional portraits of combat in Vietnam are indispensable sources for understanding and explaining the moral experience of fighting in such a war. Examines representative novels and films that reflect various moral perceptions of and responses to the American military effort, focusing on how such works depict the war and the American soldier in combat. The cultural legacy of the Vietnam war is a diverse set of fictional images, radically different from the fictional response to past wars which may indicate a change in the popular perception of warfare and may serve as a substitute for victory on the battlefield. Bibliography|

Tournes, Andree (see under Delmas, Ginette)

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1990

Adams, William. “Screen wars: The battle for Vietnam” Dissent37 (winter 1990), p. 65-72.

Reprinted as: “Vietnam screen wars” in Culture in an age of money : the legacy of the 1980’s in America (edited by Nicholas Mills) Chicago : Dee, 1991. (p. 156-84)

|The second wave of Vietnam War films is not simply a manifestation “Reaganism” (reaffirmation of “traditional” values, anti-communism, fetishes of the marketplace, and an attack on alternative lifestyles) but shows tangled impulses: self-criticism and reaffirmation, toughness and sentimentality|

America rediscovered : critical essays on literature and film in the Vietnam War (edited by Owen W. Gilman, Jr. and Lorrie Smith) New York : Garland, 1990.

|Collection of 23 (6 on film) essays “about the condition of being an American – past, present, and future … by means of careful consideration of various texts that have emerged from the experience of the war in Vietnam” (p.xiii). Relevant articles cited separately|

Appelo, Tim. “Where the war goes on and on …: In books, movies, and television, we have tried both to face the war and to domesticate it” Entertainment weekly (Feb 23, 1990), p. 53-4.

|Aftermath of the war in American arts|

Aufderheide, Pat. “Vietnam: Good soldiers” in Seeing through movies (edited by Mark Crispin Miller) New York : Pantheon, 1990. (p. 83-111)

|Analyzes the second wave of films and TV shows on Vietnam as generic Vietnam War narratives (C.D.B. Bryan’s term for Vietnam War literature) which feature the gradual deterioration of order, disintegration of idealism, breakdown of character, alienation from those at home, and finally, the loss of all sensibility save the will to survive. These films celebrate survival as a form of heroism and cynicism as a form of self-preservation. The noble-grunt films recast the war as a test of physical and psychological survival by people with no authority and too much responsibility. The enemy is not so much the Vietnamese as the abstract forces of bureaucracy and the incompetence of superiors. Bibliographical references|

Bates, Milton J. “Men, women and Vietnam” in America rediscovered (p. 27-63)

|Traces the history of the sexual revolution of the sixties and early seventies and then discusses some literature and film in which the revolution and its attendant conflicts are represented and which suggest how men and women can still be one. Refers particularly to The big chill, In country, and Coming home in this regard. Bibliographical references|

Beattie, Keith. “The healed wound: Metaphor and the impact of the Vietnam War” Australasian journal of American studies 9/1 (1990), p. 38-48.

|Blames depictions of the Vietnam War that employ euphemistic metaphors, specifically alluding to wounds and healing, for the war’s continuing consequences. Images and language used in media, theater, movies and literature fail to acknowledge the division in U.S. society, presenting instead a false picture of consensus. The general populace gained a false sense of distance and nonaccountability when description of the war changed from that of a contagious disease to one of physical disability able to be quickly tended|

* Beck, Avenk C. Mythic structures in popular Vietnam combat movies Thesis (M.A.)– Columbia University, 1990.

Bellamy, Michael. “Carnival and carnage: Falling like rock stars and second lieutenants” in America rediscovered (p. 10-15)

|Asserts a conflation of carnival and war in Vietnam, an amusement park where the social rules were suspended. This is illustrated with reference to Born on the Fourth of July, The Deer hunter, Southern comfort, Apocalypse now and Americana. Bibliographical references|

Bernard, Gabrielle. “Letters: Vietnam movies: Quieting ghosts” New York times 139 (Jun 17, 1990), sec. 2, p. 3.

|Response to Thomas Bird’s article|

Bird, Thomas. “Man and boy confront the images of war” New York times 139 (May 27, 1990), sec. 2, p. 11, 16.

|The author, a Vietnam veteran and artistic director of the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theater Company in New York who produced the play Tracers and co-produced Dear America …, recounts the influence of war films on his perceptions of war before, during and since the war. He argues we must stop refighting the war. To get over Vietnam We need to show remorse to the Vietnamese. We need a movie in which the Vietnamese are in the forefront|

Blake, Richard A. “The tide of pomp: Images of war in a season of peace” America 162/3 (Jan 27, 1990), p. 62-5.

|While prior Vietnam War films drained the romance out of war, three new films (Oliver Stone’s Born on the Fourth of July, Edward Zwick’s Glory, and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V)raise doubts about how much the myth makers have changed their attitudes about war|

Bowen, Kevin. “Strange hells: Hollywood in search of America’s lost war” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 226-35)

|Attempting to come to terms with the Vietnam War through films can be problematic, especially for veterans, because films trivialize actual experience and then demand public responses from what is, at best, an ambivalent audience. Examining Hollywood’s attempts to “locate the experience of the Vietnam War” the author finds them cartoonish, adolescent, and exploitative. More contemplative films with literary pretensions present landscapes of allegory, metaphor and allusion where the protagonists struggle to understand. Quest films attempt to discover and redeem what was lost in the war, but what was lost cannot be retrieved. Concludes with an analysis of Platoon’s appeal to veterans as an “evocation of conflict and loss” enduring long after the war|

Broyles, William, Jr. “Vietnam, how the war became the movie” Smartno. 11 (July-August 1990), p. |81|

– |96|

|“The real Vietnam War ended in 1975. Everything about it since then has been a war story – which means it’s been made up. Altered by imagination, and transformed by the stories already told. The war shaped American culture. Since it ended, American culture, especially Hollywood, has shaped the war” (contents page). A Vietnam veteran author describes how the reality of Vietnam is reshaped in the retelling|

Budra, Paul. “Rambo in the garden: The POW film as pastoral” Literature/film quarterly 18/3 (Jul 1990), p. 188-92.

|Examines a number of US war films exemplified by the Rambo cycle, which take their lead from the The Green Berets. “Films of the political right, they do not condemn American involvement in Vietnam, but they condemn the American defeat; they do not portray American soldiers as tragically misplaced teenagers, but as heroes betrayed” (p. 188). These films share a common narrative revolving around the American prisoner of war. Bibliographical references|

Burnett, Robert P. “Real life, reel war” San Francisco chronicle (Feb 25, 1990), World, p. 20.

|Vietnam veteran free-lance writer complains that Vietnam War movies and television programs offer a false reality. Movie heroes are hot real heroes. Those who star in Vietnam War films were doing something quite different when the real war was going on|

Camacho, Paul. “The future of patriotism: The war film, the cinema industry, and the Vietnam veteran movement” New England journal of history 47/1 (1990), p. 32-42.

|Discusses the portrayal of the Vietnam veteran on television and in film, the effects of mass media on veteran employment and acceptance in society, political control over veterans’ organizations, and the role of the veteran in defining patriotism and nationalism|

Cawley, Leo. “The war about the war: Vietnam films and American myth” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 69-80)

|Revision of Cawley, 1987|

Charlot, John. “Victims of a common tragedy: While Vietnam struggles to recover, its film industry works to heal and humanize those who were once on opposing sides of the war” Los Angeles times (Aug 26, 1990), Calendar, p. 5.

|Describes the history of the Vietnam Film Project and reactions when five Vietnamese films about the war were shown in the United States|

Cultural legacies of Vietnam : Uses of the past in the present (edited by Richard Morris and Peter Ehrenhaus) Norwood, N.J. : Ablex Pub. Corp., 1990.

|A collection of 10 essays (including 3 on film and television) which grew from a 1985 conference organized by the editors at Rutgers University. Relevant articles cited separately|

DeRose, David J. “A dual perspective : First person narrative in Vietnam film and drama” in America rediscovered (p. 109-19)

|While both stage and screen have struggled for twenty years to bring the Vietnam experience to life, the real story of the Vietnam War lies within those who fought there. Their personal stories must serve as a guide in any artistic exploration of Vietnam. Bibliography|

Desser, David (see under Studlar, Gaylyn)

Dionisopoulos, George N. “Images of the warrior returned : Vietnam veterans in popular American film” in Cultural legacies of Vietnam (p. 80-98)

|Societal amnesia about Vietnam has given way to a desire to make sense of our experience in Vietnam. This article examines the role of popular film in society, shows how Hollywood’s portrayal of the Vietnam veteran has changed thru three distinct periods, and finally analyzes the image of the veteran in the current generation of Vietnam related films. Bibliography|

Dittmar, Linda and Michaud, Gene. “America’s Vietnam War films : Marching toward denial” Introduction to From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 1-15)

|Describes growing interest in the Vietnam War. Current production and reception of war films takes place amidst cultural contradiction. Vietnam War films do not constitute a genre but borrow codes from other media and films. Television coverage of the war has had a particular impact on filmic representations and they also depend on World War II film formulas. This mutes and distorts the historical specificity of films on the Vietnam conflict, but they do have some distinctive characteristics: their confused and contradictory treatment of returning veterans; their treatment of conflict within soldier communities; and the lack of “command level” films|

Ehrenhaus, Peter (see under Cultural legacies of Vietnam)

Ellis, Caron Schwartz. Romancing the land : American land-based mythology and the Vietnam War Thesis (M.A.)–University of Colorado, 1990.

Fiedler, Leslie A. “Mythicizing the unspeakable” Journal of American folklore 103 (Oct-Dec 1990), p. 390-400.

|Apocalypse now, The deer hunter, and Rambo compared with historical war narratives and popular folk heroes|

Freedberg, Louis. “War means Hollywood to many U.S. youths” San Francisco chronicle (Aug 25, 1990), p. A1, A17.

|Movies like Top gun or Rambo are more likely to have determined the vision of war of current draft-age youth than the television images of Vietnam that shaped the anti-war movement of the 1960s. Interviews with Bay-area youth show that the post-Vietnam generation has been bombarded by scenarios in which wars are quick and surgical and the good guys always emerge triumphant|

From Hanoi to Hollywood : The Vietnam War in American film (edited by Linda Dittmar and Gene Michaud) New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers Univ. Press, 1990.

|Anthology of 19 essays (several initially presented at a 1988 conference on the war film held at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. The essays analyze the ways in which the Vietnam War has been interpreted by dramatic and documentary filmmakers. The war has an increasingly diffuse presence in the public consciousness. The editors argue that “the films under discussion work to reaffirm those same beliefs that the the war threw into doubt, and that they do so by observing, not illuminating, the painfully unresolved feelings Americans have about the war” (p. 7). Includes a chronological appendix of historical events and release dates of major war films from 1954 thru 1988. Relevant essays and reviews cited separately|

Fuchs, Cynthia J. “Vietnam and sexual violence : The movie” in America rediscovered (p. 120-33)

|Filmmakers have repeatedly described the American experience in Vietnam as a collapse of the national self-image. Many Vietnam War films have explored the cultural construction of war as a means to virtuous manhood and morality. “In American Vietnam movies, the unknown, unknowable alien that threatens the ‘system’ of the American military commonly appears … feminine in stature and dress, appallingly amoral and unmanly in fighting technique and ferocity.” The film Full metal jacket illustrates the collapse of “Otherness onto Enemy onto Woman.” (p. 121) Bibliographical references|

_____________. “War movies” City paper |Philadelphia|

n.282 (Jan 5-12, 1990), p. 6-7.

|Examines the American self-image as projected by movies about the Vietnam War made since the fall of Saigon|

Gilman, Owen W., Jr. (see under America rediscovered)

Haines, Harry William. “The pride is back : Rambo, Magnum PI, and the return trip to Vietnam” in Cultural legacies of Vietnam (p. 99-123)

|Analyzes the changing image of the Vietnam veteran in film and television in the 1980s and the use of the ‘return trip’ to reintegrate the veteran and bring closure. The themes of abandonment, rescue, revenge and atonement converge in the return trip enabling the veteran’s rehabilitation and social reintegration. Bibliography|

_________________. “They were called and they went : The political rehabilitation of the Vietnam veteran” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 81-97)

|During the 1980s the Vietnam veteran underwent a miraculous transformation facilitated by historical revision of the war and signified by mass-mediated rituals. From predominant representations as a violent psychotic or victim the veteran has been rehabilitated as a warrior hero whose experience can justify renewed international intervention. Bibliographical references|

Hellmann, John. “Rambo’s Vietnam and Kennedy’s new frontier” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 140-152)

|Rather than being a personification of right-wing revisionism and militarism, the Rambo character personifies the liberal aspirations of the Kennedy era driven to outlaw status in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. “The Rambo films are an unhelpful but revealing episode in the inevitable, and necessary, mythologizing of the Vietnam War” (p. 150). Bibliographical references|

Hilbish, Dadney Melissa. Relax, it’s only a movie : Representations of war in the Vietnam combat film Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Maryland, 1990. (iv, 384 leaves)

|Notes increased popular interest in the subject of Vietnam in the 1980s. Examines the Vietnam combat film from The Green Berets (1968) to Platoon (1986). Combat films of previous wars share characteristics with those of Vietnam: the warrior hero, depriction of battle, war as a rite of passage to manhood, and the rugged individualism of the soldier. This study also examines the interaction between individuals and texts. Filmography and bibliography|

James, David E. “Rock and roll in representations of the invasion of Vietnam” Representations 29 (1990), p. 78-89.

|Marxist analysis of the crisis which the defeat of the invasion of Vietnam generated for American politics and culture industries. During the invasion, resistance to it could only be figured in marginal cultural forms. It was unassimilable by industrial culture except in television news coverage. After the war, mass-market literary and filmic treatments rewrote genocide as rock and roll. “The invasion and rock and roll are intertwined so thoroughly that their interdependence is an exemplary instance of the operationality of modern culture” (p. 80). Bibliographical references|

Jeffords, Susan. “Reproducing fathers: Gender and the Vietnam War in U.S. culture” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 203-16)

|Reprinted in Cultural legacies of Vietnam (1990) (p. 124-41)|

|Portions originally appeared in The remasculinization of America. In accounts of the Vietnam War, women are associated with life (birth) and men with death. Maternity is interpreted as a biological role while paternity is a social one. This article explores how male characters appropriate the role of reproduction (social, familial and historical) in order to derogate women to a limited biological role and protect the male’s crucial warrior identity. Bibliographical references|

Klein, Michael L. “Cultural narrative and the process of re-collection: Film, history and the Vietnam era” in The Vietnam era : media and popular culture in the US and Vietnam (p. 3-37)

|Recent writing about the 1960s and the Vietnam era shows a revisionism similar to that which took place during the Cold War concerning the radical history of the 1930s and the 1941-45 alliance with the Soviet Union: the history of progressive (‘people’s’) movements was marginalized; and the history of wars, that were comprehended in moral and political terms in their own time, was retold as tales of military adventure and a young man’s rite of intiation. The debate on the definition of the Vietnam era touches on one’s sense of the US social system and culture and its role in the world. It influences and is influenced by popular culture. “The popular imagination about Vietnam has often been shaped by the media” (p. 8). Since the end of the war Hollywood has reconstructed Vietnam “as a setting within which ideological fantasies are explored and contested. A genre has been created” (p. 9). Bibliographical references|

_____________. “Historical memory, film, and the Vietnam era” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (p. 19-40)

|The production of American films about the Vietnam War follows a historical pattern established during the Civil War. Political and social divisions during the Vietnam War were evident in films of the period. In the 1980s, however, Vietnam War films reflect the efforts of conservatives and revisionists to reestablish the prewar national consensus. Bibliographical references|

_____________ (see also under The Vietnam era : media and popular culture in the US and Vietnam)

MacDonald, Lawrence. “Vietnam movies distort reality and erase identities” Chicago tribune (Aug 1, 1990), Friday, p. 55.

|Americans cannot readily distinguish between the imaginary Vietnam created by Hollywood and the real place. Hollywood has failed to present Vietnam as a real place and the Vietnamese as human beings. The Vietnamese are presented either as stereotypical enemies or victims|

Martin, Andrew. “Vietnam and melodramatic representation” East-West film journal 4/2 (1990), p. 54-68.

|How and why US film and television habitually use melodrama when depicting the Vietnam War. Bibliographical references|

Mechling, Elizabeth Walker and Mechling, Jay. “Vietnam and the second American inner revolution” in Cultural legacies of Vietnam (p. 171-98)

|American involvement in Vietnam began and ended in a cultural era which the authors describe as the “second inner revolution” which changed the social structural context of the modern American personality, producing a “new American individualism.” Several films and television programs are cited to illustrate the clash between the new individualism and the Vietnam War. Bibliographical references|

Michaud, Gene (see under Dittmar, Linda)

Minton, Torri. “Why can’t we get out of Vietnam. 20 movies depict the war. 7,000 Nam books have been published. Nam is now a video, a comic book, a beer mug. Next year, Nam will enter high school classrooms. A nation’s morbid fascinations and guilty pleasures” San Francisco chronicle (Apr 17, 1990), p. B3.

|Discusses the rising interest in the Vietnam War since the 1982 opening of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Quotes a number of Vietnam War authors, scholars and veterans and makes references to recent films|

Morris, Richard (see under Cultural legacies of Vietnam)

Mortimer, Barbara Anne. From Monument Valley to Vietnam : revisions of the American captivity narrative in Hollywood film Thesis (Ph.D.)–Emory University, 1990. (176 p.)

|Captivity narratives, featuring white men rescuing white women held captive by Indians, were a primary theme of nineteenth century dime novels and early western films. With the decline of the western film, the captivity narrative’s racial and cultural conflicts have been restaged in South America, Vietnam, and the streets of urban America. These films reveal post-war America’s continuing concern with the challenges which the civil rights movement and feminism pose to the legitimacy of the white male hero. The author’s Chapter Four argues that Martin Scorcese’s Taxi driver is a postmodern revision of the captivity narrative. Chapter Five analyzes the pervasive use of the captivity plot in Vietnam War films to recuperate the hero’s narrative authority and rationalize the American soldier’s participation in the war. Bibliographical references|

Ngo, Manh Lan. “The new changes of Vietnamese feature films in 1990” FilmVietnam 3 (1991), p. 1-3.

|Divides the 28 feature films produced into three categories: films on history; films on revolution and resistance; and films on issues of present life. Describes several|

Novelli, Martin. “Hollywood and Vietnam: Images of Vietnam in American film” in The Vietnam era (p. 107-24)

|John Wayne’s World War II films helped form American expectations for Vietnam. Vietnam continued as a Cold War fantasy in three periods of filmmaking about the war: 1946 to 1968 (cold war and ‘hawkish’); 1968-1978 (both pro- and anti-involvement); and 1980-1990 (pro-involvement and neo-Cold War). Bibliographical references|

O’Brien, Tom. “Patriotism” Chap. 8 in his The screening of America : movies and values from Rocky to Rain man New York : Continuum, 1990.

|An examination of films of the preceeding fifteen years that show the evolution of American values. Of the 34 films discussed in this chapter, 23 have Vietnam War connections. Many movies made since Vietnam question the American national myth and the values placed on patriotism and heroism. Resurgent nationalism is reflected in films of the late 1980s. Bibliographical references|

Osborne, Bob. Propaganda tool : the Hollywood war movie and its usurpation by TV Carlisle Barracks, Pa. : U.S. Army War College, 1990.

|Examines how the dominant role of Hollywood as a propaganda machine for molding public opinion during World War II was usurped by television after 1950. Unpopular wars in Korea and Vietnam led Hollywood generally to avoid those wars as subjects and Hollywood became heavily involved after Vietnam in anti-war themes. Bibliography|

Powers, Stephen (see under Rothman, Stanley)

Relin, David Oliver. “Hollywood’s war: After years of ignoring the war, Hollywood is now using Vietnam to win hearts, minds, and money” Scholastic update

|Teacher’s ed.| 122 (Apr 6, 1990), p. 24-5.

|On the second wave of Vietnam War films|

Ringnalda, Donald. “Unlearning to remember Vietnam” in America rediscovered (p. 64-74)

|The second wave of Vietnam War films tend to treat the war as an “isolated aberration, about which we are now properly debriefed and exculpated.” Compares the war as portrayed in Platoon with a number of prominent memoirs and novels. Bibliography|

Rothman, David J. (see under Rothman, Stephen)

Rothman, Stanley, Rothman, David J., and Powers, Stephen. “Hollywood views the military” Society 28/1 (Nov./Dec. 1990), p. 79-84.

|Reprinted as Chap. 4 in Powers, Stephen, Rothman, David J., and Rothman, Stanley Hollywood’s America : social and political themes in motion pictures Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1996. (p. 81-100)|

|The trend for films to question the institutional legitimacy of the armed forces, which began in 1960s films, was not reversed in the 1980s despite a few favorable portrayals of the military like Rambo II and Top gun. Many Americans “have been disillusioned by their perceptions of historical events like the Vietnam War. We argue, however, that Hollywood producers, writers, and directors seem to have been disproportionately disillusioned, and this helps to explain the high level of cynicism that emerges from Hollywood’s more recent military images, even when they are packaged as patriotism.”|

Roy, Andre. “La guerre n’est pas finie: Les annees Reagan” 24 images n.49 (summer 1990), p. 24-7.

|Vietnam War as turning point in US history, with the many films on the subject reflecting national unease|

Ryan, Desmond. “Video Vietnam: ‘Born on the Fourth of July,’ now out on tape, and other films have taken on the injurious war – and won hearts and praise” Philadelphia inquirer (Aug 9, 1990), p. 1E-2E.

|General overview of Vietnam War films with an extensive videography|

Salminen, Kari. “Vietnam: Kulttuurisen sodan viidakoissa” Filmihullu 3 (1990), p. 22-9.

|The changing nature of the Vietnam War in Hollywood movies thru the second wave. Bibliography. In Finnish|

Schoenecke, Mike. “Images of NCO’s in war film” in Beyond the stars : stock characters in American popular film Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State Univ. Popular Press, c1990. (v. 1, p. 146-55)

|The NCO provides filmmakers with an archetypal structure that embodies fundamental and universal concerns of Americans. He serves as a symbol of hope, reinforcing the idea that virtue and ability bring tangible rewards. Makes references to Full metal jacket, Gardens of stone and Platoon. Bibliography and filmography|

Sharpe, George. “Letters: Vietnam movies: Recollections of a combat medic” New York times 139 (Jun 17, 1990), sec. 2, p. 3.

|With Gabrielle Bernard’s letter, a response to Thomas Bird’s article|

Smith, Lorrie (see under America rediscovered)

Studlar, Gaylyn and Desser, David. “Never having to say you’re sorry: Rambo’s rewriting of the Vietnam War” in From Hanoi to Hollywood (1990), p. 101-12.

|Reprint of Studlar and Desser, 1988 and 1989. Further reprinted in Coming to terms (1991), p. 275-88.|

Tran, John. “Vietnamese cultural production during the American war” in The Vietnam era (p. 199-211)

|The North Vietnamese government used centuries-old Vietnamese cultural resistance to foreign domination to build support for political and military resistance. North Vietnam’s wartime media and cultural concerns were extensive. They produced 770 newsreel and documentary films and 36 feature films between 1965-75. Discusses the documentaries Art and youth and Nixon and the hornet’s nest as examples of wartime film production. Bibliographical references|

Truong, Toan. “Hollywood’s Vietnam, not mine” New York times 139 (Feb 19, 1990), p. A17.

|A Vietnamese American who grew up during the war and came to the United States in 1975 describes his reaction to Vietnam War films. “These movies, although powerful and moving, are vehicles for men like Ron Kovic… and Oliver Stone… to atone for their past misdeeds”|

|Reprinted in the Miami herald (Feb 20, 1990), p. 15A; Star tribune |Minneapolis| (Feb 23, 1990), p. 15A|

Turner, Jenny. “Nambuster” City limits n.439 (Mar 1-8, 1990), p. 18-19.

|A review of Born on the Fourth of July with some reference to other Vietnam War films|

Vernaglione, Paolo. “Le vittime e la guerra” Filmcritica n.403 (May 1990), p. 104-7.

|Analysis of depictions of Americans in Vietnam and Vietnam veterans as victims. In Italian|

Vietnam era : media and popular culture in the US and Vietnam (edited by Michael L. Klein) London ; Winchester, Mass. : Pluto Press, 1990.

|Examines 1960s culture and counterculture as expressed in music, literature and film. In two sections: the first concentrates on the 1960s and early 1970s; the second examines the impact of the war on Vietnamese artists and writers, on Americans living in Vietnam and on women in Vietnam. Relevant articles cited separately. Index|

Wallace, Charles P. “A filmmaker’s struggle to capture the ‘real’ Vietnam” Los Angeles times (Mar 30, 1990), Calendar, p. F4.

|Profile of Dang Nhat Minh with his comments on Vietnam War films|

Whillock, David Everett. “The fictive American Vietnam War film: A filmography” in America rediscovered (p. 303-312)

|Discusses the problem of defining what is a Vietnam War film. Finds that while “generic conventions do not provide clear classification for Vietnam War films, five narrative structures do.” These are: pre-The Green Berets; the Vietnam veteran/coming home; the effects film; incountry films; and the revenge film. Using these five narrative formulas, the filmography classifies (selectively) American fictive Vietnam War films. Bibliographical references|

Wiese, Ingrid. “Filmblikk pa Vietnam” Z Filmtidsskrift 8/2 |n.32| (1990), p. 28-9.

|Brief analysis of Vietnam War films through the second wave. In Norwegian|

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1991

Adams, William. “Vietnam screen wars” in Culture in an age of money : the legacy of the 1980’s in America

|Reprint of Adams, 1990|

Allen, Douglas (see under Coming to terms)

Allen, Henry. “Images of the last real war: For the desert troops, battle visions shaped by Vietnam films” Washington post (Jan 3, 1991), p. C1, C13.

|American troops in Saudi Arabia for Desert Storm recount the influence of Vietnam War films on their perceptions of war|

Anderegg, Michael. “Hollywood and Vietnam: John Wayne and Jane Fonda as discourse” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 15-32)

|Hollywood failed to participate imaginatively in the Vietnam War, but Hollywood films, “in particular, World War II combat films” are texts “frequently alluded to in the literature and postwar films of Vietnam.” (p. 15) There is “a pervasive intertextuality in the Vietnam discourse” where allusions from film to literature and back seem endless. John Wayne and Jane Fonda represent a discourse within the film industry itself between “old” and “new” Hollywood. Bibliographical references|

Bernardoni, James. The new Hollywood : what the movies did with the new freedoms of the seventies Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1991.

|Analyzes thirteen significant films of the 1970s (four with Vietnam connections). Bibliographical references and index|

Blaszczyna, Stanislaw. “Od zieleni beretow do wioski My Lai” Kino 25/1 |283|

(Jan 1991), p. 12-17.

|Analysis of the political, sociological and cultural aspects of US films about the Vietnam War. With selective chronological filmography. In Polish|

Calloway, Catherine. “American literature and film of the Vietnam War: Classroom strategies and critical sources” in The Vietnam War : teaching approaches and resources (edited by Marc Jason Gilbert) New York : Greenwood Press, 1991. (p. 139-59)

|Bibliographic essay on sources extant thru 1990 with suggestions for using literature and film to teach about the war|

Charlot, John. “Vietnamese cinema: First views” Journal of Southeast Asian studies 22/1 (Mar 1991), p. 33-62.

|Sketch of the state of Vietnamese cinema at the end of the 1980s with many references to films on the war. Includes filmography and bibliographical references|

|Reprinted Charlot, 1994 and 2000|

Clark, Michael. “Remembering Vietnam”. in The Vietnam War and American culture (edited by John Carlos Rowe and Rick Berg) New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1991. (p. 177-207)

|Reprint of Clark 1986|

Coming to terms : Indochina, the United States, and the war (edited by Douglas Allen and Ngo Vinh Long) Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 1991.

|Revised and expanded version of the twentieth anniversary issue of The bulletin of concerned Asian scholars 21/2-4 (April-December 1989). Relevant articles cited separately. Chronology and selected bibliography|

Davis, John Edward. Explorations of the counterfeit : an interpretation of Apocalypse now, Platoon, and Full metal jacket Thesis (M.A.)–University of Wyoming, 1991. (xx, 143 leaves)

|Uses Robert Lifton’s counterfeit universe theory to examine Apocalypse now, Platoon, and Full metal jacket. Explains Lifton’s theory and its connection to Vietnam War television coverage, discusses the evolution of the Hollywood combat film genre since World War II, describes how the counterfeit universe operated in the three subject films, and concludes by using the films to consider the interrelationships among politics, history, and popular culture|

Denisoff, R. Serge and Romanowski, William R. “Goooood morning, Vietnam!” in their Risky business : Rock in film New Brunswick, N.J. : Transaction Publishers, 1991. (p. 605-51)

|Analyzes the use of rock music in more than twenty Vietnam War related films. Bibliographical references and index|

Desser, David. “‘Charlie don’t surf’ : Race and culture in the Vietnam War films” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 81-102)

|The cultural blindness and prejudice that lay behind the original American involvement in Vietnam is still being revealed in retrospective films and television series. These show how Americans were victimized but ignore the Vietnamese. Bibliographical references|

___________ (see also under Studlar, Gaylyn)

Do, Lai Thuy. “Cinema” Vietnamese studies n. 31 (1991), p. 97-99.

|Interview of Hoang Nhuan Cam, poet and dramatist (Loi lam, Dang sau canh cua, Dem hoi Long Tri), regarding Vietnamese films of 1990|

Donald Ralph R. “Conversion as persuasive convention in American war films” in Beyond the stars : Studies in American popular film. Vol. 2. Plot conventions in American film Bowling Green, Ohio : Bowling Green State Univ. Popular Press, 1991. (p. 36-52)

|Analyzes the conversion convention of pre-Vietnam films (a coward becomes a soldier who usually dies heroically for his country) and how it has been inverted (a gung-ho soldier becomes disillusioned and bent on personal survival) since Vietnam. Finds seven major variations on the theme in more than 40 films. Filmography|

Downey, Sharon D. (see under Rasmussen, Karen)

Doyle, Jeff, and Grey, Jeffrey. “Australia and the Vietnam War – a select bibliography” Vietnam generation 3/2 (1991), p. 126-66.

|Includes (p. 136-39) a selective filmography of Australian documentary and dramatic treatments of the Vietnam War, including cinematic, television and radio programs|

_________. “Dismembering the ANZAC legend : Australian popular culture and the Vietnam War” Vietnam generation 3/2 (1991), p. 109-25.

|Representations of Australian participation in Vietnam illustrate a rupture in that country’s popular culture and the Anzac legend. Australian popular memory of Vietnam has generally followed the American pattern. Discusses the patterns in American representations of Vietnam and corresponding Australian films including The odd angry shot, and two television mini-series, Sword of honour and Vietnam. Bibliographical references.|

Draper, Ellen. “Finding a language for Vietnam in the action-adventure genre” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 103-13)

|Vietnam combat films have traded critique for consensus and fail to sustain the deconstruction of the American experience. Instead of looking at combat films for an account of American experience in Southeast Asia, the author suggests it is better to look at action movies where the displaced trauma of Vietnam recurs as the failure of American culture. Concentrates analysis on Aliens and Predator with references to other films. Bibliographical references|

Fuchs, Cynthia J. “Film: Repeaters” Vietnam generation newsletter 3/2 (Jun 1991), p. 26-8.

|Discusses Vietnam film roles of Matthew Modine, Keith Daniel and Willem Dafoe|

Gilman, Owen W., Jr. “Vietnam, chaos and the dark art of improvisation” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 231-50)

|The Vietnam War has had a lasting, unsettling, legacy. The most provocative texts and films from the war are informed by the spirit of improvisation. Chaos was the system by which many soldiers came to understand the reality of combat in Vietnam. The war resists attempts to reduce it to any single comprehensive theme or meaning. Nevertheless, most of the texts from the Vietnam experience have “tried to convey the essence of what was lost in the war” (p. 233). Loss of innocence and fragmentation are common themes, but the best metaphor for the war, for showing encroaching chaos, is improvisation. Mentions several films, but chiefly analyzes Good morning, Vietnam. Bibliographical references|

Greenhill, Stephen J. “The Vietnam War on the screen” Military illustrated n. 34 (March 1991), p. 30-37 and n. 35 (April 1991), p. 32-38.

|The second wave of Vietnam War films of the late 1980s highlighted the reluctance with which Hollywood approached the subject for many years. Moreover, Hollywood’s portrayal of Vietnam has largely avoided recreations of large scale operations in favor of smaller more anonymous engagements|

Grey, Jeffrey (see under Doyle, Jeff)

Hoang, Nhuan Cam (see under Do, Lai Thuy)

Holzl, Gebhard and Peipp, Matthias. Fahr zur Holle, Charlie! : der Vietnamkrieg im amerikanischen Film Munchen : Wilhelm Heyne Verlag, 1991.

|Study of the portrayal of the Vietnam War in American film, justified by the author’s belief that the war had an effect on the American film industry unlike any other political event. They assert there is scarcely an American feature film in the preceeding fifteen years which does not have a reference to the war. Filmography, bibliography and index. In German|

Howell, Amanda. “Susan Jefford’s The remasculinization of America : gender and the Vietnam War (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1989)” Camera obscura 27 (Sep 1991), p. 166-73.

|Review essay which makes reference to a number of Vietnam War films|

* Huu, Ngoc. “Phim My ve Viet Nam” Tap chi dien anh 76 (1991), p. 22-3.

|Analysis of American films about Vietnam. In Vietnamese|

Inventing Vietnam : the war in film and television (edited by Michael Andregg) Philadelphia : Temple Univ. Press, 1991.

|Relevant articles cited separately|

Kinney, Judy Lee. “Gardens of stone, Platoon, and Hamburger Hill: Ritual and remembrance” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 153-65)

|Contrasts the major films of the second wave of Vietnam War films with those of the first. The former include dramatizations of combat, but lack strong images of dislocation and disjunction. The sense of the war’s political contradictions and dilemmas is lost and tough questions about Vietnam are evaded. Bibliographical references|

Klein, Michael and Weiner, Peter. “A filmography of oppositional politics and culture in the Vietnam era, 1963-1974” Historical journal of film, radio and television 11/1 (Mar 1991), p. 59-72.

|Lists mainly 16mm films relating to the Vietnam War, made by left and right, also involving civil rights and other issues|

Leepson, Marc. “Perspectives: Hollywood’s portrayal of Vietnam has been confusing. But they’ve stopped blaming the warrior for the war” Vietnam 3/5 (Feb 1991), p. 58, 60-62.

|Compares the second wave of Vietnam War films with preceding efforts|

Louvre, Alf. “Warring fictions” Sight and sound 1/7 (Nov 1991), p. 34-5.

|Review essay on The Vietnam War and American culture)|

Malo, Jean-Jacques. Vietnam War filmography : a critical overview and a continuing search for the genre 1991.

|Unpublished paper read at the Popular Culture Association annual meeting, San Antonio, March 1991|

Maslin, Janet. “Why movies are only movies and a real war is a war” New York times (Jan 23, 1991), p. C11, C13.

|Against the background of the Persian Gulf War, cites several Vietnam War films to describe how war films provide the closure that is seldom available in real life|

Murdoch, Blake. “‘Nam battle refought by rival producers” Variety 344 (Sep 16, 1991), p. 36.

|Describes plans of rival Australian production companies to produce a film about the battle of Long Tan. Neither film was produced|

Patterson, Robert L. “Teaching the Vietnam War” in Proceedings and papers of the Georgia Association of Historians 12 (1991), p. 115-125.

|Survey on the subject which includes questions on whether films, novels, poetry and popular songs provide the best index to attitudes of the 1960s|

Peipp, Matthias (see under Holzl, Gebhard)

Plazewski, J. “Wietnam w obiektywach filmowcow amerykanskich” Kino 25 (Jan 1991), p. 16-17.

|Selective chronological filmography of 83 American Vietnam War films (including some documentaries) released from 1964-1990 with brief descriptions. In Polish|

Rasmussen, Karen and Downey, Sharon D. “Dialectical disorientation in Vietnam War films: Subversion of the mythology of war” Quarterly journal of speech 77 (1991), p. 176-95.

|Dialectical disorientation is a rhetorical form that creates uncertainty and ambiguity through confrontation between two competitive and complimentary orientations. Examines this dynamic in The deer hunter, Apocalypse now, Platoon, and Full metal jacket. The films subvert traditional war mythology by presenting war as destructive rather than regenerative and purposeless rather than meaningful. Principles of militarism and moralism which govern behavior in war become inoperative. After detailing the development of disorientation in the films, the authors examine it’s rhetorical and social implications. Bibliographical references|

Rollins, Peter C. “Vietnam and American culture” Journal of American culture 14 (winter 1991), p. 77-84.

|Review essay on Fourteen landing zones (1991), From Hanoi to Hollywood (1990), and America rediscovered (1991). The reviewer finds From Hanoi to Hollywood sometimes “strident” and “flawed” (p. 79), though coverage of the impact of television and documentary films deserves praise. America rediscovered is “too belletristic” (p. 82), too focused on the literature and uninformed by historical research|

Romanowski, William R. (see under Denisoff, R. Serge)

* Scarrow, Simon. The Vietnam combat film : the construction of a sub-genre Thesis (M. Phil.)—University of East Anglia, School of English and American Studies, 1991. (216 leaves)

|Analyzes the creation and distinctive features of the “Vietnam combat film” sub-genre of the war film from The Green Berets to Platoon. There are certain common iconographic elements in these films including: the helicopter, the landscape, the hidden context, representations of the enemy, and representations of Americans. There are also common thematic elements including: the use of knowledge, rank and power; and the eradication of the feminine. Filmography and bibliography|

Schechter, Harold and Semerks, Jonna G. “Leatherstocking in ‘Nam: Rambo, Platoon and the American frontier myth” Journal of popular culture 24/4 (spring 1991), p. 17-25.

|Reprinted in Movies and politics : the dynamic relationship (1993)|

|On the second wave of Vietnam War films with analysis focusing on Rambo: First blood part II and Platoon. The success of these films says less about the morality, political leanings or aesthetic judgement of the audience than it does about the “continuing hold over our communal imagination – of the frontier hero myth.” Bibliographical references|

Shute, Jennifer P. “Framing Vietnam” in Coming to terms, p. 267-74.

|Reprint of Shute, 1989.|

Semerks, Jonna G. (see under Schechter, Harold)

Studlar, Gaylyn and Desser, David. “Never having to say you’re sorry: Rambo’s rewriting of the Vietnam War” in Coming to terms (1991), p. 275-88.

|Reprint of Studlar and Desser, 1988, 1989 and 1990.|

Tal, Kali. “War looking at film looking at war: Vietnam War novels” Jump cut 36 (May 1991), p. 19-24.

|Examines how motion picture mythology typified by the John Wayne model of heroism has affected understanding of the Vietnam War and how this influence is noted in Vietnam War novels. Bibliographical references|

Talbot, Stephen. “60s something” Mother Jones 16 (Mar/Apr 1991), p. 46-9, 69-70.

|An interview with Oliver Stone with references to several Vietnam War films|

The Vietnam War and American culture (edited by John Carlos Rowe and Rick Berg) New York ; Columbia University Press, 1991.
Walker, Mark Edward. Vietnam veteran films Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow, 1991.

|Revision of thesis: Walker, 1989. Filmography, bibliography and index|

Weiner, Peter (see under Klein, Michael)

Welch, Richard F. “Using film to teaching the Vietnam War” in Proceedings and papers of the Georgia Association of Historians 12 (1991), p. 98-114.

|Lists 12 films used to teach the Vietnam War with lessons students can draw from each|

Williams, Tony. “Narrative patterns and mythic tragectories in mid-1980’s Vietnam movies” in Inventing Vietnam (p. 114-39)

|Discusses the differences between films of the second wave of Vietnam War films and those of the first (1970s) wave. Eighties films have a more conservative bias reflecting the ideologically simplistic world view of Reagan-Bush. Bibliographical references|

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1992

Aufderheide, Pat. “Inventing Vietnam : the war in film and television” Film quarterly 46/1 (fall 1992), p. 42-3.

|Review essay. Describes the 14 essays as “unarticulated” and “literary-criticism-derived” in their approach that teases implications out of narrative and dialogue. “They mostly share an also unarticulated understanding of the relevant data, which is big-name, fictional industry productions with a centrist or liberal perspective from 1978-80 and 1985-89.” (p. 42). Finds Thomas Slater’s essay “Teaching Vietnam: The politics of documentary” invigorating, but many of the other essays are hampered by “obscurantism” and “textual tunnel vision.”|

Breteque, Francois de la. “L’Indochine au coeur d’une oeuvre: L’iliade et l’odyssee de Pierre Schoendoerffer” Cahiers de la cinematheque n.57 (Oct 1992), p. 74-83.

|A review of the influence of Indochina and the Vietnam Wars in Schoendoerffer’s work, with concentration on Dien Bien Phu|

Christopher, Renny. The Viet Nam war/the American war : images and representations in Euro-American and Vietnamese exile narratives Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of California, Santa Cruz, 1992. (413 p.)

|Published, Amherst, MA: Univ. of Massachusetts Press, 1995.|

|Chiefly an analysis of literary representations with references to film in her chapter 4, “Euro-American representations of the Vietnamese.” Bibliography|

* Cotterill, Steven. Hollywood remembers? A critical analysis of the film industry’s portrayal of the Vietnam War Thesis (M.A.)–Central Connecticut State University, 1992. (iii, 101 leaves)

Curley, Stephen J. (see under Wetta, Frank Joseph)

Davidson, James West and Lytle, Mark Hamilton. “Where trouble comes”

|Chapter 15| in After the fact : the art of historical detection 3rd ed. New York : McGraw-Hill, 1992. (p. 356-86)

Revised: 4th ed. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2000.

|Discussion of cinematic myths and Vietnam against the background of My Lai. Caution is needed when examining historical films for information about the past. The ‘reality’ of dramatic films is different from a letter or diary or even a secondary account. At their best, movies have a visual and emotional immediacy, but at its best a drama is still just an artful construction of reality rather than reality itself. Dramatic considerations are always more important than strict fidelity to the historical record. Bibliography and index.|

Delmeulle, Frederic. “Fiction cinematographique et guerre d’Indochine” Cahiers de la cinematheque n.57 (Oct 1992), p. 62-72.

|Analysis of French dramatic films with connections to the Indochina War. Filmography. In French|

Deming, Angus and Ivry, Benjamin. “Love, sex and lost causes: French movies confront the nation’s colonial past” Newsweek 120 (Aug 24, 1992), p. 52.

|Brief review of L’amant, Indochine and Dien Bien Phu. The French look back on their colonial era in Indochina with nostalgia rather than anger|

* Dobenecker, Julie Lyn. Focusing on the Vietnam War : the use of film in shaping American perceptions of the Vietnam War Thesis (B.A.)–James Madison University, 1992. (101 leaves)

Doyle, Jeff. “Missed Saigon: Some recent film representations of Vietnam” in Crossing cultures : essays on the displacement of western civilization (edited by Daniel Segal) Tucson : Univ. of Arizona Press, 1992. (p. 91-99)

Doyle, Robert C. “Unresolved mysteries : The myth of the missing warrior and the government deceit theme in the popular captivity culture of the Vietnam War” Journal of American culture 15 (summer 1992), p. 1-18.

|Explores the roots of the myth of the missing warrior in the American military experience and its manifestation since the 1970s in fiction, film and POW/MIA political action groups|

Fore, Steven James. “From Hanoi to Hollywood: The Vietnam War in American film” Film quarterly 45/4 (summer 1992), p. 43-4.

|Review essay|

Franklin, H. Bruce. “Mythmaking in America” chap. 4 in his M.I.A. or mythmaking in America Brooklyn, N.Y. : Lawrence Hill Books, 1992. (p. 127-65)

|“The story of the heroic American prisoners abandoned in Southeast Asia could not become a major American myth until the Hollywood dream factory geared up its assembly line for mass production of the essential images” (p. 136). Analyzes the fantasies present in POW/MIA rescue movies. Bibliographical references and index|

Gauthier, Guy. “Indochine, reve d’empire” Revue du cinema n.483 (Jun 1992), p. 50-61.

|After the 1954 Geneva accords, French Indochina was almost a forgotten subject for films. Recently, however, three new films (L’amant, Dien Bien Phu, and Indochine) have appeared in conjunction with a general return of interest in Indochina in print. Reviews the history of French films about the Indochinese War since the 1950s. Annotated filmography. In French|

Holden, Todd Joseph Miles. “Hollywood invades Vietnam: the second American reconstruction” Journal of American and Canadian studies |Japan| 10 (1992), p. 45-70.

|The Vietnam War had a disrupting effect on America. This disruption led to a two decade long cultural reconstruction. Books and films reinterpreted the people, events and outcomes of the war. Underlying these cultural texts was an intent to repair generational, racial, economic and ideological rifts caused by the war. The reconstructions include: {1} a consistent portrait of the war; (2) a changing image of the war; (3) divestiture of political content; (4) an emphasis on victims; and (5) the war’s diminished centrality. Bibliographical references|

Ivry, Benjamin (see under Deming, Angus)

Jeancolas, Jean-Pierre. “La guerre d’Indochine dans la cinema francais” Positif n.375-376 (May 1992), p. 86-8.

|Describes French documentary films as well as some pre-1950 fiction films|

* Jove Gonzalez, Neysa M. La vision etnocentrice estadounidense de la guerra de Vietnam a traves del cine de Hollywood Thesis (B.A.)–Universidad de Puerto Rico, 1992. (81 leaves)

Lytle, Mark Hamilton (see under Davidson, James West)

Malo, Jean-Jacques. Apocalypse in Vietnam : a selected critical filmography of the war in Southeast Asia Thesis (M.A.)–Universite de Nantes (1992)

|Chiefly brief descriptions and analyses of 23 films later published in Vietnam War films (1994)|

______________. From Saigon to Paris : French cinema and the Vietnam Wars 1992.

|Unpublished paper read at the Popular Culture Association annual meeting, Louisville, March 1992|

______________. (see also under Vietnam War feature filmography)

McCaffrey, Donald W. “War and holocaust for some painful laughter” Chap. 3 in his Assault on society : satirical literature to film Metuchen, N.J. : Scarecrow Press, 1992. (p. 36-67)

|Discusses nine Vietnam War related films. Bibliographical references and index|

Muraire, Andre. “La guerre du Vietnam dans la cinema Americain” in L’opinion americaine devant la guerre du Vietnam (edited by Jean-Robert Rougle) Paris : Presses de l’Universite de Paris-Sorbonne, 1992. (p. 141-55)

|Examines the thematic functioning of American cinema, the ideological strategies used in response to the Vietnam War, and the reactions the war aroused in cinema. Bibliographical references. In French|

______________. “John Rambo ou la quete du sacre” Ideologies dans le monde anglo-saxon 5 (1992), p. 137-59.

Muse, Eben J. One epic narrative : the Vietnam War in American film 1948-90 Thesis (Ph.D)–State University of New York at Buffalo, 1992. (321 p.)

|Examines forces shaping Vietnam War film narratives during and after the war. The lack of combat films during the war years limited Hollywood’s treatment of the war to allegories and stories about veterans and the protest movement. After the war, the structure of the story became dependent on the soldier’s tour of duty and personal experience. Romance and wilderness themes from earlier films were developed and Vietnam gradually became a romance landscape through which soldiers traveled for their tour of duty. Using the veteran’s experience as a focal point simplified the war’s complexities. The veteran’s victory over the jungle, the natives, the protestors and weak-willed leadership become America’s victory in Vietnam. Concludes with a study of the Rambo character, a symbol of redemption for veterans and America and a reunion of the figures of warrior and king from earlier war films. Filmography and bibliography|

|Revised and published: Muse, 1995|

Newsinger, John. “ ‘Do you walk the walk?’: Aspects of masculinity in some Vietnam War films” in You Tarzan : masculinity, movies, and men (edited by Pat Kirkham and Janet Thumim) New York : St. Martin’s Press, 1992. (p. 126-36)

|War films are tales of masculinity with themes of: boys becoming men, comradeship, loyalty, bravery and endurance, pain and suffering, and the horror and excitement of battle. But a number of popular films of the Vietnam War reveal a fractured masculinity, a masculinity under pressure, or one that has been found inadequate. Discusses Apocalypse now, Platoon, Full metal jacket, and Casualties of war. Bibliographical references|

Nichols, Bill. “Dear Vietnam: Shadows of forgotten warriors” Cinemaya no. 17-18 (autumn-winter, 1992-93), p. 10-14.

|Compares and contrasts American films of the second wave with the Vietnamese films that toured the U.S. from 1987-on. Both tend to avoid political issues and explore the effect of the war on individuals. They explore efforts to “forge common bonds and a sense of solidarity (in the company of men for Hollywood films, in the context of village and family for Vietnamese films).” Contrasts the two film groups’ treatment of women. American films use the exchange of women as the basis of male bonding. Vietnamese films have a less gendered more culturally determined sense of collectivity and women are more active and central agents in these films|

Reitinger, Douglas W. “Paint it black: Rock music and Vietnam War film” Journal of American culture 15 (fall 1992), p. 53-9.

|Vietnam War films contain varying amounts of the era’s rock and roll music depending on their ideological orientation. Changes in rock music echo the changes in American consciousness during the 1960s. Films like Full metal jacket and Apocalypse now use the subversive authority of the music to establish the meaninglessness of the war. Bibliographical references|

Roy, Jean. “Memories of bitter-sweet years: France looks back at Indochina” Cinemaya no. 17-18 (autumn/winter 1992/1993), p. 4-9.

|Reviews L’amant, Dien Bien Phu, and Indochine. Translated from the French|

Sanjek, David. “Apocalypse then : apocalyptic imagery and documentary reality in films of the 1960s” in Sights on the sixties (edited by Barbara L. Tischler) New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers Univ. Press, 1992. (p. 135-47)

|In the 1960s, the studio system was undergoing a financial and structural overhaul while American society was experiencing substantial social, political, racial and cultural transformation. Some 1960’s films which incorporate a fictional narrative within factual environments both affirm and attack the social transformation of the period|

Slotkin, Richard. Gunfighter nation : the myth of the frontier in twentieth-century America New York : Atheneum, 1992. (chapters 14-17, p. 441-623)

|Analyzes the link between the American frontier heritage and the experience of Vietnam. Follows frontier myths in literature and film into American domestic and foreign affairs. Analysis of The Green Berets, The Magnificent seven, Rambo, and The Wild bunch and other western films which relate to Vietnam. Bibliography|

Stanislawska, Olga. “Indociny w perspektywie spomnien” Kino no. 26 (Nov 1992), p. 32-3.

|Reviews L’amant, Indochine, and Dien Bien Phu. In Polish|

Sutherland, Dennis Alan. Splinters : American film heroes and the Vietnam War Thesis (M.A.)–Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, 1992. (vii, 74 leaves)

|Focuses on three Vietnam War films where veterans of the war worked in a direct creative capacity: Platoon, Hamburger Hill and 84 Charlie Mopic. Extends Bakhtin’s interpretation of the heroic elements of epic and novel to the screenplay. Shows how the heroes of these films are ultimately forced to reject the ethic of their parent culture to embrace the ethic of the comitatus (circle of warriors) in the struggle of Truth against Death, only to realize that Death is the only Truth. The hero becomes a dissociated, discursive pariah “a cultural splinter, marginalized and disenfranchised” (p. vii). Bibliography|

Traube, Elizabeth G. “Redeeming images: The wild man comes home” in her Dreaming identities : class, gender, and generation in 1980s Hollywood movies Boulder : Westview Press, 1992. (p. 39-66)|Reprint of Traube, 1986 |

Vietnam War feature filmography (edited by Jean-Jacques Malo and Tony Williams)

|draft|Seattle, Wash. : J.J. Malo, 1992.

|see Vietnam War films (1994)|

Wetta, Frank Joseph and Curley, Stephen J. Celluloid wars : a guide to film and the American experience of war New York : Greenwood Press, 1992.

Whaley, Donald M. “Editorial: The hero-adventurer in the land of Nam” Literature/film quarterly 20/3 (1992), p. 169-71.

|Introductory essay for an issue with 13 articles on Vietnam War films. The Vietnam War made it necessary for Hollywood to invent a new kind of war movie – the story of the mythological journey. Joseph Campbell (in his Hero with a thousand faces) has described this mythological journey as a monomyth, which is told in various forms in various cultures but always follows the same pattern: A hero ventures forth from the world into a region of supernatural wonder, fabulous forces are encountered and a decisive victory is won. The hero comes back from this adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man|

Williams, Tony (see under Vietnam War feature filmography)

Worthy, Kathleen Marie. Ideological complicity in Vietnam War narratives from The quiet American to Miss Saigon Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1992. (200 p.)

|The 1958 movie adaptation of The quiet American reversed the novel’s criticism of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, but both versions employ the same stereotypical gender traits to identify the U.S. as “masculine” and Vietnam as “feminine.” The gendered narrative structure of the film became a model for subsequent Vietnam War narratives and films. The author concludes with a narrative strategy to ‘break the codes’ of hierarchical, exclusionary structures. Filmography (29 films) and bibliography|

Young, Marilyn B.

|Unknown title| Cineaste 19/203 (1992), p. 85-6.

|Review essay on Inventing Vietnam; From Hanoi to Hollywood; and The Vietnam War and American culture)

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1993

Aidan, Marceau. “Nantes 92 : le cinema vietnamien” Jeune cineman.223 (Jul/Aug 1993), p. 43-4.

|Reviews Vietnamese films shown at the festival. In French|

* Durkin, Andrew. Vietnam War films in a postfeminist age Thesis (B.A.)–Drew University, 1993. (102 leaves)
Farenick, Sarah. “Television and the Vietnam War” Chap. 17 in The Vietnam War : handbook of the literature and research (edited by James S. Olson) Wesport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1993. (p. 363-379)

|Describes how television entertainment programs in three distinct eras (1965-73, 1973-83, and the mid-80s to date) have reflected changing American public opinion about the Vietnam War and veterans. Bibliography|

Forbes, Tessa and Madden, Jackie. Vietnam War : Films and the media : Information source pack London : British Film Institute, 1993. (16 leaves)

|Annotated bibliography of books and articles|

Greenberg, Harvey Roy. “Dangerous recuperations: Red dawn, Rambo and the new Decaturism” in his Screen memories : Hollywood cinema on the psychoanalytic couch New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1993. (p. 93-110)

|Reprint of Greenberg, 1987|

Gruner, E. G. (Elliot G.). Prisoners of culture : Representing the Vietnam POW New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers Univ. Press, 1993.

|Studies how we have made sense of the competing images of the Vietnam POW and how myths surrounding the POW experience exclude some of its aspects. References to 40 films and television programs. Bibliography and index|

Hug, W. J. “Images of the western in selected Vietnam films” in Continuities in popular culture : the present in the past & the past in the present (edited by Ray B. Browne, et al.) Bowling Green, OH : Bowling Green State Univ. Popular Press, 1993. (p. 176-90)

|Illustrates correspondences between western and Vietnam narratives in such films as The deer hunter, Apocalypse now and Full metal jacket|

|Reprinted in Jason, 1996|

Katzman, Jacob. “From outcast to cliche: How film shaped, warped and developed the image of the Vietnam veteran, 1967-1990” Journal of American culture 16/1 (spring 1993), p. 7-24.

|Historically, the U.S. has feared returned soldiers. Early movies depicting Vietnam veterans (i.e Born losers) exhibit this fear but a change in the political and social climate in the 1980s led to depictions of the veteran as a sympathetic character (Born on the Fourth of July)|

|Reprinted as Katzman, 2000|

Landon, Philip J. “Marginal males: Working class heroes in recent fiction and films” Studies in the humanities 20/2 (Dec 1993), p. 138-53.

|Discusses eleven films with Vietnam veteran characters. Bibliographical references|

Martin, Andrew. Receptions of war : Vietnam in American culture Norman, Okla. : Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1993.

|Revision of thesis (1987). Cinematic representations of the war have molded contemporary understanding of the Vietnam War. Chapter 4, “Vietnam in Hollywood,” discusses eight major films. Chapter 5, “Melodramatic excess: The body in/of the text,” examines the television series China Beach and Tour of duty. Bibliographical references and index|

Muse, Eben J. “From Lt. Calley to John Rambo: Repatriating the Vietnam War” Journal of American studies (Great Britain) 27/1 (1993), p. 88-92.

|Describes 1980s filmmakers rejection of the Calley image of the American male psyche run amok. First they portrayed Vietnam veterans as warrior-heroes who became scapegoats thru no fault of their own. Finally with Rambo: First blood, part II they avoided reality, romaticized the warrior, mythologized warfare, and reestablished American soldiers as geopolitical giants. Bibliographical references|

Nguyen, Thi Nam. “Cinema and video, 1992” Vietnamese studies n. 37 (1993), p. 119-20.

|Reviews the state of Vietnamese film production with brief reference to selected fiction titles|

Niogret, Hubert and Yann, Tobin. “Nantes 1992: 14e festival des 3 continents: Du Viet-nam au nambo” Positif n.391 (Sep 1993), p. 63-5.

|Brief notes on Vietnamese films shown at the festival with a general overview of the state of Vietnamese film production. In French|

Palmer, William J. The films of the eighties : a social history Carbondale and Evansville, Ill. : Southern Illinois Univ. Press, 1993.

|Includes two chapters (“2. The Vietnam War as film text” and “3. The ‘Coming home’ films”) which focus on the war and its aftermath in the U.S. and discuss eleven films in detail. Index|

Portes, Jacques. “Le Vietnam des ecrans” in his Les Americains et la guerre du Vietnam Brussells : Editions Complexe, 1993. (p. 310-18, 354)

|Vietnam War films are most often the result of the initiative of individual directors and producers rather than the big studios. Analyzes the chronology of the major films. In French|

Reinecke, Stefan. Hollywood goes Vietnam : der Vietnamkrieg im US-amerikanischen Film Marburg : Hitzeroth, 1993.

|Divides American Vietnam War films into four chronological phases: the 1960s thru the end of the war, characterized almost exclusively by the propagandistic The Green Berets; the moral renewal of the Carter administration characterized by mentally or physically crippled heros (Coming home and The deer hunter); the Reagan administration characterized by the comic book hero (Rambo); and the post-Reagan Bush administration, characterized by the second wave of Vietnam War films. After the second wave, the Vietnam War theme began to diffuse into other genres. The 1991 war with Iraq, which Bush declared had overcome the ignominy of Vietnam, seemed to bring an end to the Vietnam War in the movies. Filmography and bibliography. In German|

Roberts, Randy. “Film and the Vietnam War” in The Vietnam War : handbook of literature and research (edited by James S. Olson) Westport, CT : Greenwood Press, 1993. (p. 401-25)

|In World War II, the government and Hollywood cooperated to produce blatant propaganda. After that war, red scares and structural changes in the industry made Hollywood more conservative and less political. Industry leaders were generally unwilling to court controversy. The struggle of Americans to come to terms with the Vietnam War was thus largely contested outside the Hollywood studios. Analyzes films produced during the war as well as the first and second wave of films after the war. “The confusing war and its ambiguous results, it seems, will continue to occupy moviemakers for the next generation” (p. 419). Bibliography|

Schechter, Harold and Semerks, Jonna G. “Leatherstocking in ‘Nam: Rambo, Platoon and the American frontier myth” in Movies and politics : the dynamic relationships (edited by James Combs) New York : Garland, 1993. (p. 115-27)|

|Reprint of Schechter, 1991|

Selig, Michael. “Genre, gender, and the discourse of war: The a/historical and Vietnam films” Screen 34/1 (spring 1993), p. 1-18.

|Discussion of films about US intervention in Vietnam with reference to historical misrepresentation, repression of the feminine, and representation of masculinity. Bibliographical references|

Semerks, Jonna G. (see under Schechter, Harold)
Tasker, Yvonne. “Masculinity, politics and national identity” (chap. 5) in her Spectacular bodies : gender, genre, and the action cinema London ; New York : Routledge, 1993. (p. 91-109)

Wilmington, Michael. “The reel legacy of Vietnam: A battalion of films showed us that war was indeed hell” Chicago tribune (Dec 19, 1993), Arts, p. 5, 28-29.

|A review of the history of films about the war focusing on the “dark, ambivalent or pessimistic chords” in these films. Since the “ludicrous” Green Berets, “ ‘positive’ Vietnam films have been almost non-existent.” The release of Oliver Stone’s Heaven and earth, however, may point “a way out of the dark” by focusing on Vietnamese civilians and viewing the world through their eyes|

Yann, Tobin (see under Niogret, Hubert)

Young, Marilyn B. “The Vietnam War in American memory” in The Vietnam War : Vietnamese and American perspectives (edited by Jayne S. Warner and Luu Doan Huynh) Armonk, N.Y. : M.E. Sharpe, 1993. (p. 248-57)

|Most Americans only know Vietnam from what they have seen in the movies. Revisionist historians and the political and military establishments of the Reagan-Bush era have made “an enormous effort to overcome the reluctance of the American public to use military force as an instrument of policy… Yet the fragmentation of national identity that occurred during the Vietnam War has not been, indeed cannot be, mended…” (p. 255) Bibliographical references|

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1994

Charlot, John. “Vietnamese cinema: First views” in Colonialism and nationalism in Asian cinema (edited by Wimal Dissanayake) Bloomington and Indianapolis : Indiana Univ. Press, 1994. (p. 105-40)

|Reprint of Charlot, 1991|

Chua, Lawrence. “Cinema now: Of love and war: Cinema of Vietnam” Village voice 39 (Jan 25, 1994), p. 56-7.

|Reviews a retrospective of Vietnamese film sponsored by Asian Cinevision at Cinema Village including Em be Hanoi, Bao gio cho den thang muoi, Thi tran yen tinh, Anh va em and Co gai tren song|

Devine, Jeremy M. Vietnam at 24 frames a second : A critical and thematic analysis of over 400 films about the Vietnam War Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1994, c1995.

|Limited to English language fiction films but including many which make only “tangential reference” to the war to correct the notion that there have been relatively few Vietnam War films. Filmography and index|

Edelman, Rob. “Vietnam War films” in The political companion to American film (edited by Gary Crowdus) Chicago : Lake View Press, 1994. (p. 444-54)

|A general survey of films about the war and veterans and how their themes and focus have changed over time|

Fuchs, Cynthia J. “Sex acts” in The Viet Nam Generation big book (edited by Dan Duffy and Kali Tal) Woodbridge, Conn. : Viet Nam Generation, 1994. (p. 221-25)

|The use of the Vietnam War in pornographic films. Bibliographical references|

Gibson, James William. Warrior dreams : paramilitary culture in post-Vietnam America New York : Hill and Wang, 1994.

|Expands on the thesis of his earlier articles (1989) with references to more that 30 Vietnam War and veteran films. Bibliographical references and index|

Hagopian, Patrick. The social memory of the Vietnam War Thesis (Ph.D.)–Johns Hopkins University, 1994. (633 p.)

|The Vietnam War is a vexing memory for most Americans. Many lost faith in themselves, their leaders, and their nation because of the war. Public opinion about the lessons of the war has been persistently divided. This study examines Vietnam veterans memorials and oral narratives as part of a healing process in which doubts and conflicts are negotiated. Makes some reference to film, literature and the visual arts in showing how memorials and oral narratives evade or displace the morality and politics of the war. Bibliography|

* Iturrate, L. F. Vietnam en el cine (1975-1993) Thesis (Ph.D.)–Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, 1994.

|Cited in Trullols, F. In Spanish|

Jeffords, Susan. Hard bodies : Hollywood masculinity in the Reagan era New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers Univ. Press, 1994.

|Includes analysis of 9 Vietnam veteran films of the 1980s. Bibliography and index|

___________. “Rape and the winter soldier” in The Viet Nam Generation big book (edited by Dan Duffy and Kali Tal) Woodbridge, Conn. : Viet Nam Generation, 1994. (p. 152-4)

|The 1971 Winter Soldier testimonies are filled with reports of crimes committed against Vietnamese women. The author finds that ‘winter soldier’ characters have since been used to commit war crimes in the second wave of Vietnam War films|

Lanning, Michael Lee. Vietnam at the movies New York : Fawcett Columbine, 1994.

|Reviews movies about the Vietnam War and its veterans to provide analysis of acting, plot and production values. The author found there were many more films that touch on Vietnam than he anticipated and that, in part, they systematically vilify the warrior as well as the war|

Man, Glenn. “Marginality and centrality: The myth of Asia in 1970s Hollywood” East-West film journal 8/1 (1994), p. 52-67.

|Examines the depiction of Asians in McCabe and Mrs. Miller, Chinatown and The Deer hunter, three films which offer a critique of the dominant ideology and its handmaiden, the classical Hollywood paradigm. Finds that while the latter two films demythologize the dominant ideology, The Deer hunter uses classic Asian stereotypes. Bibliographical references|

Miller, Daniel Lee Thompson. The popular media reconstruction of the Vietnam War : texts and contexts Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Oregon, 1994. (ix, 336 leaves)

|The Vietnam War has been described as America’s first television war, however, in the decade after the war, there was relatively little direct representation of the war in popular mainstream film or television. This changed in 1986 with the release of Platoon which initiated a five year period of intense popular media representations and national discourse about the war. A general view of the war developed during this period, with dominant and alternative characteristics, which has been repeated and reproduced throughout American culture since. Focusing on the 1986-91 period, the author analyzes the key representations of the war, as well as their historical, political, economic and ideological contexts. He draws conclusions from this analysis concerning the relationship between popular media, society and culture. Bibliographical references|

Moser, Richard. “Vietnam: War and legacy” Radical history review no. 58 (winter 1994), p. 175-77.

|Syllabus for a course at Middle Tennessee State Univ., Spring 1993. Includes references to both dramatic and documentary films|

Muse, Eben J. “Romance, power, and the Vietnam War : romantic triangles in three Vietnam War films” Durham University journal 86/2 (July 1994), p. 307-13.

|Examines love triangles in three first wave Vietnam films: Coming home, The deer hunter, and Who’ll stop the rain. Bibliographical references|

Norden, Martin F. The cinema of isolation : a history of physical disability in the movies New Brunswick, N.J. : Rutgers Univ. Press, 1994. (p. 265-76, 299-302, 310-11)

|Chiefly his Chap. 8 “High-tech heroics and other concerns” which discusses a number of films with disabled Vietnam veteran characters. Bibliographical references and index|

Pasick, Adam. “Straight from the soundtrack : the music of Vietnam via Hollywood” |1994?| (4 p.) originally from Foxnews.com but printed from: http://www.ourolympics.com/national/vietnam/index_spirit.sml

|Discusses the use of 1960s era songs in Vietnam War related film and television soundtracks|

Pearce, Kevin Jeffrey. Vietnam and the American war movie Thesis (M.A.)–San Diego State University, 1994. (v, 106 leaves)

|Examines thirty top selling war films, fifteen from before the Vietnam War (1947-61, called period A) and fifteen from after the war (1977-81, called period B), “in order to determine any change in the filmic representation of the American military that could be attributed to the Vietnam War.” (p. 104) The general writings about these war films imply there was a vast difference in the way the military was represented. Each of the selected films was viewed by coders who completed detailed questionnaires which were analyzed using the SPSS program. The author tested three categories of hypotheses: about military support for war; about death and its representation; and about the image of the American military. The statistically significant findings were: fewer American soldiers were seen to support war in period B than in A; more soldiers were seen to die in period B than in A; and American military were seen much more negatively in period B than in period A. Bibliography|

Phan, Dinh Mau. “Reality of war through Vietnamese films” (typescript, probably a translation of an article first published in Vietnamese, 198-?), 3 leaves.

|Vietnamese filmmakers and filmmaking, having developed during two major wars, are much influenced by war, but the war they depict in their films is much different than that of American directors. There are two distinct periods in Vietnamese war films: pre- and post-1975. Pre-1975 films focused on combat, officers and soldiers, with the objective of encouraging their audiences. After 1975, filmmakers were more concerned with analyzing the effects of the war on people other than soldiers|

|Reprinted in slightly different translation as “The war and Vietnamese films” in Vietnam War films, 1994, p. xxiii-xxiv|

Richardson, Granette Lyndon. Voices and Vietnam : a study of varying ideological perspectives in American fiction and film, 1975-1982 Thesis (Ph.D.)–University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 1994. (v, 273 leaves)

|Using the theories of Bakhtin, explores the way heteroglossia allows Vietnam novelists and filmmakers to debate the relevance and significance of the dominant ideology and challenge its hegemony. Includes analysis of four novels as well as The deer hunter, Go tell the Spartans and Apocalypse now. Bibliography|

Rollins, Peter C. “United States – Vietnam reconciliation in 1994. What do our feature films tell us?” National forum 74/4 (fall 1994), p. 30+ |4 p.|

|Many Americans base their opinions on the Vietnam War on Hollywood feature films about it. Debates have followed each new film on the war since Apocalypse now. These include Platoon, Hanoi Hilton, The killing fields, and Heaven and earth. Taking a conservative perspective the author criticizes Hollywood’s representations of the war in general and concludes that only distance from Vietnam-related feature films will allow us to clearly reappraise the Vietnam experience|

Selig, Michael. “History and subjectivity: What we won’t learn from the Hollywood-style Vietnam War film” in The Viet Nam Generation big book (edited by Dan Duffy and Kali Tal) Woodbridge, Conn. : Viet Nam Generation, 1994. (p. 236-40)

|At issue in the second wave of Vietnam War films is their historical authenticity: how they attempt to present themselves as authentic and how this authenticity is a product of subjecting history to Hollywood’s narrative conventions. “The Hollywood Vietnam film represents national identity by a configuration of the melodramatic and the Oedipal…” thereby avoiding the political issues involved in military intervention. The films also contrive an image of an Asian ‘Other’ and offer no reasonable position from which to judge the Vietnamese struggle for self-determination. Bibliographical references|

Small, Linda. “Grave goods and social identity at the Vietnam War Memorial” Studies in popular culture 16/2 (1994), p. 73-84.

|Study of the popular reconstruction of the social identity of a generation of Americans looking back at 1968. This reconstruction is based on mythical history and image. Identifies The Deer hunter, Platoon, Rambo and Full metal jacket and other films dealing with the frontier hero myth as contributing to the reconstruction. Bibliography|

Vietnam War films : over 600 feature, made-for-TV, pilot and short movies, 1939-1992, from the United States, Vietnam, France, Belgium, Australia, Hong Kong, South Africa, Great Britain and other countries (edited by Jean-Jacques Malo and Tony Williams) Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 1994.

|The major filmography on the subject with coverage through the early 1990s. The editors used the following criteria to identify “Vietnam War” films: western films considered allegories for the war, any films with images of war in Southeast Asia during the French or American involvement; any depictions of veterans who fought during this period; any films about the French or American homefront during the period which refer to the war; films of the antiwar movements; any films with images of refugees from the conflict; and films dealing with reconstruction after the war. Individual film entries include: cast, credits, themes and keywords, plot synopsis, and reviewer’s comments. Appendixes: chronological listing; country of origin; directors; screenwriters; selected actors|

Von Beltz, Jeff. “The neverending story” The journal |Writers Guild of America, West| 7 (Feb 1994), p. 37.

|Reacts to Heaven and earth and speculates on the future of Vietnam films in general|

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2000

Balzar, John. “Vietnam and culture; Lessons and legacies / 25 years after Vietnam; Coming home is never easy” Los Angeles times (Apr 16, 2000), Calendar, p. 4.

|Interview of Oliver Stone and Tony Bui with references to Born on the Fourth of July, Heaven and earth, Platoon and Three seasons|

Berg, Rick. “Losing Vietnam : Covering the war in an age of technology” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000. (p. 264-98)

|Reprint of Berg, 1986|

Charlot, John. “Vietnamese cinema: First views” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000 (p. 189-218)

|Reprint of Charlot, 1991|

Chi, Ngo Hieu. “Challenges to the National Film Collection in Vietnam” Journal of film preservation no. 60/61 (July 2000), p. 36-40.

|A report on the state of the 20,000 films in the collections of the Vietnam Film Institute (formerly the Vietnam Film Archive), the battle against mould (35 species!) and vinegar syndrome, and efforts at film restoration|

Clark, Michael. “Remembering Vietnam” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000 (p. 232-261)

|Reprint of Clark, 1986|

Davidson, James West and Lytle, Mark Hamilton. “Where trouble comes” |Chapter 15| in After the fact : the art of historical detection 4th ed. New York : McGraw-Hill, 2000. (p. 364-95)

|Revision of Davidson, 1992|

Dodd, Jan. “Vietnam in the movies” in his Rough guide to Vietnam 3rd ed. London : Rough Guides, 2000. (p. 482-7)

|Reprint and expansion of Dodd, 1996 and 1998|

Jeffords, Susan. “Women, gender, and the war” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000 (p. 89-96)

|Reprint of Jeffords, 1989|

Katzman, Jacob. “From outcast to cliche: How film shaped, warped and developed the image of the Vietnam veteran, 1967-1990” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000 (p. 219-231)

|Reprint of Katzman, 1993|

King, Geoff. Spectacular narratives : Hollywood in the age of the blockbuster London : I.B. Taurus, 2000.

|Discusses spectacle and frontier mythology in such films as Apocalypse now, Platoon and Independence day. Bibliographical references|

Leagan, Kristen Suzann. Coming home : the Trojan War nostoi in American Vietvet cinema Thesis (M.A.)—Regent University, 2000. (v, 121 leaves)

|A comparison of the treatment of Trojan War and Vietnam War veterans in fictional media. Investigates the similarities between ancient Greek stories of homecoming from the Trojan War (nostoi) and American films chronicling the reception of Vietnam veterans. The imaginative representations of the veterans and their fates may be divided in four distinct groups: “those who arrived home safely only to meet disaster; those who commited suicided; those who wandered for years before returning home; and those who were physically and emotionally rehabilitated away from society” (p. v). Bibliography|

Lytle, Mark Hamilton (see under Davidson, James West)
Neale, Steve. “War films” in his Genre and Hollywood London, New York : Routledge, 2000. (p. 125-33)

|Analysis largely based on Jeanine Basinger’s study of war film from the 1940s thru the 1970s (The World War II combat film : anatomy of a genre New York : Columbia Univ. Press, 1986) with reference to other Vietnam War studies and the argument over whether the Vietnam films constitute a genre of their own|

Pitard, Derrick. “The Vietnam War on film” |2000?| http://www.sru.edu/depts/artsci/engl/dpitard/vietnamfilms.htm

|Selective filmography of ca. 500 titles with some links to other sites. Compiled by an English professor at Slippery Rock Univ, Pa.. Includes some documentaries longer than 30 min.|

Rowe, John Carlos. “From documentary to docudrama: Vietnam on television in the 1980s” in Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War (edited by Walter L. Hixson) New York : Garland, 2000 (p. 299-326)

|Reprint of Rowe 1988|

Seate, Mike. Two wheels on two reels : a history of biker movies North Conway, N.H. : Whitehorse Press, 2000.

|Includes analysis of 13 biker films with Vietnam War connections. Index|

Tran, Tini. “Vietnam’s dilemma: Global interest grows as domestic audience shrinks” Associated Press |Lexis-Nexis| (Feb 7, 2000), BC cycle.

|Reviews the decline of the film industry in Vietnam as foreign films have taken the domestic audience and local filmmakers can no longer rely on government support|

Turan, Kenneth. “Vietnam and culture; Lessons and legacies / 25 years after Vietnam; The horror, the madness, the movies” Los Angeles times (Apr 16, 2000), Calendar, p. 7.

|Selects and discusses six historically significant and/or dramatically successful films about the war including: Apocalypse now, Born on the Fourth of July, Coming home, The Deer hunter, The Green Berets, and Platoon|

* Wethe, Kimberly Milliken. Cynicism in American film : the World War II era to the Vietnam War era Thesis (B.A.)—James Madison University, 2000. (viii, 40 leaves)

|Bibliography|

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2001

Felchner, William J. “Hollywood presents the Vietnam War” Movie collector’s world no. 630 (May 25, 2001), p. 33-7.

|Superficial survey of Vietnam War combat films with reference to selected television series and movies as well|

Malo, Jean-Jacques. “Les filles de l’Oncle Sam et les filles de l’Oncle Ho: La femme dans le cinema sur les guerres du Viet-Nam” in Femmes, identities plurielles (Colloque “Femmes” de l’Universite de Nantes (Nantes : 1999)) (edited by Joelle Deniot |et al.| ) Paris : Harmattan, c2001. (p. 159-173)

|Analyzes the evolution of depictions of women in Vietnamese and American dramatic films and television programs of the Vietnam wars. Vietnamese films developed from simplistic propaganda to more social realism in their depictions of women. American films went through a similar evolution in female images, from marginal characters to amazon warriors. Bibliographical references. In French|

Woodman, Brian J. “Represented in the margins: Images of African American soldiers in Vietnam War combat films” Journal of film and video 53/2-3 (summer/fall 2001), p. 38-60.

|Although blacks were more likely to be drafted, faced discrimination at home and abroad, and made up a disproportionate number of American casualties in Vietnam, “Hollywood Vietnam War films have tended to marginalize their stories…” (p. 38). However, some Vietnam War films can provide a glimmer of the African American Vietnam experience. Analyzes The Green berets, The boys in Company C, Apocalypse now, Platoon and Hamburger Hill. Bibliographical references|

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2002

* Asenas, Jennifer J. Redressing the Vietnam syndrome : the variations on a just war theme in three post-Vietnam World War II films Thesis (M.A.)—California State University, Long Beach, 2002.

|Argues that post-Vietnam World War II films reinstate the values of the classic American myths of the justice and efficacy of war, and of the ability of the warrior to control its outcome, while simultaneously acknowledging the trauma of Vietnam. Analyzes Saving Private Ryan, The thin red line and Pearl Harbor. Bibliography|

_______________. (see also under Rasmussen, Karen)

Cheramy, Yann. La guerre du Viet-Nam et le traumatisme des Etats-Unis : une source d’inspiration inepuisable pour le cinema americain Thesis (Licence de Sociologie)—Universite de Nantes, 2002. (29, |16| leaves)

|The author’s analysis with a sociological survey of French opinion of aspects of nine major American Vietnam War films from The deer hunter (1978) to Forrest Gump (1994). Bibliography. In French|

Johnson, Malcolm. “Despite claim, We were soldiers not first to get it right” Hartford courant (Mar 10, 2002), Arts, p. G1.

|Reacts to the claim of Hal Moore and Joseph Galloway in their book We were soldiers… that “Hollywood got it wrong every damn time…” by discussing more than a dozen prior films that capture the Vietnam War and/or its effects at home|

Muraire, Andre. “Paradigms of resistance: The ‘Vietvet’ from ‘Nam’ to the American ‘jungle’” Cycnos 19/1 (2002), p. |145| -158.

|Analyzes depictions of Vietnam veterans in American films. The images show resilience as veterans separated from society reconcile reality and nightmare through therapy and suffering. Discusses the documentary Soldiers in hiding and the dramas Distant thunder and Sons in detail. Bibliographical references|

McAdams, Frank. “Vietnam: The emerging counterculture” and “The Vietnam era: A campus in O-hio” published as Chap. 7 and 8 in his The American war film : history and Hollywood Westport, CT : Praeger, 2002.

|Vietnam had an impact on World War II films produced while it was in progress, but aside from the Green Berets, the guilt and anger of the Vietnam experience was not addressed directly in film until after the war was over. After the Tet Offensive of 1968 Hollywood turned to producing counterculture films with a subtle anti-war messages. After the fall of Saigon, the first low-budget Vietnam combat films began to appear followed by a number of significant films of the “first wave” in the late 1970s and the “second wave” of film and television productions of the 1980s. War film chronology and bibliography|

Russell, Jamie. Vietnam war movies Harpenden |England| : Pocket essentials, 2002.

|Written by a British freelance journalist. Offers an overview of the genre and its subgenres: the training film (Full metal jacket); the anti-war diatribe (Platoon); the Vietnam vet saga (First blood); and the surreal (Apocalypse now). Aims to show how these films operate as fantasy wish-fulfillment (re-writing the war in The Green Berets and Rambo II), an attempt to come to terms with the war as an event (The deer hunter), and simply as the opportunity for action (Hamburger Hill)|

Tracey, Grant. Filmography of American history Westport, Conn. : Greenwood Press, 2002.

|Explores the relationship between American history and film, focusing on those which retell history or reinscribe the values of the present on the past. Excludes biographical films (“History isn’t shaped by great men…” p. ix) and concentrates instead on how popular films reflect the lives of ordinary people. Chapters are organized around landmark events in U.S. history beginning with the Civil War. There are 24 Vietnam War related films among the 210 discussed. Filmographies, bibliographies and indexes|

* Woodman, Brian J. The Vietnamese enemy through the Hollywood lens : using the enemy to explore America’s war experience in Vietnam Thesis (M.A.)—University of Kansas, 2002.

|Examines how depictions of Vietnamese (as yellow peril, super soldier, or marginal other) in Vietnam war films have been used in an essentially American discourse to answer questions about what the war meant for the U.S. Using elements of post-colonial methodology, the author examines nine films including: The Green Berets, The deer hunter, Uncommon valor, Rambo: first blood part II, Go tell the Spartans, Apocalypse now, Hamburger Hill, Platoon and Full metal jacket. Bibliographical references|

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2003

* Asenas, Jennifer J. Redressing the Vietnam syndrome : the variations on a just war theme in three post-Vietnam World War II films Thesis (M.A.)—California State University, Long Beach, 2002.

|Argues that post-Vietnam World War II films reinstate the values of the classic American myths of the justice and efficacy of war, and of the ability of the warrior to control its outcome, while simultaneously acknowledging the trauma of Vietnam. Analyzes Saving Private Ryan, The thin red line and Pearl Harbor. Bibliography|

_______________. (see also under Rasmussen, Karen)

Downey, Sharon D. “Top guns in Vietnam : The pilot as protected warrior hero” in War and film in America : historical and critical essays (edited by Marilyn J. Matelski and Nancy Lynch Street) Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 2003. (p. 114-33)

|The image of the American fighter pilot in Vietnam was overshadowed by the dominant image of the infantry “grunt” until the second wave of Vietnam War films in the mid-1980s. Then military pilots appear in a significant way. In these later films aviators undergo the archetypal hero’s quest but are removed from the moral uncertainty of ground combat. “This displacement protects the aviator from the same physical and ethical fate as his ground-pounding counterparts, thus preserving the honorable image of the warrior” (p. 116). The author compares and contrasts images of aviators with those of ground forces who fail to emerge as heroes and concludes with implications for the preservation of the warrior’s image in post-Vietnam America. Bibliographical references|

_______________ (see also under Rasmussen, Karen)

Early, Emmett. The war veteran in film Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 2003.

|A psychologist studies the use of war veterans, chiefly in American films with Vietnam War connections. Veterans have been used (in both high and low quality films) as heroes, anti-heroes and supporting players who sometimes become cultural symbols and make a statement about a war’s impact on society. Their unique experiences in combat become credentials to motivate action, mayhem, fantasy, romance and mystery. Filmographies, bibliography and index|

Hunter, Jack. “Gun crazy: Vietnam veteran films” in Search & destroy : |an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies| (edited by Jack Hunter) |London| : Creation Books, 2003, c2002. (Chap. 7, p. 91-138)

|Selective survey of films with various stereotypical Vietnam veteran characters including: motorcycle psychos, blaxploitation, horror/SF, psycho killers, vigilanties, and the hollow men (maimed physically or mentally)|

__________. “No civil disobedience” in Search & destroy : |an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies| (edited by Jack Hunter) |London| : Creation Books, 2003, c2002. (Chap. 12, p. 207-216)

|Selective survey of anti-war or protest dramatic and documentary films|

__________. “Search and destroy: Vietnam combat films” in Search & destroy :
|an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies| (edited by Jack Hunter)
|London| : Creation Books, 2003, c2002. (Chap. 1, p. 19-28)

|Selective survey of films from the 1950s thru 2002 with a footnote reference to a few TV movies|

__________ (see also under Search & destroy : an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies)

Rasmussen, Karen; Downey, Sharon D.; and Asenas, Jennifer. “Trauma, treatment and transformation : The evolution of the Vietnam warrior in film” in War and film in America : historical and critical essays (edited by Marilyn J. Matelski and Nancy Lynch Street) Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland, 2003. (p. 134-58)

|The Vietnam War, America’s longest, was a defeat marked by an absence of heroes. It’s legacy, “the Vietnam Syndrome, created anxiety about our nation’s ideology, identity, national mission, foreign policy, and images of what constitutes a warrior and a hero.” (p. 134-5) For 30 years it has lingered as unfinished business and, not surprisingly, pervades American media. What is surprising, however, is the magnitude, diversity and disparity of the images of the Vietnam warrior. These incongruities may be explained as different individuals coping differently with the consequences of combat, or as a reflection of continuing cultural confusion about how to interpret the Vietnam era. The authors argue, that viewed collectively, “narratives about Vietnam combatants reflect a rhetorical movement to define, attend to, and reconcile the cultural trauma precipitated by the Vietnam War. To achieve this end, Vietnam films cast war and the resulting Vietnam Syndrome as a catastrophic illness befalling the warrior. The resulting discourse of healing the warrior is a therapeutic rhetoric that functions symbolically to reinstate the honorable image of the warrior” and socially reconcile the Vietnam experience (p. 135). Bibliographical references|

Sargeant, Jack. “Sticks and bones: Weapons and training” in Search & destroy : |an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies|

(edited by Jack Hunter) |London|

: Creation Books, 2003, c2002. (Chap. 13, p. 221-232)

|Study of Vietnam combat film depictions of weapons. “Weapons and their use are portrayed with increasing degrees of symbolism and levels of metaphor not commonly seen within films … of other wars.” This complex representation of weapons is a result of the failure of the high-tech American military to overcome the low-tech Viet Cong and also reflects the crisis and dissolution experienced by many Americans in the post-war years. Bibliographical references|

Search & destroy : |an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies|

(edited by Jack Hunter) |London|

: Creation Books, 2003, c2002.

|Subtitle from cover. A collection of essays by British authors which discuss the major combat films of the war and selective ‘Viet vet’ films where the war experience is a decisive factor in the character’s behavior. Also includes a survey of documentaries about the war and some coverage of underground and porno films. The editor concludes his foreword: “All future war movies – and perhaps all future wars – will continue to be judged by the benchmark of Vietnam.” General chapters analyzed separately above. Bibliographical references and index|

Sorfa, David. “Helicopters in the mist” in Search & destroy : |an illustrated guide to Vietnam war movies|

(edited by Jack Hunter) |London|

: Creation Books, 2003, c2002. (Chap. 14, p. 233-249)

|Explores the important role of helicopters in the iconography of Vietnam War films. The use of helicopters can make a film part of the “Vietnam War genre,” but they always remain outside the genre itself. Bibliographical references|

* Taylor, Mark. The Vietnam war in history, literature and film. Edinburgh : Edinburgh University Press, 2003.

|Bibliographical references and index|

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