SAE Institute Amsterdam
COMPARATIVE DISCUSSION PAPER
The negative perception of the Vietnam War as depicted
in the Music and Movie Industry
Ruggiero Zadra
5-AMS-506217
CMN4200.S1
07/06/20
Word Count: 2540
Declaration:
I hereby declare that this is my own work, and does not use anymaterials other than the cited sources and tools. All explanations that Icopied directly or in essence are marked as such. This work has not beenpreviously submitted.
Table ofContents Table ofContents 1
Introduction 2
The protestsong 3
Protest songsduring the Vietnam war 4
The anti-warmovie as a concept 13
The Vietnam Warin movies 15
Conclusion 19
Bibliography 21
Introduction The VietnamWar has been a long-lasting, politically complicated war (1955-1975), causingtens of thousands of casualties on both sides. In its essence it was a clashbetween the Americancapitalist-democratic government on the one side and a North-Vietnamesecommunist government on the other hand, fought on the soils of South-Vietnam,with a civil war between the people of South-and North Vietnam. It is alsocalled the “first television war” as from the mid-sixties it could be largelyfollowed on that new medium. Most soldiers were the so-called “baby-boomers”,born right after World War II. The war evocated various powerful sentiments,initially pro-patrotic, in the end also fed by fear of communism, but alsoevocated a strong protest movement, especially by the numerous exponents of younggeneration and activists of the Civil Rights movement. As the war degeneratedand the casualties augmented and the war dragged on and on, the protest voicegrew louder and louder.
In thispaper a comparison will be made between the artistical expression of theseprotest voices against the Vietnam war in two creative media industries, namelythe American Music Industry and the American Movie Industry.
These will be put into the context ofthe Vietnam war.
Inconclusion, an analysis will be made where both creative media of expressionare compared based on the selected research. It has to be mentioned that in therestrictions of this paper, the latter can never meet with the richness,infinity and interest of the subject-matter. It might however be an excuse forthe slight excess of words that have been used in this paper….
The protest song Music is one of the best media to consider how citizens feel about the societythey live in. One of the ways in which a musician can express themselves inthrough protest songs. These songs are usually written to be part of a movementfor cultural or political change, and to galvanize that movement by drawingpeople together, by inspiring them to take action or reflect.
The Cambridge dictionary defines the protest song as a “song that expressesdisapproval, usually about a political subject”. (Protest Song
“expressions of discontent that imply a need forchange, represent the needs of an individual or a special interest group, maybe adapted by and utilized as ideological statements of a social movement,whether it was the original intention or not, may inspire the creation of othermessages against the status quo, may be used to stimulate thought or reinforceand modify attitudes.” (Carr-Wilcoxson,2010) Although the reasons for protest are many, this paper will primarily focus on waras a subject of protest.
Protest songs during the Vietnam war
Although the previous wars had been subject of songs, these songs were generallyanti-war songs, but rather patriotic songs, or resonated worries of parents andexpressed the longing for home.
The Vietnam War was a turning point, where the number of anti-war songs beganto outweigh the number of pro-war songs. (Tomlinson, n.d.)
According to Benjamin Tausig this was partly due to the massive rise in populationduring the 60’s. Most soldiers drafted to fight in the war were born during thebaby boom after WWII. By the 1960’s the number of students had grown considerably,and seventeen-year-olds made up the bulk of the army. There was a “far larger pool[of protestors] than at any other [point] in history. (Hill, 2016)
Therise of the television in households in the 60’s also helped spreading the newsabout Vietnam with a different impact than radio and newspapers had done sofar. Being directly exposed to the cruel images of the war, American citizenshad become deeply affected by the images they saw. (Tomlinson, n.d.) As timewent by the initial support of the war from a majority of the Americans quicklyshifted toward ambivalence. Especially the younger generation was very alert onpolitical matters and was deeply suspicious of the government’s motives to goto war and its representation of the facts. Their suspicions were fuelled by thestories told by veterans who had already returned from the war. (Hill, 2016)
“Some of the first organized activities against the Vietnam War centered onthe singing of songs at concerts, in clubs, and on campuses,” notes thehistorian H. Bruce Franklin. (Bruc Franklin, 2006)
This coincided with the revival of folk music. Artists like Pete Seeger andWoodie Guthrie stood at the forefront of the early folk music revival scene.
Before the Vietnam was protest music was already widespread in response to theCivil Rights movement, addressing different issues such as labour rights ordiscrimination. College students were quick to adopt the folk music scene:
“Folk songs told stories. Thousands of young people were drawn to thereflexive lyricism of the genre.” (Young, 2015)
Singer-songwriters like Joan Baez and Bob Dylan captured the mood on thecollege campuses and coffeehouses throughout the country with songs like “WeShall Overcome” and “With God On Our Side”, thus playing animportant role in conveying messages of empowerment and social awareness in atime of political uneasiness.
How many roads must a man walk down
Beforeyou call him a man?
Howmany seas must a white dove sail
Beforeshe sleeps in the sand?
Yes,'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
Beforethey're forever banned?
Theanswer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind
Theanswer is blowin' in the wind (40)
It can be notedthat few of these early anti-war songs were explicitly about Vietnam. Even songsconceived for other purposes or love songs took on a whole new meaning in thecontext of the war showing the importance of standing up to illegitimate authorityand acting and expressing one’s own beliefs. One of these songs was Simon &Garfunkel’s Sound of Silence (1964): And in the naked light I saw
Ten thousand people maybe more
People talking without speaking
People hearing without listening
People writing songs that voices never shared
No one dared
Disturb the sound of silence
By 1965 military presence in Vietnam had escalated and so had the anti-warmovement. People were deeply upset with the images of Operation Rolling Thunderwhich brought the war into the public eye even more than before.
Consequently, reflecting American opinion the popularity of many of the anti-warsongs soared, starting with Barry McGuire’s Eve of Destruction and Tom Paxton’sLyndon Told the Nation.
The eastern world, it is explodin',
Violence flarin', bullets loadin',
You're old enough to kill but not for votin',
You don't believe in war, but what's that gun you'retotin',
And even the Jordan river has bodies floatin',
But you tell me over and over and over again myfriend,
Ah, you don't believe we're on the eve of destruction.
By 1968 the protests further rose as young people were forced to conscript. A strikingexample addressing that subject is Country Joe’s and The Fish’s
“I-feel-like-Im-fixing-to-die-rag”:
And it's1, 2, 3
What are we fighting for?
Don't ask me, I don't give a damn
Next stop is Vietnam
And it's 5, 6, 7
Open up the pearly gates
Well, there ain't no time to wonder why
Whoopee!
We're all going to die
The song attempts to put blame for the war upon thepoliticians and leaders of the US military and upon the industry that makes itsmoney from war but not upon those who had to fight the war ... the soldiers. Itexpresses the thoughts of a person trapped in the military system and forced togo to war by something called "conscription". Conscription or the"draft" as it was called then was a system which picked young peopleand forced them into the military and into the war with the only other choicebeing jail or an attempt to "dodge the draft" for religious reasonsor physical or mental reasons. It was very hard to get out of the draft becauseso many people were being killed in the war that they would take just about anyone. The song attempts to address the horror of going to war with a darksarcastic form of humor called "GI humor" (McDonald, 2000) Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Fortunate Son addressed the same topic, dedicatedto the poor youth who had to conscript, as opposed to those “born with asilver spoon in hand”.
Black artists from the Civil and Women’s Rights Movements, like Edwin Starr andJimi Hendrix joined the anti-war movement, uniting the country in protest againstthe government. (Hill, 2016) Many black musicians drew comparisons between thewar and the Civil Rights movement (Brummer, 2018), with songs like Matt Jones’s“Hell No!
Up tight! That’s right!
I ain’t gonna go!
Hell no!
I ain’t goin’ to Vietnam
I ain’t dyin’ for Uncle Sam.
Towards the end of the 60’s - with the summer of love and Woodstock - andthe start of the 70’s more and more music was concentrated on the desire to endthe war, “preaching” about peace, love and safety and getting every one’s lovedones back home and to stop fighting over a cause that was not worth the deathsof thousands of innocent people. Examples are the Plastic Ono Band’s GivePeace a Chance (1961) and Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On? (1971)
Father, father
We don't need to escalate
You see, war is not the answer
For only love can conquer hate
You know we've got to find a way
To bring some lovin' here today, oh oh oh
The protests peaked around 1970 during the Kent State demonstration, in whichfour students were killed by the Ohio State National Guard.(Brummer, 2018) Crosby,Still, Nash & Young released ‘Ohio’ (1970):
Gotta get down to it
Soldiers are gunningus down
Should have been donelong ago
What if you knew herand
Found her dead on theground?
How can you run whenyou know?
During the Vietnam War music played an important role as it was madeavailable massively to the soldiers in the rear off the battlefield to keep themorale up. Soldiers collectively listened to the same music as their peers backhome, including the politically critical, anti-war songs. The fact that thismusic was both very popular and widely shared gave its message a big politicalimpact. (Rothman, 2017) We had absolute unanimity is this song being the touchstone. This was theVietnam anthem. Every bad band that ever played in an armed forces club had toplay this song. (Mattmiller, 2006)
The Animals’ We’ve Gotta Get Out of this Place (1965) resonatedparticularly with the US forces:
“I don’t know if anybody could imagine what their
The legacy of Vietnam had a worldwide lasting impact on artists and songwriters.Years after the war had ended in 1974 artists of different genres andnationalities continued to mention the Vietnam war, like Sodom’s AgentOrange (1989), Alice in Chain’s Rooster (1992), and Bruce Springsteen’sBorn in the USA (1984):
Since the invention of cinema, war has been a prominent topic in one way or theother. Themes explored in war films include combat, survivor and escapestories, tales of sacrifice and struggle, camaraderie between soldiers, studiesof the futility and of battle, the effects of war on society
The anti-war movie as a concept
At this point there is a point to be made whether such moviesare per definition anti-war, or if there’s a distinction to befound. Traditionally, an anti-warfilm aims to portray the horrors of armed conflict, and the mental and physicalharm it causes to soldiers and civilians. It could be argued that any movieabout war is an anti-war movie since any movie that realistically depicts warand combat scenes will invariably highlight the moral and human issues raisedby war. Philosophyprofessor Dennis Rothermel lists the random infliction of violent death, abjectterror, and heinousness as a norm of behavior – along with a sense of balance and context. (Brook, 2014) as necessary criteria for an anti-war film. A crucial aspectseems to be the ability to show both sides of the conflict while trying to engagethe viewer in a debate.
Conversely, many believe there is no difference between films about war in general,and films considered as “anti-war”:
“There’s no such thingas an anti-war film,” is a quote often attributed to the late French filmmakerFrançois Truffaut. There are different ways to interpret this remark but it’swidely agreed that Truffaut was suggesting that movies will inevitably glorifycombat when they portray the adventure and thrill of conflict – and thecamaraderie between soldiers. (Brook, 2014)Francis Ford Coppola states: An anti-war film [...] shouldn’thave sequences of violence that inspire a lust for violence. Apocalypse Now hasstirring scenes of helicopters attacking innocent people. That’s not anti-war.”(Perry, 2019)In short, there are many diverging opinions on what defines an anti-war movieand the question is indeed if such a concept really exists. From which perspectivea movie has been made, to the interpretation of the public, the criteria vary. However,one thing can be concluded, namely that as long as the author’s intention wasto be critical about (a) war and to depict its horrors, despite of what Coppolasays, it’s clear that such movies are generally considered as anti-war.
The Vietnam War in moviesOnly one majormovie was produced during the Vietnam War: John Wayne’s The Green Berets (1968).John Wayne was concerned about the rising anti-war sentiment within the U.S.and obtained assistance from the government, which granted Wayne the use ofmilitary props and locations but retained the right to make changes to thescript. This resulted in what is now widely regarded as one of the worst moviesever made about Vietnam, featuring heavy handed patriotism and unrealistic warscenes. (Tunzelmann, 2014) It might be remarkable that other than “The Green Berets” only minor B movieswere made throughout the duration of the Vietnam War. In fact it was notearlier than the mid to end ‘70s that the first movies on ‘Nam’ were producedand released. But the Vietnam War was a turning point in how war films weremade and for what reason. Up to this point movies had shown America’s involvementin any war as necessary and, while filmmakers did show and condemn the brutalityof war, movies were usually permeated with a sense of patriotism and thefeeling of fighting the good fight.
In the U.S. however the Vietnam War was highly divisive, and while Nixondeclared that a Silent Majority was still in favour of the war (Nixon calls onthe “silent majority”, 2009), the Antiwar Movement grew bigger every day, withhippies, student protesters and ordinary American citizens denouncing the militarydraft and the senseless war. As the conflict escalated with no end in sight, sodid the protests, resulting in riots and police brutality.
Additionally the Vietnam War was one where the U.S. couldn’t claim a win at theend of it:
…many PCFs [prestige combat films, ed.] about Vietnam did the same, redirectingthe heroic narratives of the combat film, as forged during and after Word WarII, toward the telling of a war story that, in the case of Vietnam, ends infailure and defeat, a deeply ambiguous outcome for a nation as accustomed to victoryas the United States. (Decker, 2017)
It was only after the Vietnam War had ended that the film industry acknowledgedwhat had happened in Vietnam, spawning a myriad of war movies such as “The DeerHunter” (1978) and “Casualties of War”(1989) focusing on the atrocities of warand the disillusionment many felt during this era. These movies saw anunprecedented use of realism and grittiness in portraying the violence. (Howell,2020) Oliver Stone’s “Platoon” (1986) and Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket” (1987)are widely seen as some of the best anti-war movies that depicted the insanityof war and were met with critical acclaim and received multiple nominations andawards. Some films didn’t find place during the war but instead focussed on the mentalstate many soldiers found themselves in after returning from the war. Moviessuch as Hal Ashby’s “Coming Home” (1978) or Vietnam veteran Oliver Stone’s “Born on the 4th of July” (1989) highlightedthe different ways in which veterans processed their experiences on thebattlefield like the public had never seen before. (Accomando, 2015) However, one film stands out above all: Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979). Followinghis
Secondly, the 70’s marked the end of Hollywood’s monopoly over cinema, which ledto a growing independent film scene where filmmakers had the liberty to goagainst Hollywood and the government (Accomando, 2015), something that alwayscomplicated the release of anti-war movies:
The mere fact that a screenplay could be interpreted as anti-war can affect itschances of getting studio backing. Conservatives routinely criticise ‘liberalHollywood’ for making films with themes they perceive as anti-American andanti-military. So within the industry there can be a reluctance to take onanti-war projects – or produce films that could be construed as critiques ofcontemporary conflicts – lest they be seen as unpatriotic or demoralising forUS troops in harm’s way. (Brook, 2014)
Other movies such as “Good Morning Vietnam” (1987) and “M*A*S*H*” (1970) tried insteadto satirize or at least use humour to deal with the subject.
The movie garnered enormous praise and received multiple awards and is considereda classic masterpiece. The movie has reached cult-status and is still actualtoday:
At the Cannes Film Festival in 1979, where the film was unveiled, directorFrancis Ford Coppola made this statement at a press conference: “My film is nota movie. My film is not about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It’s what it was reallylike. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way theAmericans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle. There were too many of us. Wehad access to too much money, too much equipment, and little by little, we wentinsane.” (Accomando, 2015)The movie narrates about U.S. Army officer Willard who is tasked withassassinating ex-Colonel Kurtz, who has gone rogue and has installed himself aswarlord in the jungle of Vietnam, ruling as a deity. Akin to Dante’s Inferno,the film chronicles a descent into madness without apparent reason. During hisjourney Willard is confronted with the horrors that have brought Kurtz to insanityand will start to resemble the ex-Colonel more and more.
As Beth Accomando describes it: “The setting may be Vietnam but thediscussion of ideas about war, American involvement in foreign countries, andthe human capacity for evil are all still highly relevant.” (Accomando, 2015)
Conclusion The Vietnam war was a complicated and messy era in the history of the U.S.,with an estimated death toll of one to three million fatalities. The war evokedstrong anti-government sentiments in the American population, which werereflected differently across various creative media, mainly by the youngergeneration and by proponents of the Civil Rights movement. Especially music had the become the creative medium for cultural and politicalconflict and dialogue. While the U.S. had a long-practiced tradition of protest-music,the apex was reached during this war. Although the anti-war sentiments were inthe minority during the early 60’s, as the war intensified, likewise the explicitnessand amount of anti-war songs grew. Having started with left-wing folksingers,performing on campuses and bars, it evolved into a countrywide involvement ofartists of all genres and races. Music served as a consolation for the masses, butwas also meant as a wake-up call for the government. Music also filled a void in the country’s media landscape. There were only buta handful of minor movies made during that period that criticised the war oreven addressed it, as Hollywood was hesitant to produce any movie that was opposedto the war, or otherwise not supportive of the establishment.
Of course this doesn’t have to mean directors weren’t critical of the war, butit wasn’t until years after the end of the war that they addressed these issues,
showing the cruelty of war in their full atrocity.
Up until then, the conservative environment of Hollywood didn’t account for thebig budget that is involved in producing a movie that might antagonize theaudience, as the political landscape was highly divided.
Contrarily to movies, music mirrors the era’s zeitgeist more directly and honestly,as the artists could express themselves more freely, not being bound bybudgetary constraints and already belonging to the anti-establishment.
According to Benjamin Tausig when it comes to protest songs, “you’re asimpolite as you’re allowed to be. (1).
Consequently, the artists covered the Vietnam War in every aspect, not onlyduring the war but also after, thus giving a voice to the individuals whowanted to make their anti-war feelings heard. As these songs were sung and performedcollectively, for instance at demonstrations, and shared with soldiers abroad,they had a lasting social and political impact. Movies made after the war aboutVietnam sought to include these songs to show the authenticity of the era butalso to make use of the incredible emotive power these songs had.
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