The Green Berets Movie Analysis

1589 Words7 Pages

The three movies – Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and The Green Berets – are all movies based on the same historical event – the Vietnam war and US’s involvement in it. Yet, they all presented us with different and narrative point of view and authority figures in order to paint their individual values. The movies’ most obvious differences lie within the choice of their narrative point of view. The Green Beret, the earliest one, was directed by John Wayne and he also starred in the leading role. Wayne’s authority and influence in the 1960s was similar to the influence of Tom Hanks in the 21st Century. People knew and loved him. The fact that someone like him, who was already a respectful and powerful man in the country, was the main point of view of the story made it more possible to convince the people to align with the movie’s values. In the movie, John Wayne played Colonel Kirby who set out to prove to Beckworth the importance of the war and US’s involvement in it. Since he was the main lead, the movie was seen through the eyes of Colonel Kirby. Therefore, it …show more content…

Private Joker had the charisma to be a soldier, but it was his fellow soldier, private Pyle who was the portray of the broken soldier. In this movie, we saw the ordeal that the soldiers had to go through in boot camp which the other movies skipped over. It would make no point in private Taylor’s narrative and it could not have been shown in The Green Berets because Colonel Kirby had no reason to pass through boot camp to be ready for the war. During boot camp, private Joker unveiled his comical nature which helped him get through the ordeal. It allowed him to continue to fight on even after witnessing private Pyle’s murder-suicide. This was an important scene for private Joker because it gave him a reason to hold on to his humanitarian side while fighting a war he did not