How Did Vietnam War Films Affect Society

Throughout the Vietnam War, reporters were on the grounds, sending images to the living rooms of millions of Americans. Reports showed images of burning huts and routine search and destroy missions. The Vietnam War was the first war that Americans got to watch on television right in front of their eyes. There was endless television and radio coverage about the Vietnam War daily. Because the coverage was so thorough and the opinion was so split, there were not many films about the war. Pro-Vietnam war films were boycotted and criticized while anti-war films were discouraged by the government, like with Coppola’s “Apocalypse Now.” Because the American film industry relies on private enterprise and profit, for a while Vietnam War films were

Before the Vietnam War, veterans were thought of as dangerous people who could not handle returning to society. A few years after the Vietnam War though, veteran films were created. For example, “Apocalypse Now” presented the dim reality of a soldier’s life and the brutality of war, also highlighting how many went insane. For the first time, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder among soldiers was a topic discussed in films. These films had the power to change the way the American population thought about war veterans and “it [offered] us entertainment but it’s entertainment that [resonated] in unexpected ways and [captured] who we are at a particular moment in time in a manner that’s truthful, telling, and accessible.” These films helped veterans finally get the recognition from society they needed, and began the process of societal acceptance. Before this time, no films had ever explored the lives of veterans after the war and the effects on their mental and physical well-being. However, this by no means meant that these films were still very accurate. While it explored these newly found and liberal ideas, there were still many ideas left untouched or explored incorrectly that lead to misunderstandings and confusions about the war. Like Richard Nixon said, “No event in American history is more misunderstood than the Vietnam war. It was misreported then. It is misremembered