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Because of the negatives that are associated with the Vietnam war, anything associated with it, specifically, movies, seemed to be portrayed in a bad light. The producers are in a difficult position. While wanting to produce a historical movie that is accurate and provides the viewer with an experience of the event, they also need to produce something that the public WILL watch. The only way to ensure public approval is to deviate from the truth and produce something else.

A lot of the Hollywood movies concerning Vietnam do not portray the
Vietnam War in sense of the truth, so how does the viewer know they
are receiving the facts? With a number directors and producers coming
from many angles, each director has a different angle and opinion of
what happened. Many of the directors have tried to go for ratings and
revenue by exaggerating the more dramatic points of Vietnam for the
film while others have tried to stick to the truth. By exaggerating
the film it becomes distorted and evasive and has provided biased
information to the viewer.

Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July both directed by Oliver Stone
were based on the actual experiences of Oliver Stone and fellow
veteran, Ron Kovic. Platoon is often said to be the most realistic of
all the Vietnam War films, because of its ability to “represent the
terror and the numbing confusion of daily battle”.

The problem with Platoon, although it was painfully and visually
truthful when depicting the violence in Vietnam, was that it gave a
lot of the soldiers in Vietnam a stereotype of being completely
psychotic. Vietnam veteran Michael Herrera says that the first time he saw
Platoon in a theatre, there were a number of Vietnamese people in the
audience. After the village scenes, if anybody had asked if he was a
vet, he would have said no. The film focused too much on the negative,
completely ignoring the positive civic action - sponsoring orphans,
rebuilding communities - that many took an active role in. A friend
who served in the infantry shook his head and said that Oliver Stone must
have known an awful lot of psychotics.

Born on the Fourth of July spends less time in combat and more time
depicting the life of the veteran after his return home. Because
Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July was one man’s story of his
experience in Vietnam, it could be a little generalized. He will only
remember certain things he chooses to remember, so the viewer will yet
again get a biased view of the war in Vietnam. Oliver Stone and Ron
Kovic were both eventually anti Vietnam so this again would of
distorted the outcome of both Platoon and Born on the fourth of July.
They are both Anti Vietnam war veterans. Both of them were gung-ho
patriots who were eager to answer their country’s call to arms. When
they came back home, they were still patriots, hurt and offended by
the hostility they experienced from the anti-war movement. Eventually,
both men turned against the war, Kovic most dramatically.

Full Metal Jacket is formed round the experiences of young men in
‘boot camp’, and when they’re sent off to war in Vietnam. Kubrick in
Full Metal Jacket chooses to portray genuine events from the war. He
focuses his action on the Tet Offensive 1968, directed by the enemy
divisions in the South towards the United States. They wished to
weaken American confidence in the Saigon government, strengthening
American anti-war protest and ultimately bring America to some
agreement. In order to asset Viet Cong influence and undermine Saigon
authority, the North Vietnamese captured the city of Hue. Kubrick
concentrates on the battle, which resulted from the marines dispatched
to Hue. He manages to capture the vast destruction caused by the
intense violent fighting in the houses and the streets. The tet
offensive was an important event in the war because the offensive
marked a military victory for the Viet Cong. For many Americans who
had believed that the war was being won, the sight of Viet Cong troops
holding the US embassy is a rude awakening, and forces them to
question the US “true” position.

The film has an almost documentary-like feel, as if this is real
footage of the battles. In the first half of the film, Kubrick focuses
on the marine training. Again it feels like one is right there amidst
the recruits preparing for war.

How confident can we be when watching these films that we are seeing
the truth about Vietnam? This is important because, many people will
watch a film as though it’s the truth instead of reading a historical
book on the Vietnam War, thus the directors of Vietnam films had the
biggest say in what people depicted in the war. Directors should make
more of an effort of sticking to the truth when it comes to making a
Vietnam movie instead of evading and distorting the truth. The choice
then, is how we the viewers accept these films, and do we accept them
as the truth or with skepticism. There is no simple solution, because
each film is different and conveys a different message to the audience
that it tries to reach. But if an audience can take in a film, any
film with history or cultural changing implications, with some
perspective of the past, either through personal experience or learned
experience from others, then that audience can view the film with
knowledgeable skepticism. And knowledge is the best filter for gaining
the truth.
Even modern day films such as We Were Soldiers don’t show Vietnam in
its full, just the parts the Americans won, even though eventually
they lost the war in Vietnam. It just leaves you wondering, how
Hollywood will depict the present on going war in Iraq.

Mary Anne Winslow is a member of Essay Writing Servicecounselling department team and a dissertation writing consultant. Contact her to get free counselling on custom essay writing.

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Once upon a time, there was a young man who very much wanted to be in show business, or more specifically, making movies. He attended one of the best film schools in the world, while there discovered the joys of writing and producing and everyone around him had high expectations about his career. Yet for more years than he cares to admit, that career was stalled.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, that young man was me. And this article is for everyone who, like me, has visions of having their name up on the big screen as a writer. It’s all about the importance of getting a balance of what I call “macro training.”

Over the years, I’ve invested tens of thousands of dollars in classes, seminars, books and retreats all intended to teach me to be a better writer. Don’t get me wrong. Many of these classes were well worth the money when it came to teaching me about the CRAFT of screenwriting. I absolutely learned a lot. But talent and craft by themselves are not enough to make you a regularly working professional screenwriter.

I learned through painful experience that if you want to succeed as a professional artist in show business, whether it’s as a writer, actor, director or any other craft that’s employed by the networks and studios, you have to treat your career as a small business with yourself as the CEO. As countless people have said to me over the years, it’s called Show “Business” for a reason.

Eureka! This was the missing piece. When it finally registered with me the importance of treating my artistic endeavors like an entrepreneurial small business, I began to see things in an entirely different light. I call myself a writer and producer - and those are accurate titles - but the business I’m in is really manufacturing, sales and distribution. Huh?

Think about it. As a professional writer, you’re manufacturing a product - the things you write. In order to get paid for that product, you also have to have a sales, marketing and distribution mechanism in place so that the scripts you write can generate money for you.

Of course you have to have the talent and skills to consistently deliver quality scripts and do so on time. But talent and skill alone don’t hack it. If you want to be a successful, consistently and steadily working writer, you have to understand that you’re in the business of creating and selling products. Your products are your scripts.

Like any manufacturer, in addition to dedicating part of your business to developing and creating products, you also need to address the sales, marketing and distribution of those products (scripts) along with the business affairs aspect (contracts, accounting, etc.) of working with your customers (studios, production companies and/or networks). You don’t have to do it all by yourself, but you do need to make sure these aspects of your business as a professional writer are handled. Just by making that shift in the way you see yourself and your career, you’ll immediately transform from would-be writer to an entrepreneurial professional well on the road to success.

About the Author: Gordon Meyer created, produced and hosted the long-running series, “Hollywood’s Master Storytellers” which enabled audiences the opportunity to see and hear some of the most successful and celebrated filmmakers in the world talk about the movies they’re best known for, including Academy Award

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