- Banned
- #41
..I'm reading Born on the Fourth of July--again...and that's what Kovic thought of war from watching John Wayne/etc......I joined the USMC not to be a hero/not to be John Wayne/patriotic/etc like Kovic said he did......I joined because I like weapons/etc..I liked to exercise and keep in shape, and I wanted something different.....the way Kovic puts it, he never thought about war being what it is:killing/horror/wounded/maiming/etcAgain, I am speaking from the perspective of a then 21 year old kid whose only "experience" of war was watching movies like Midway.Everybody's experience is different.......I totally disagree--....there were many antiwar/'''non-heroic'''/insanity of/inglorious/ etc films before thatPlatoon was a game changing film.
The image of war portrayed by Hollywood before Platoon, and thus what a lot of people thought war was like, - was a glorious heroic endeavor... where men became super heroes. Where the enemy was mindless, blood thirsty mad men... and we were the knights in shining armor saving the day.
Platoon showed a much more accurate portrayal... a bunch of scared teenagers just trying to survive. Confusion, chaos, sleep deprivation interrupted by moments of adrenaline induced pandemonium and death. And soldiers, not fighting for God and country, but fighting to keep themselves and their buddies alive.
....one is The Victors = 1963
...Apocalypse Now shows the horrors/violence/insanity/etc
I was born in 1965. Every war movie I saw prior to Platoon was the "John Wayne type". I loved them all as a kid.
Then came Platoon. I was blown away. In 1986 I was 21 years old. I had never seen anything like it. The pain, confusion and reality of it all.
It was a game changer.
But.... yes. It had it's problems. And most of which was Stone injecting his early "wokeness".
All but a couple of the white boys were red neck racist, psychos and child rapist. The black men were all soulful, caring victims of these crazed white people. The enemy was shown as more of the good guys than the American soldiers.
I get it.
But at the time.... all I saw was madness. Fear. Real dying. The closest a person could feel without having been there.
To me Platoon was just like Full Metal Jacket, a Left Wing hit piece. I know Stone actually served in Vietnam but he did his fellow veterans a disservice by making the movie he did . He knows it was dishonest but he made the movie Left Wing Hollywood wanted him to make.
Having been over there for two and half years I mostly saw professionalism from the troops. Sure there were some dickheads but most want to just do their job to the best of their ability.
Troops were mostly compassionate toward the Vietnamese and just wanted to serve their time and then get back to life.
The troops were not druggies, maniacs or shitheads like many of the movies depicted.
I loved war movies as a kid. To me it looked like fighting in a war was the big chance to be a REAL man. What kid didn't want to prove himself as a tough guy? War movies were like "man porn" to kids of that era like myself.
Then I went to see Platoon expecting to see the same thing. I was not prepared for the reality of seeing soldiers as human beings. I left the theater with an appreciation for soldiers who fought like I never had before. I looked at old war vets like my Grandfathers who fought in WW II, and my Uncles who fought in Vietnam as lucky guys who got to be there. After seeing that, I no longer thought they were lucky. I was a bit more in awe that they went through hell like that.
To me that is what Platoon was. I was too young to see the politics, the race baiting and anti-military theme. I only saw the anguish and pain the characters went through.
.....he did not one but two tours--the 2nd he had to put in for many times before he was accepted----so!! = interesting how his first tour was.....he was in Recon I think .....he saw the war differently after his second tour.....he was still super pro-war before his second tour.....
well, this should have it's own thread
...my dad was at the Chosin...3 uncles also in Korea....2 more in WW2
I joined the Army in the summer of 1966 because I wanted adventure. My parents wanted me to go to college but I wanted to do more adventurous things first. My WWII vet dad was very upset when I came home and told him I had seen a recruiter. My mother who had lost a brother and cousin in WWII was very pissed.
I would not do it over for ten million dollars but I would not take ten million dollars for the experience.