Media Perspectives: Media and Conflict - Ideology and Vietnam War

Compare two contrasting cinematic perspectives on the same war. Using paired analysis of thematically similar scenes show how different ideological positions are established?

The medium of cinema often is not just escapism, but a subconscious portrayal of the ideology of society and the specific artists behind the work. The Vietnam War’s (1955 to 1975) massive influence on American society, causing a wave of anti-war messages in art including cinema. Unlike previous wars like the “hidden” Korean war, rapid development of technology allowed war scenes to be televised to ordinary viewers. In addition, the reliance on drafted soldiers in a time of social unrest forced many to question the ideology that led America to be fighting the war. In this essay I am going to explore two cinematic representations of the Vietnam War and compare how their ideologies shape the same events in different ways to the audience. I will achieve this through the comparison of the ideology displayed in Oliver Stone’s ‘Platoon’ (1987) and Robert Zemeckis’ ‘Forrest Gump’ (1994). Ideology here means the “study or knowledge of ideas” (Eagleton, 2013, p4) which act as a framework of seeing the world. The different perspectives of Stone and Zemeckis, therefore, reveal different facets to the Vietnam War. This creates “ideological conflict and confusion” (Combs, 2014, p5) as even when representing the same war interpretations of ideology can be very different due to cinematic perspectives. War films represent “Hegemonic ideologies, p27” (Yousaf, Zahid, Adnan, Malik, Aksar, Iffat Ali, 2017) as exercises social and political control.

Hollywood depictions of war are not performed just for entertainment, but as “cinematic visions for insight into the contemporary morass” (Kellner, 2010, P12). Stone intends Platoon to be an ideological statement on the morality of the war and therefore focuses his entire narrative on the conflict. By contrast, Forrest Gump weaves in the Vietnam War as part of a wider narrative of 20th century American history through an “apolitical” lens. Zemeckis does not explore the causes or ethics of the war, and it is presented as just another step in the journey of the protagonist. It is also intended as a light-hearted work for a general audience, which is why it presents less difficult questions and is filmed in a more conventional and forgiving style. Mainstream Hollywood has neglected Vietnam war movies because there was “no consensus in the country on war” (Giglio, 2014, p10) – meaning the mainstream audience would be alienated by a clear ideological bent Stone’s audience is more niche and therefore is allowed to be riskier both in its darker style and its ideological decisions  Like many anti-war films it casts doubt towards patriotism, emphasised fear and believe fighting is necessary to survive but still have a sense of moral ambiguity. For instance, in Chris’s monologue he states, ‘I don’t know what’s right and wrong anymore’ reflecting the confusion many Americans faced regarding their role in Vietnam. The film contains bad soldiers killing Vietnamese civilians which suggests cynicism of the American mission. ‘Forrest Gump’ genres are comedy, drama and romance. This more comedic take creates a light-hearted tone. It doesn’t create a “war as hell” narrative as the protagonist Forrest Gump is very much a conformist who goes along to what he is told and doesn’t know any different. It creates a “satire” which is us representation used to “mock and reidcures society and culture” (Nilsson, 2013, p15). Forrest Gump displays “practical patriotism” (Westwell, 2006, p21) in its depiction of Americans. The iconography at the end that the film was dedicated to the men who fought in the war suggests Platoons purpose was to give a sense of realism and to educate viewers on the war.

It’s important to understand the director’s ideologies as their beliefs imprint into the film. Oliver Stone directed film “Platoon” based on his emotional experiences in the US army from the perspective of a small infantry platoon fighting near Cambodian border after dropping out of Yale university. In his early years he was born into a conservative family with a privileged and patriotic background and hold very right ring views which is shared in the protagonist Chris. Therefore, he was convinced by cold war ideology that he should fight for his country against communism. However, since Vietnam, war left him “mixed up, paranoid and alienated” (Military, 2019). He became very left wing and became more opinionated in liberal views like war’s objectives of “containing communism and protecting boundaries of the free world” (Jeansonne, Lhuhrssen, 2014, p132).  He then became more radical on his movies like “Born on the fourth of July” as he learnt the perception of what he was doing. Based on the guardian he is “Hollywood’s most controversial director” (Cadwalladr, 2010, p57).   It also can be argued he has postmodern beliefs as “rejects the form of official meta-narrative” (Witham, 2008) and uses emotion and subjectivity as a device.  He feels the truth of war had not be shown and he wanted to give a “realistic image” (Stone, p46).

Whereas, Director Robert Zemeckis of “Forrest Gump” stated in the guardian he sees Forest Gump as ‘apolitical’ (Blair, 2016) but goes through decades in America where there were many political events which creates a lot of criticism between both parties. The main protagonist, Forrest is the “innocence in a cynical world” (Blair, A, 2016, p121), and he’s represented in a non-political fashion allowing “viewers own belief systems” (Saporito, 2015, p82). His innocent archetype is reflected in the white feather that symbolizes purity and lightness spirit. Due to his innocence he takes very centralist views in politics. Some believing it holds “core conservative” (Butler, 1997, p62) right ring ideologies as running theme throughout the film with Forrest supporting American values leading to success. However, liberals believe It was “attacking war” (Butler, 1997, p70). Instead of Forrest Gump being political it reflects very postmodern ideas as it’s a “reaction to postmodernism” (Butler, 1997) where progress comes from balance of radical and regressive beliefs. For instance, when he was commended with a medal for saving a black person. This shows the need to see meaning in life as it concerns on individuals making it through life in the chaos and story about human dignity. It also uses devices to “fragment the viewer” (Butler, 1997, p115) as allows viewers to create own belief systems. progress comes from a balance between radical and regressive beliefs.

Both movies depict war negatively, but Platoon is explicitly anti-war. “Platoon” has a very negative representation of the US military exploring trained brainwashed killers. Within Platoon there are “internal clash of ideologies” between sergeant Elias the one believing in friendship and Barnes with the kill em now attitude. For instance, in the film Chris monologue ‘The morale in the war are low. A lot of suspicion and hate, I can’t believe we are fighting each other instead of fighting the enemy’ (Stone, Platoon). He thinks this in the scene when Sergent Barnes soldier shoots a Vietnam mother after causing chaos and the soldiers end up fighting each other due to the clash of beliefs what people think I right and wrong. The central theme is what persona should soldiers adopt to win war and survive. “refused to reconstruct a false image of American unity and military competence” (Giglio, 2014, p160) and stone himself said he wanted to paint a “realistic image” (Stone, 2001, p142).

In contrast, the portrayal of US military in ‘Forrest Gump’ is a lot more positive as explores ordinary people doing their bit for their country and not being capable of killing people. This could be due to the narrative painting Forrest alongside key events in America history “real histories to Forrest imagined one”. Forrest innocent imagined state of mind could be reason why its portrayed more positive. This sold a positive image of army to begin with propaganda poster saying America needs you to then arrive him say ‘there was a lot to do, real nice walks. Also, the lutentent preaching ‘every single person in my family died serving in every American war’ suggests a sense of patriotism and proud. The metaphor “someone turned off the rain and the sun came out” then all sudden there’s a change in tone; immediate shootings, bombings, shouting.

The opening scenes of arriving in Vietnam for war in both movies depict very different representations of war and what ideologies the main characters were thinking. Platoon uses the classical patriotic “Adagio for Strings” soundtrack which is filtered as if the audience are listening from a distance by creating a sense of nostalgia, death and courage. It starts with ‘great emotional stress’ linked to how the protagonist, Chris was feeling when he loads off the plane seeing dead body bags all lined up. Then creates a ‘climax of intensity’ is built up more and more when he sees the realities of war. The song is also used at the ending scene implying its ‘reaching a serene acceptance’ (NPR, 2010) that war is over now and implying that the struggle of war was within himself. This is a sense of “bourgeoise light music” (Neumeyer, 2013, p31) as used to reinforce the plot. The soundtrack enables a psychological trauma people experience. The classical soundtrack is ironic implies a sense that of class divisions as sound listened to buy more upper class.

In comparison with Forrest Gump the scene opens with upbeat jazzy American soundtrack with the military arriving from the sky in helicopters. The choice in song “Fortunate Son” used as backdrop is very subtle but it’s still a very hard-hitting anti-establishment and anti-war. The song shows “political commentary to resonate through musical means” (Neumeyer, 2013, p54). This is due to even though the tone is very jolly the deeper meanings of the lyrics suggesting unfortunate ones go to Vietnam War and there was few American versus the masses of Vietnamese. This is not an obvious choice as doesn’t create empathy, but the hard-hitting lyrics show the reality of who goes up to fight in war. Forrest’s dialogue “They told us Vietnam was going to be very different to united states of America apart from all the bear cans and barbecues, it was” (Forrest Gump, 1994). The pronoun ‘they’ suggests a sense of patriotic values. The irony of the song choice is it implied great inequality, but Forrest is naïve to believe it’s about a cheerful American way of life. It also could be implied its more of a lower-class song compared to classical as would have been on radio. This could also imply that protagonist Chris is considered more courageous and a rebellion due to him dropping everything to volunteer for war but upon arrival realising the true horrors whereas protagonist Forrest is more of a conformist he went to war as he was told to go and followed orders. Other Vietnam war films uses songs like ‘The end’ with the lyrics ‘life hurts a lot more then death’. This immediately goes into the impact of the effects of PTSD this will have on the soldiers whereas platoon and Forrest Gump have a lot of more subtle beginnings.  Adorno believes use of cultured popular music creates ideology for “commercial purposes” (Adorno, 2000). He recognises Jazz music used in political mediums to create social significance and to prevent personal freedom. The jazzier soundtrack displayed in Forrest Gump may indicate he more “the obedient type” (Adorno, 2000) and the rhythms expresses a desire to obey. Music also allows audience to identify themselves in the “machine age” as it allows a sense of reality.

A convention displayed in Vietnam war and both movies is the “lack of visual contact with the enemy” (Whillock, 1988, p130). This is due to them both being hidden or non-existent in the beautiful dense jungle. In platoon the closest contact with the enemy is when Chris stumbles across a Vietnamese bunker and decides to go in but a trap goes off with an explosion, so they evacuate immediately. In Platoon instead of showing a conflict with the enemy it shows more conflict within the army itself. It also shows more conflict with the Vietnamese civilians. Statistics show Statistics show “US Industry killed nearly 3 hundred Vietnamese villages” (Jeansonne, Luhrssen, 2014, p8). On the other hand, ‘Forrest Gump’ has no visuals of the enemies nor Vietnamese civilians. Before the battle scene portrays ordinary people trekking through dense jungle unaware at war. Throughout the scene play “what it’s worth”. One lyric in particular ‘there’s a man with a gun over there’ then immediately ‘stop’ then the rain turns off. The use of silence after to then visual effects and SPX chaos of noises like bombings, shootings and riffles. This is a sense of foreboding to express how are everyone was.  The difference between the two movies Platoon recognises the fact the military were fighting the innocence as well as enemies. This shows how war movies can depict “the paradox of in/visibility” (Lucaites and Simons, 2017, p3).

The Vietnam war was “so jumbled and ambiguous it was not a narrative” (Bates, Bates, 1996, p19). This can reflect why in both films the fighting scenes sometimes didn’t make sense as didn’t show enemy and instead fighting the innocence. Platoon writes in linear and Forrest Gump writes in non-linear. Platoon linear mode is effective as takes along with a journey through writing to his grandma from the begging when he volunteers to the military to conform with American way of life to then realising the true brutality and then showing early signs of PTSD on the helicopter ride home. Forrest Gump “nonlinear structure” (Radstone, 2000, p5) shows him sitting on a bench with stranger coming by to hear about his extraordinary life. He tells themes stories through flashback.

In conclusion, the ideology of Vietnam War films reflects the unease in American society about what the war meant. In Forrest Gump, we can see the war being reflected in an ultimately positive sense, through its framing of the conflict as part of Forrest’s personal journey. Zemeckis’s desire to create an apolitical film instead created a cautious conservative telling of the conflict that evaded important questions to avoid alienating the audience. In Platoon, by contrast, the war is depicted as a morally grey clash, where the ideological battles of the Cold War are less important than the personal conflicts between the men of the Platoon. Stone is more interested in challenging his audience’s instincts to defend their country and is more cynical of nationalism. However, both directors centre their films on the experiences of the Americans, reflecting both their own and their audience’s bias towards the experience of Americans over the more mysterious “other” of the Vietnamese. This reflects many Americans’ instinct to view the war as something that primarily affected their own nation.

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