I think the only country that’s legit happened to was Iraq,
Usually it’s more about how traumatized the POWs captured by your country’s soldiers were. Unbroken being the major cinematic example, and all the stories about Senator McCain refusing early release and being tortured for it and the guy who blinked reports of torture out in morse code while reading a hostage statement in Vietnam being the more “stuff of legends” examples.
American Sniper is the only one I’ve seen where it’s about how some soldier who didn’t experience anything above the typical background humm of war felt about the whole thing.
Probably because being a US military troop is the least dangerous it’s ever been, so the major condition most troops will face isn’t death or permanent injury, but instead PTSD from having faced combat or Survivor’s guilt from having been suddenly shifted off the rare doomed mission or patrol that still claims casualties at the last second.
Most enlisted troops are just career workers in camo with a REALLY rigorous on the job fitness program. There’s a reason the US is everyone’s intel and logistics repository, and it’s because for every dollar spent on actually fighting, ten get spent on building up so much intelligence that the deck is as stacked as it can be before the cards even come out of the box to be dealt.
I think you’re confusing Rambo First Blood, which is about how fucked up he was after coming back from Vietnam, with the Rambo sequels, which are about how cool it is to blow stuff up.
Vietnam movies were usually either about POW experiences or about the absolute pointlessness of it all, which doesn’t really line up with “bombing your country and then making movies about how sad it made them”
I have literally never seen a depiction of Vietnam that was positive or shy of direct condemnation of how terrible it all was.
Seriously, even Forrest Gump’s innocent portrayal of it still managed to underline in bold that it was all pointless, needless, and cruel beyond reason.
I have literally never seen a depiction of Vietnam that was positive or shy of direct condemnation of how terrible it all was.
Seriously, even Forrest Gump’s innocent portrayal of it still managed to underline in bold that it was all pointless, needless, and cruel beyond reason.
Not sure what about any of that doesn’t line up with “sad”. None of those adjectives border on happy or nonchalant.
Because that’s not “made the soldiers sad” it’s “this entire thing was awful and a fucking crime.”
You’re trying to insist that media that would agree that it was a bad thing is exploitation media because…it agrees with you?
It honestly seems like you’re just trying to argue because you don’t like someone pointing out that the meme isn’t fully accurate to what war media actually looks like historically and even today to some extent.
No, I think the main point in contention is mostly just that the experience of the American GIs are always centered in these tellings of the stories to american audiences, and obviously that’s going to whitewash a lot of the history and context of a conflict and just transform it into “I got stationed in a random place I hated for a couple years and then I had to kill a bunch of people for reasons I didn’t understand while they tried to kill all my friends and then I got back home and got jack shit for it”. And then on top of that, those movies are going to be a lot about the psychological trauma that’s inflicting on those particular american GIs, and often, again, without a broader context of what system they’re placed into, it’s just sort of like, turned into sanitized hollywood melodrama, much like how they’ll sanitize any historical fiction into being oscar bait.
Obviously that’s not gonna really be the same experience as, say, some random guerilla fighter somewhere, or some random person who just lives in one of these places. About the only movies I can think of that actually attempted to expand on that particular perspective was good morning vietnam, where that’s touched on, but not explored, and maybe the breadwinner, which is a pretty good movie but also more just adjacent to what I’m talking about rather than directly in dialogue with it. I might be wrong on that one though, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it even though that movie is fucking good and you should watch it.
That’s my recommendation. Go watch “the breadwinner”.
I think the only country that’s legit happened to was Iraq,
Usually it’s more about how traumatized the POWs captured by your country’s soldiers were. Unbroken being the major cinematic example, and all the stories about Senator McCain refusing early release and being tortured for it and the guy who blinked reports of torture out in morse code while reading a hostage statement in Vietnam being the more “stuff of legends” examples.
American Sniper is the only one I’ve seen where it’s about how some soldier who didn’t experience anything above the typical background humm of war felt about the whole thing.
Probably because being a US military troop is the least dangerous it’s ever been, so the major condition most troops will face isn’t death or permanent injury, but instead PTSD from having faced combat or Survivor’s guilt from having been suddenly shifted off the rare doomed mission or patrol that still claims casualties at the last second.
Most enlisted troops are just career workers in camo with a REALLY rigorous on the job fitness program. There’s a reason the US is everyone’s intel and logistics repository, and it’s because for every dollar spent on actually fighting, ten get spent on building up so much intelligence that the deck is as stacked as it can be before the cards even come out of the box to be dealt.
Edit: get not grt
M*A*S*H (Korea)
Jarhead (Iraq, but the first time)
Lone Survivor (Afghanistan)
The Men Who Stare at Goats (Guantanamo Bay Torture Facility in Cuba)
Letters from Iwo Jima (Pacific Theater - WW2)
Saving Private Ryan (European Theater - WW2)
Heartbreak Ridge (Grenada)
The Good Shepherd (Bay of Pigs Invasion, Cuba)
Full Metal Jacket (Vietnam)
Rambo (Vietnam)
Apocalypse Now (Vietnam)
We Were Soldiers (Vietnam)
Good Morning, Vietnam (Vietnam)
I don’t think you’ve seen some of these movies if you think it has anything to do with how sad it made them.
MASH is about saving war casualties and they make light of it all the while
Saving Priyate Ryan is a WW2 movie that happens whether or not Matt Damon is involved
Jarhead is an accurate portrayal of the Suck
Not sure what point OP is trying to make here
Yes, because fucking Rambo of all movies is about how bad american soldiers felt about what they did.
Thanks for the laugh
Rambo is just dood in ban danna shooting musheen gun and holding big nife.
I’m just being a dick. I haven’t seen it since I was around 7 so that’s all it was for me haha.
It’s actually about how shitty US vets are treated by the US. But the pew-pew takes lead in the eyes of most viewers, yes.
Yes, because fucking Rambo of all movies is about how bad american soldiers felt about what they did.
Thanks for the laugh
The first Rambo was definitely about PTSD and how the act of killing fucks up American soldiers.
I think you’re confusing Rambo First Blood, which is about how fucked up he was after coming back from Vietnam, with the Rambo sequels, which are about how cool it is to blow stuff up.
This never gets old lol
It’s funny, but it’s not true.
It’s something like “the gallant people of Afghanistan” and always was.
It was on TV month ago and that screencap is how it read. I remembered because I commented my son about it.
Regional differences?
Vietnam?
How do you forget Vietnam…
Drugs and alcohol, and lots of them.
Vietnam movies were usually either about POW experiences or about the absolute pointlessness of it all, which doesn’t really line up with “bombing your country and then making movies about how sad it made them”
I have literally never seen a depiction of Vietnam that was positive or shy of direct condemnation of how terrible it all was.
Seriously, even Forrest Gump’s innocent portrayal of it still managed to underline in bold that it was all pointless, needless, and cruel beyond reason.
Not sure what about any of that doesn’t line up with “sad”. None of those adjectives border on happy or nonchalant.
Because that’s not “made the soldiers sad” it’s “this entire thing was awful and a fucking crime.”
You’re trying to insist that media that would agree that it was a bad thing is exploitation media because…it agrees with you?
It honestly seems like you’re just trying to argue because you don’t like someone pointing out that the meme isn’t fully accurate to what war media actually looks like historically and even today to some extent.
No, I think the main point in contention is mostly just that the experience of the American GIs are always centered in these tellings of the stories to american audiences, and obviously that’s going to whitewash a lot of the history and context of a conflict and just transform it into “I got stationed in a random place I hated for a couple years and then I had to kill a bunch of people for reasons I didn’t understand while they tried to kill all my friends and then I got back home and got jack shit for it”. And then on top of that, those movies are going to be a lot about the psychological trauma that’s inflicting on those particular american GIs, and often, again, without a broader context of what system they’re placed into, it’s just sort of like, turned into sanitized hollywood melodrama, much like how they’ll sanitize any historical fiction into being oscar bait.
Obviously that’s not gonna really be the same experience as, say, some random guerilla fighter somewhere, or some random person who just lives in one of these places. About the only movies I can think of that actually attempted to expand on that particular perspective was good morning vietnam, where that’s touched on, but not explored, and maybe the breadwinner, which is a pretty good movie but also more just adjacent to what I’m talking about rather than directly in dialogue with it. I might be wrong on that one though, it’s been a while since I’ve seen it even though that movie is fucking good and you should watch it.
That’s my recommendation. Go watch “the breadwinner”.