Mythical or Authentic?

Davidson and Lytle’s article Where Trouble Comes is about how many Vietnam War movies such as Deer Hunter and First Blood are mythical and have many changes in order to depict characters, background, and the war in a positive or “American” view. Since there was such protest against the Vietnam War in America filmmakers created films which did not change the outcomes of the Vietnam War but in First Blood’s case, showing a victory for America by rescuing a dozen prisoners (423). Platoon was the first successful to look at the Vietnam War itself as history and not myths of near invincible heroes and fabrications. Soldiers are not trigger happy gunmen with a mission to prove but instead are scared and will often try to weasel out of hard assignments to avoid being killed. Platoon also depicts emotions soldiers faced while fighting in the Vietnam War, “Sheen is tormented by ants that crawl over him; he faints from the heat and humidity of the hard march; he stares anxiously into a rainy, impenetrable dark, trying to spot the invisible enemy” (424).

In Tim O’Brien’s The Man I Killed, after killing a Vietnamese soldier, an American soldier named Kiowa feels strong emotions of guilt and denial. Kiowa tells the Vietnamese soldier to “Stop staring” and “Man, I’m sorry” (144) while lying dead full of holes and bleeding. Kiowa tries to rationalize his actions by stating that it is war and he had to do something. Davidson and Lytle would look at this O’Brien story and say that is indeed authentic. Kiowa feels deep regrets for what he did and asks for forgiveness to his “enemies.”