Hollywood and the Vietnam War

 This is my lesson using about the Vietnam films and the Vietnam War using clickers.

 

The Vietnam Film:  How Hollywood Shaped America’s Perception of the Vietnam War.

The “Reel” Vietnam

•Examines impact of Vietnam films on American society.

•Before/During Vietnam---Pro-war

•WWI and WWII—victorious

•After Vietnam---Anti-war

Films

•Coming Home (1978)

•The Deer Hunter (1978)

•Apocalypse Now (1979)

•Platoon (1986)

•Full Metal Jacket (1987)

•Born on the Fourth of July (1989)

What Has Been Written

•What’s historically accurate?

–Russian Roulette

•Hollywood chooses to portray the horrors. 

--Apocalypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket

--Why is that?  Failed Vietnam.  No more Green Berets. -Nothing was to resemble this film in the late 70s/80s.

•Exposure to the destruction and death led society to turn against the war.

-Realized what Vietnam was all about.

           

            -Major shift in society’s attitudes about the war.  Now directors had something to go on.

Why so many anti-war films?

-Hollywood entertains, but also bring controversial conflict to American society.

-Truth of Failed Vietnam.

-Audiences watched at home and directors used this to create their films

-Stone and Cimino experiences.

Thesis Argument

•Vietnam films of the late 70s and 80s shaped the viewers’ perception of the Vietnam War, shifting the majority to a more critical understanding of what that war was about.

Coming Home Soldier

PTSD – Coming Home

Inability to cope

Looked at as a failure

Coming Home was first to deal with the aftermath

The Deer Hunter, happy to go, but its silence when they get home

Born on the Fourth of July, mistreated by society, becomes anti-war activist

Transformation of the Soldier

What it was like fighting

Draft to end of the war

More volunteers than draftees

Films show the average soldier excited to go to war and fight for their country.  Become embedded in the death and destruction, become killer, and realize what they have become when it’s all over.

Memoirs

Soldiers and DI’s

Life in the jungles

Drug/Alcohol addiction (Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, Platoon)

Lesson

Author: Gian Verderame

Based on lesson by:

Date created:

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Subject(s):  History

Topic or Unit of Study:  Vietnam Films

Grade/Level:  11^th/12^th grade

STANDARDS & ASSESSMENT

Standards: 6.1.12.D.12.e Analyze the role that media played in bringing information to the American public and shaping public attitudes toward the Vietnam War. 

Assessment Plan: Pre Assessment - Students will be asked what they already know about the Vietnam War.  There are probably going to be some students who have no idea about what happened and how much of a loss this was for the United States.

Summative – Students will write a 1-3 page paper to see if they understand the director’s perception of the Vietnam War and how pro-war films became abandoned after the war ended.

Assessment/Rubrics:  Students will be graded using a writing rubric

IMPLEMENTATION

Goal(s): To understand how the perspective of the Vietnam War changed through film.

Objective:  After watching certain films about the Vietnam War, the students will analyze one film in relation to the Vietnam War and write a 1-3 page paper.

Purpose:

Procedure:  I will start off by giving background information about the Vietnam War.  The students will watch the pro-war film The Green Berets.  After this film, we will move in to the anti-war movies that were released after the Vietnam War.  Students will understand that before and during the Vietnam War, many pro-war films were released because of our victories in WWI and WWII.  After the war, all we see are anti-war movies because America’s perception of the war was changing over time.

The students will also look at New York Times articles during the time of the release of these films.  They will also look at movie reviews of the public and of Vietnam veterans.  After all of the information is given and the films are watched, the students will write a 1-3 page paper on one film that relates to the Vietnam War.

Special Needs Component

[modification(s)]

Sample Student Products

Model(s) of Instruction:  Direct Instruction and Inquiry Based

Time Allotment:  1 week, 42 min per class

Author's

Reflection(s)/Critical

Analysis:  This was basically my Senior thesis.  I changed the format around so I could present it as a lesson to the class.  The reason this takes so long is because the students have to watch the movies.  However, the only downside to this lesson is getting permission from the parents because most of the films are rated R.  I feel as if students will have a better understanding of the war by analyzing the most popular films of the time period.  These are also the films that have been criticized and written about for over thirty years. 

MATERIALS AND RESOURCES

Instructional Materials:  Power Point

Resources:  Films