Embedded Files
Antiwar Literature, Film and Art
Antiwar Literature, Film and Art
POSTED MAR 12, 2019
I have been reading Hermann Hesse's "If the War Goes On...", a collection of essays and vignettes subtitled "Reflections on War and Politics". The earliest in the collection dates from September 1914 - just after the outbreak of hostilities that were to become "The Great War." Hesse, better known for his novels like Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, was passionate in his lifelong espousal of pacifism and internationalism. Reading "If the War Goes On", I was struck by how much anti-war literature is written after the devastation is over. Here Hesse was writing in the beginning and in the midst of it.
I have been reading Hermann Hesse's "If the War Goes On...", a collection of essays and vignettes subtitled "Reflections on War and Politics". The earliest in the collection dates from September 1914 - just after the outbreak of hostilities that were to become "The Great War." Hesse, better known for his novels like Siddhartha and The Glass Bead Game, was passionate in his lifelong espousal of pacifism and internationalism. Reading "If the War Goes On", I was struck by how much anti-war literature is written after the devastation is over. Here Hesse was writing in the beginning and in the midst of it.
Although there are earlier instances (such as "The Red Badge of Courage"), it was WWI that gave rise to some of the most powerful antiwar literature, including poems by soldier poets [link below right] and novels by returning veterans (such as Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1928) and The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (1923).
Although there are earlier instances (such as "The Red Badge of Courage"), it was WWI that gave rise to some of the most powerful antiwar literature, including poems by soldier poets [link below right] and novels by returning veterans (such as Remarque's "All Quiet on the Western Front" (1928) and The Good Soldier Švejk by Jaroslav Hašek (1923).
Painters also expressed the chaos and inhumanity of war. The Dada art movement "was many things, but it was essentially an anti-war movement in Europe and New York from 1915 to 1923. It was an artistic revolt and protest against traditional beliefs of a pro-war society."(1) Based on the aerial bombing of civilians by fascist powers during the Spanish Civil War, Picasso's "Guernica" is perhaps the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in Western art.
Painters also expressed the chaos and inhumanity of war. The Dada art movement "was many things, but it was essentially an anti-war movement in Europe and New York from 1915 to 1923. It was an artistic revolt and protest against traditional beliefs of a pro-war society."(1) Based on the aerial bombing of civilians by fascist powers during the Spanish Civil War, Picasso's "Guernica" is perhaps the most moving and powerful anti-war painting in Western art.
The advent of film in the early 20th century gave artists a new and compelling medium in which the antiwar genre could develop. "All Quiet on the Western Front", the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, was adapted as an Academy-Award winning film in 1930. The book describes the "German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front."(2)
The advent of film in the early 20th century gave artists a new and compelling medium in which the antiwar genre could develop. "All Quiet on the Western Front", the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque, a German veteran of World War I, was adapted as an Academy-Award winning film in 1930. The book describes the "German soldiers' extreme physical and mental stress during the war, and the detachment from civilian life felt by many of these soldiers upon returning home from the front."(2)
Not surprisingly, the book and its sequel were among those banned and burned in Nazi Germany.
Not surprisingly, the book and its sequel were among those banned and burned in Nazi Germany.
"Johnny Got His Gun" is another WWI anti-war novel that was later adapted for the screen. Written in 1938 by American novelist, Dalton Trumbo, the novel won a National Book Award (Most Original Book). A 1971 film adaptation was written for the screen and directed by Trumbo himself.
"Johnny Got His Gun" is another WWI anti-war novel that was later adapted for the screen. Written in 1938 by American novelist, Dalton Trumbo, the novel won a National Book Award (Most Original Book). A 1971 film adaptation was written for the screen and directed by Trumbo himself.
“It will be you—-you who urge us on to battle you who incite us against ourselves you who would have one cobbler kill another cobbler you who would have one man who works kill another man who works you who would have one human being who wants only to live kill another human being who wants only to live. Remember this. Remember this well you people who plan for war. Remember this you patriots you fierce ones you spawners of hate you inventors of slogans. Remember this as you have never remembered anything else in your lives.” ― Dalton Trumbo, Johnny Got His Gun
Also not surprisingly, Dalton Trumbo was on the infamous "Hollywood Blacklist" of the McCarthy era.
Also not surprisingly, Dalton Trumbo was on the infamous "Hollywood Blacklist" of the McCarthy era.
To be continued...
To be continued...
(2) Wikipedia
Scenes from the original All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)
Wilfred Owen's "Dulce et decorum est" read by Christopher Eccleston. Wilfred Owen was killed one week before the end of WW I. The poem was published posthumously in 1920. The Latin title is taken from an ode by the Roman poet Horace and means "it is sweet and fitting to die for one's country". Owen calls this the "old lie" in the last stanza.
Antiwar Literature and Film - World War II
Antiwar Literature and Film - World War II
POSTED APR 25, 2019
World War I and its aftermath gave rise to some of the world's most powerful antiwar literature. WWII produced both literature and films - from both the vanquished Axis powers and from the victorious Allies.
World War I and its aftermath gave rise to some of the world's most powerful antiwar literature. WWII produced both literature and films - from both the vanquished Axis powers and from the victorious Allies.
"Das Boot" (1981) is a German film about a WWII U-boat mission. While a war correspondent observes day-to-day life aboard the U-boat, the captain struggles to maintain his own motivation as he attempts to keep the ship's morale up in the face of fierce battles, intense storms and dwindling supplies*. Roger Ebert's writes:
"Das Boot" (1981) is a German film about a WWII U-boat mission. While a war correspondent observes day-to-day life aboard the U-boat, the captain struggles to maintain his own motivation as he attempts to keep the ship's morale up in the face of fierce battles, intense storms and dwindling supplies*. Roger Ebert's writes:
The centerpiece of the film is an attack on an Allied convoy; the U-boat torpedoes three ships...Having finally outlasted the [Allied] destroyers, the sub surfaces to administer a coup de grace--a final torpedo to a burning tanker. As the ship explodes, the captain is startled to see men leaping from its deck: "What are they doing still on board?'' he shouts. "Why haven't they been rescued?'' Drowning sailors can clearly be seen in the flames from the tanker. They swim toward the U-boat, their pitiful cries for help carrying clearly across the water. The captain orders his boat to reverse at half speed, to keep it away from them. What does he think of having let the victims drown? He does not say. Only one sentence in the ship's log ("assumed no men were on board'') gives a hint. It is against the instinct of every sailor to let another sailor drown in the sea. But in war, it is certainly not practical for a submarine to take prisoners. Somehow it is easier when the targets are seen through periscope sights, and the cries of victims cannot be heard.
Or, one might add, easier when one is dropping bombs from thousands of feet above a village or city.
Or, one might add, easier when one is dropping bombs from thousands of feet above a village or city.
Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, turns 50 this year. Based on his own WWII experience, Vonnegut writes of the Allied bombing of Dresden**, which he survived in an underground bunker as a prisoner of war. With sci-fi elements, it follows Billy Pilgrim who is abducted by the "Tralfamadorians, the little green aliens shaped like toilet plungers who see all of time at once" and repeat the phase "so it goes" at every death. It took Vonnegut 25 years to write a novel capturing the horror of what he saw when he emerged from the bunker for the novel is "an attempt to talk about something which cannot be talked about". (Vox) As Kurt Vonnegut writes in the first chapter of the novel, which recounts how he finally came to write the novel :
Kurt Vonnegut's novel, Slaughterhouse-Five, turns 50 this year. Based on his own WWII experience, Vonnegut writes of the Allied bombing of Dresden**, which he survived in an underground bunker as a prisoner of war. With sci-fi elements, it follows Billy Pilgrim who is abducted by the "Tralfamadorians, the little green aliens shaped like toilet plungers who see all of time at once" and repeat the phase "so it goes" at every death. It took Vonnegut 25 years to write a novel capturing the horror of what he saw when he emerged from the bunker for the novel is "an attempt to talk about something which cannot be talked about". (Vox) As Kurt Vonnegut writes in the first chapter of the novel, which recounts how he finally came to write the novel :
It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.
And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?”
Two other anti-war novels based on WWII are Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" - one of whose themes is the dehumanization of soldiers, who are continuously referred to as machines within the novel - and Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" - a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice.***
Two other anti-war novels based on WWII are Norman Mailer's "The Naked and the Dead" - one of whose themes is the dehumanization of soldiers, who are continuously referred to as machines within the novel - and Joseph Heller's "Catch 22" - a satire on war and bureaucracy, whose title has become a synonym for an absurd or contradictory choice.***
Most American films about World War II, many written during the war, glorify the Allied efforts against the fascist menace. As John Bodner posts at historians.org: "To a large extent the collective import of these films glossed over the grim realities of war as well and the injury and pain it brought to people everywhere." Writers and journalists such as Vietnam veteran Philip Caputo accuse World War II movies of making combat seem glorious and convincing many young men in the 1950s and 1960s to fight. That said, after the end of the war, some American film producers began to "offer a more sobering perspective on the war and its tragic elements".
Most American films about World War II, many written during the war, glorify the Allied efforts against the fascist menace. As John Bodner posts at historians.org: "To a large extent the collective import of these films glossed over the grim realities of war as well and the injury and pain it brought to people everywhere." Writers and journalists such as Vietnam veteran Philip Caputo accuse World War II movies of making combat seem glorious and convincing many young men in the 1950s and 1960s to fight. That said, after the end of the war, some American film producers began to "offer a more sobering perspective on the war and its tragic elements".
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, with a nuclear armageddon looming, a number of movies began to challenge "not only the virtuous view of some Americans who fought in the forties but also the value of any war effort at all."
In the late 1950's and early 1960's, with a nuclear armageddon looming, a number of movies began to challenge "not only the virtuous view of some Americans who fought in the forties but also the value of any war effort at all."
"The Americanization of Emily" (1964) is one such film. Called a "vanguard anti-war film," it is based on a Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay. A cynical naval officer (James Garner) tending to the needs of the admirals in 1944 London before the Normandy Invasion falls in love with an idealistic and softhearted British war widow turned military chauffeur (Julie Andrews).
"The Americanization of Emily" (1964) is one such film. Called a "vanguard anti-war film," it is based on a Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay. A cynical naval officer (James Garner) tending to the needs of the admirals in 1944 London before the Normandy Invasion falls in love with an idealistic and softhearted British war widow turned military chauffeur (Julie Andrews).
Though their affair plays a central role in the film, The Americanization of Emily won’t be remembered for their romance, but for Chayefsky’s jeremiad against war as a social pathology and corrupt mythology. Charlie defines himself as “yellow,” a professional coward, who wants to survive by staying as far from combat as he can...The film gives [Charlie] a great many opportunities to inveigh...against the madness of war and its exultation, trenchantly pointing out that “it may be ministers and generals who blunder us into wars, but the least the rest of us can do is to resist honoring the institution.”...For Chayefsky, war and its sacred idols—medals, tombs, romanticized memories—exist to be satirized and condemned. (Cineaste)
Another highly rated WWII anti-war film is "The Big Red One" (1980) which follows the First Infantry Division from Africa to Europe during the years from 1942 to 1945.
Another highly rated WWII anti-war film is "The Big Red One" (1980) which follows the First Infantry Division from Africa to Europe during the years from 1942 to 1945.
A mythical view of World War II is shattered completely in director Samuel Fuller’s 1980 film, The Big Red One. Fuller was a combat veteran who brought a soldier’s outlook to cultural recollections about the war. He had landed in the third wave on Omaha Beach and recalled seeing dead bodies everywhere. When it came to remembering the war, Fuller resisted strongly any attempt to see it as ennobling and argued that the men who fought only wanted to survive and nothing more. In his autobiography he claimed, in fact, that he had turned down an offer to direct The Longest Day because he felt it was too “overblown” and did not pay sufficient attention to the suffering of soldiers. He carried his memories directly into his 1980 feature that was marked by anti-heroic views. In a narrative that follows an American rifle squad through Europe, religious symbols are deployed to suggest that war, far from being a necessary political crusade, was mostly a transgression of basic Christian principles. Some GIs even articulate the view that what they are doing is not destroying an enemy but committing murder. ( historians.org)
To be continued...
To be continued...
=====
*Imdb
**Between February 13 and February 15, 1945, Allied bombers dropped nearly four thousand tons of high explosives and incendiaries on the historic German city of Dresden. The effect was elemental: Air became fire. Vonnegut, an American prisoner of war, was there—but 60 feet underground. Captured during the Battle of the Bulge, conveyed to Dresden by boxcar, and billeted in a derelict slaughterhouse as the bombs fell, he was sheltering with some fellow POWs and a couple of dazed German guards in a basement meat locker. They emerged to rubble, ash, twisted metal, death. Somewhere between 18,000 and 25,000 people... had been killed. (The Atlantic)
***Wikipedia
Lt. Charles Madison ("The Americanization of Emily"):
Lt. Charles Madison ("The Americanization of Emily"):
I'm not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.
I'm not sentimental about war. I see nothing noble in widows.
We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on the ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the other banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns, Mrs. Barham, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.
We shall never end wars, Mrs. Barham, by blaming it on the ministers and generals, or warmongering imperialists, or all the other banal bogeys. It's the rest of us who build statues to those generals and name boulevards after those ministers. The rest of us who make heroes of our dead and shrines of our battlefields. We wear our widow's weeds like nuns, Mrs. Barham, and perpetuate war by exalting its sacrifices.
The Bomb and the Peace Movement: Mid-century antiwar symbols and songs, literature and film
The Bomb and the Peace Movement: Mid-century antiwar symbols and songs, literature and film
POSTED JUNE 14, 2019
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the nuclear arms race of the post-war years generated an awareness of the total existential threat that war posed in the 20th century. Peace and disarmament movements formed around the world. Artists, song writers, novelists and others produced works that captured and catalyzed these movements.
The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the nuclear arms race of the post-war years generated an awareness of the total existential threat that war posed in the 20th century. Peace and disarmament movements formed around the world. Artists, song writers, novelists and others produced works that captured and catalyzed these movements.
Pablo Picasso's "La Colombe" ("The Dove") [below left] was chosen as the symbol for the World Peace Council in Paris in 1949 and became a symbol of the peace movement in the post-war years. As a symbol of peace, a dove carrying an olive branch dates back to early Christian times.
Pablo Picasso's "La Colombe" ("The Dove") [below left] was chosen as the symbol for the World Peace Council in Paris in 1949 and became a symbol of the peace movement in the post-war years. As a symbol of peace, a dove carrying an olive branch dates back to early Christian times.
In 1958 the "peace sign" [below center], was designed by artist and designer Gerald Holtom as the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), a group at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK, and adopted by anti-war and counterculture activists in the US and elsewhere. Holtom explained that the sign combines the semaphore signals for N and D ("nuclear disarmament") and the symbol can easily be interpreted as a circle enclosing a bomber.
In 1958 the "peace sign" [below center], was designed by artist and designer Gerald Holtom as the logo for the British Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), a group at the forefront of the peace movement in the UK, and adopted by anti-war and counterculture activists in the US and elsewhere. Holtom explained that the sign combines the semaphore signals for N and D ("nuclear disarmament") and the symbol can easily be interpreted as a circle enclosing a bomber.
English and Irish ballads such as "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" go back hundreds of years. But after WWII and The Bomb, there was a surge in the popularity of peace songs aided by the 20th century inventions of radio and the phonograph. One of the earliest post-war songs is Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream" (1950) [video below left]. In 1962, the Kingston Trio released "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" [video below right] Later covered by many singers and groups, it remains to this day a subtle anthem to the absurdity of war. In the early and mid '60's, Bob Dylan wrote several powerful antiwar songs, among them "With God on Our Side", "Blowin' in the Wind" and the lyrically intense "Masters of War". The songs of this era expressed a general longing for peace. Specific works of protest against the Vietnam War would come later.
English and Irish ballads such as "Johnny I Hardly Knew Ye" go back hundreds of years. But after WWII and The Bomb, there was a surge in the popularity of peace songs aided by the 20th century inventions of radio and the phonograph. One of the earliest post-war songs is Ed McCurdy's "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream" (1950) [video below left]. In 1962, the Kingston Trio released "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" [video below right] Later covered by many singers and groups, it remains to this day a subtle anthem to the absurdity of war. In the early and mid '60's, Bob Dylan wrote several powerful antiwar songs, among them "With God on Our Side", "Blowin' in the Wind" and the lyrically intense "Masters of War". The songs of this era expressed a general longing for peace. Specific works of protest against the Vietnam War would come later.
Novelists and film makers took on the nuclear threat by setting their stories in a post-apocalyptic future or in a bizarre pre-holocaust world. Among the best of the anti-nuclear novels are Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" (1957), , Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Liebowitz" (1960), Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" (1963), and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968). "On the Beach" was made into a film (twice - in 1959 and 2000), and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was the primary basis for "Blade Runner" (1982). Three other anti-nuclear films from this era are "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1961) and the satirical "Dr. Strangelove" (1964).
Novelists and film makers took on the nuclear threat by setting their stories in a post-apocalyptic future or in a bizarre pre-holocaust world. Among the best of the anti-nuclear novels are Nevil Shute's "On the Beach" (1957), , Walter Miller's "A Canticle for Liebowitz" (1960), Kurt Vonnegut's "Cat's Cradle" (1963), and Philip K. Dick's "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (1968). "On the Beach" was made into a film (twice - in 1959 and 2000), and "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" was the primary basis for "Blade Runner" (1982). Three other anti-nuclear films from this era are "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Day the Earth Caught Fire" (1961) and the satirical "Dr. Strangelove" (1964).
Some quotes from the novels:
Some quotes from the novels:
On the Beach
“It's not the end of the world at all," he said. "It's only the end for us. The world will go on just the same, only we shan't be in it. I dare say it will get along all right without us.”
“No, it wasn't an accident, I didn't say that. It was carefully planned, down to the tiniest mechanical and emotional detail. But it was a mistake.”
“If what they say is right we're none of us going to have time to do all that we planned to do. But we can keep on doing it as long as we can.”
A Canticle for Liebowitz
“To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law—a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security.”
“Listen, are we helpless? Are we doomed to do it again and again and again? Have we no choice but to play the Phoenix in an unending sequence of rise and fall? ...And again and again and again. Are we doomed to it, Lord, chained to the pendulum of our own mad clockwork, helpless to halt its swing? This time, it will swing us clean to oblivion.”
“But neither infinite power nor infinite wisdom could bestow godhood upon men. For that there would have to be infinite love as well.”
Cat's Cradle
“Science is magic that works.”
“Live by the harmless untruths that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy.”
“Perhaps, when we remember wars, we should take off our clothes and paint ourselves blue and go on all fours all day long and grunt like pigs. That would surely be more appropriate than noble oratory and shows of flags and well-oiled guns.”
Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
“You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe.”
“Maybe I'll go where I can see stars, he said to himself as the car gained velocity and altitude; it headed away from San Francisco, toward the uninhabited desolation to the north. To the place where no living thing would go. Not unless it felt that the end had come.”
“But then I realized how unhealthy it was, sensing the absence of life, not just in this building but everywhere, and not reacting—do you see? I guess you don’t. But that used to be considered a sign of mental illness; they called it ‘absence of appropriate affect.”
Clips from "Dr. Strangelove", "On the Beach", and "Planet of the Apes" are below.
Clips from "Dr. Strangelove", "On the Beach", and "Planet of the Apes" are below.
Spoiler alert: if you are one of the dozen or so people who have not seen "Planet of the Apes" but plan to do so, you may not want scroll all the way down to the end of this post.
Fair use notice: Images and quotes on this website may be subject to copyright. Their inclusion on this site is within the fair use doctrine of copyright law.
Bob Dylan
"Blowin' in the Wind": Yes, 'n' how many times must a man look up ...Before he can see the sky?...Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have...Before he can hear people cry?...Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows...That too many people have died?...The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind...The answer is blowin' in the wind
"With God on Our Side": Through many dark hour I've been thinkin' about this..That Jesus Christ was betrayed by a kiss...But I can't think for you, you'll have to decide...Whether Judas Iscariot had God on his side... So now as I'm leavin' I'm weary as Hell...The confusion I'm feelin' ain't no tongue can tell...The words fill my head and fall to the floor...If God's on our side He'll stop the next war
"Masters of War": You've thrown the worst fear That can ever be hurled Fear to bring children Into the world For threatening my baby Unborn and unnamed You ain't worth the blood That runs in your veins
Vietnam - Antiwar Protest Songs, Novels, and Films
Vietnam - Antiwar Protest Songs, Novels, and Films
POSTED AUG 1, 2019
America's participation in the Vietnam War was one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in our history, perhaps the biggest. Protest songs against the war both defined and energized the resistance during the years the war was being fought. Anti-war film and literature, for the most part, came later as the war, at least the US role in it, came to an end.
America's participation in the Vietnam War was one of the biggest foreign policy blunders in our history, perhaps the biggest. Protest songs against the war both defined and energized the resistance during the years the war was being fought. Anti-war film and literature, for the most part, came later as the war, at least the US role in it, came to an end.
PROTEST SONGS
PROTEST SONGS
Among the many protest songs about the war, several have stood out for me over the years. Americans were dying at rate of approximately 100 per week through 1967. By the end of that year there were nearly 500,000 American combat troops stationed in Vietnam. That year gave us three standout songs as opposition to the war grew more intense.
Among the many protest songs about the war, several have stood out for me over the years. Americans were dying at rate of approximately 100 per week through 1967. By the end of that year there were nearly 500,000 American combat troops stationed in Vietnam. That year gave us three standout songs as opposition to the war grew more intense.
- I had the pleasure of being at one of the first live performances of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant". The song starts out with a tale about his trying to help out at a Thanksgiving Day dinner, but then develops into a full-blown antiwar anthem with his trip to the induction center for his draft physical.
- I had the pleasure of being at one of the first live performances of Arlo Guthrie's "Alice's Restaurant". The song starts out with a tale about his trying to help out at a Thanksgiving Day dinner, but then develops into a full-blown antiwar anthem with his trip to the induction center for his draft physical.
- Pete Seeger's "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", nominally the tale of soldiers on maneuvers in WWII Louisiana, is a metaphor for Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war.
- Pete Seeger's "Waist Deep in the Big Muddy", nominally the tale of soldiers on maneuvers in WWII Louisiana, is a metaphor for Lyndon Johnson's escalation of the war.
- Navy veteran Country Joe McDonald & the Fish's "I-Feel-Like-I'm Fixing-to-Die Rag" is one of the most explicitly VIETNAM antiwar songs ever written - satirically assaulting "wall street" ("there's plenty good money to be made by supplying the army with the tools of its trade"), the generals ("let's move fast, your big chance has come at last") and the absurdity of the war ("And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam")
- Navy veteran Country Joe McDonald & the Fish's "I-Feel-Like-I'm Fixing-to-Die Rag" is one of the most explicitly VIETNAM antiwar songs ever written - satirically assaulting "wall street" ("there's plenty good money to be made by supplying the army with the tools of its trade"), the generals ("let's move fast, your big chance has come at last") and the absurdity of the war ("And it's one, two, three, what are we fighting for, don't ask me I don't give a damn, next stop is Vietnam")
In 1965, a teenaged Guthrie performed a “friendly gesture” that proved to be fateful. Arlo was arrested for littering, leading him to be deemed “not moral enough to join the army.” Guthrie attained international attention at age 19 by recounting the events on the album Alice’s Restaurant in 1967
Seeger sang the song on the taping of the CBS show The Smothers Brothers in September, 1967 but CBS management censored the song prior to broadcast. After the show's hosts voiced their strong support, CBS later relented and allowed Seeger to come back and sing the song on the Brothers' February 25, 1968 show
As performed at Woodstock in 1969
(This has the "alternate" F-I-S-H cheer so if you're offended by an "obscene" F word more than by the obscenity of war, you might want to skip this.)
The war would continue for another eight years. John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" (1969) and "Happy Xmas (War is Over!)" (1972) have a more universal message of peace but clearly are relevant to the ongoing war in Southeast Asia.
The war would continue for another eight years. John Lennon's "Give Peace a Chance" (1969) and "Happy Xmas (War is Over!)" (1972) have a more universal message of peace but clearly are relevant to the ongoing war in Southeast Asia.
In May 1970, the shooting deaths of four unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard resulted in hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools being closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students. The killings prompted Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's angry "Ohio"
In May 1970, the shooting deaths of four unarmed college students by members of the Ohio National Guard resulted in hundreds of universities, colleges, and high schools being closed throughout the United States due to a student strike of 4 million students. The killings prompted Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's angry "Ohio"
After the war was over, in 1984, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" took up the plight of returning draftees who had been sent to "kill the yellow man" in this misguided and tragic war.
After the war was over, in 1984, Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA" took up the plight of returning draftees who had been sent to "kill the yellow man" in this misguided and tragic war.
TIM O'BRIEN AND OTHER NOVELISTS
TIM O'BRIEN AND OTHER NOVELISTS
Of all the story tellers of the Vietnam War, none is better than Tim O'Brien. I became a fan after reading "Going After Cacciato", which won the 1979 National Book Award. "Going After Cacciato" is about a soldier going AWOL and the men who, well, go after him. The sometimes surrealistic story traces the events that ensue after Cacciato decides to go AWOL by walking from Vietnam to France, through Asia.
Of all the story tellers of the Vietnam War, none is better than Tim O'Brien. I became a fan after reading "Going After Cacciato", which won the 1979 National Book Award. "Going After Cacciato" is about a soldier going AWOL and the men who, well, go after him. The sometimes surrealistic story traces the events that ensue after Cacciato decides to go AWOL by walking from Vietnam to France, through Asia.
"The Things They Carried", O'Brien's best known work and described by The New York Times as a Vietnam classic, is a collection of interconnected semi-autobiographical stories based on his experiences in Vietnam. Narrated by a fictional Tim O'Brien "The Things They Carried" relates the events of Alpha Company and the return home of the surviving members. From the first pages of the novel where he lists the backpack contents of the men of Alpha Company - the mementos from home and the gear of warfare, he gives us a view into their lives, hopes, and fears all the while building the fog of war around them with a foreboding sensation of fear. The stories are mainly of the events in Vietnam, but also flash back to Tim's being "drafted to fight a war I hated" and follow the struggles of the survivors when they return home. The book stays with you a long time.
"The Things They Carried", O'Brien's best known work and described by The New York Times as a Vietnam classic, is a collection of interconnected semi-autobiographical stories based on his experiences in Vietnam. Narrated by a fictional Tim O'Brien "The Things They Carried" relates the events of Alpha Company and the return home of the surviving members. From the first pages of the novel where he lists the backpack contents of the men of Alpha Company - the mementos from home and the gear of warfare, he gives us a view into their lives, hopes, and fears all the while building the fog of war around them with a foreboding sensation of fear. The stories are mainly of the events in Vietnam, but also flash back to Tim's being "drafted to fight a war I hated" and follow the struggles of the survivors when they return home. The book stays with you a long time.
"They made themselves laugh...They were tough. They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing - these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight."
Tim wrestles with leaving for Canada. He stops at the Tip Top Lodge near the Minnesota - Canada border. "The man who opened the door that day is the hero of my life - the man saved me. He offered exactly what I needed, without questions, without any words at all. He took me in...Six days later, when it ended, I was unable to find a proper way to thank him..."
"A true war story is never moral. It does not instruct, nor encourage virtue, nor suggest models of proper human behavior, nor restrain men from doing the things men have always done....Mitchell Sanders was right. For the common soldier, war has the feel - the spiritual texture - of a great ghostly fog, thick and permanent."
When their medic has a breakdown and shoots himself in the foot to get away from the war, no one blames him. "He said he'd done his best. He'd tried to be a good medic....rambling a little, he talked about a few of the guys who were gone now... and how crazy it was that people who were so incredibly alive could get so incredibly dead."
"But this is true: stories can save us. I'm forty three years old, and a writer now, and even still, right here, I keep dreaming Linda alive. And Ted lavender, and Kiowa, and Curt Lemon, and a slim young man I killed and an old man sprawled besides a pigpen."
Bookriot.com's list of "the most celebrated and best Vietnam War books" contains a few I haven't read yet but sound intriguing:
Bookriot.com's list of "the most celebrated and best Vietnam War books" contains a few I haven't read yet but sound intriguing:
"The Sorrow of War" by Bao Ninh
"The Sorrow of War" by Bao Ninh
"This fictional account of Kien, an infantryman for North Vietnam, follows his transformation into a writer, his struggles to overcome his memories of combat, and the terrible mess his life has become as a result."
"Close Quarters" by Larry Heinemann
"Close Quarters" by Larry Heinemann
In the stripped-down, unsullied patois of an ordinary soldier, draftee Philip Dosier tells the story of his war. Straight from high school, too young to vote or buy himself a drink, he enters a world of mud and heat, blood and body counts, ambushes and firefights. It is here that he embarks on the brutal downward path to wisdom that awaits every soldier. In the tradition of Naked and the Dead and The Thin Red Line, Close Quarters is the harrowing story of how a decent kid from Chicago endures an extraordinary trial-- and returns profoundly altered to a world on the threshold of change.
"The Quiet American" by Graham Greene
"The Quiet American" by Graham Greene
"A review in The New York Times in 1956 claimed that Greene’s novel about Vietnam had characters that stood in for nations and political factions rather than as their own people. Greene’s conclusion seems to be that America was a somewhat “innocent” nation that did not understand the people it was fighting with or against. Often cited as one of the best Vietnam war books, it is also one of the most recommended in Greene’s large body of work." (Bookriot)
FILM
FILM
From the many films about the war in Vietnam, here are three Oscar-winning film trailers, two little-known Vietnamese films with English subtitles and an interview with a director of a re-released landmark documentary about the resistance to the war at home.
From the many films about the war in Vietnam, here are three Oscar-winning film trailers, two little-known Vietnamese films with English subtitles and an interview with a director of a re-released landmark documentary about the resistance to the war at home.
Francis Ford Coppola made a 40th Anniversary restoration of Apocalypse Now that was featured at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring.
Nominated for 9 Academy Awards, 1978's The Deer Hunter came away with 5, including Best Picture and Best Director.
Platoon was the first of three films Oliver Stone made about the Vietnam War: the others were Born on the Fourth of July and Heaven & Earth, each dealing with different aspects of the war.
"Often cited as the best Vietnamese movie about the War, Dang Nhat Minh’s 1984 feature When the Tenth Month Comes* is strikingly devoid of any scenes of combat. Like many of the other films on this list, it adopts the perspective of a young Vietnamese woman, who here struggles to protect her vulnerable family from the dreadful news of her serving husband’s death. Swapping guns and gore for poetry, this is a stunning melodrama about the impact the conflict had on families left behind by Vietnamese soldiers." (Seven Vietnam War Movies You Probably Haven't Seen, But Should)
"Filmed on location in the rubble of a recently-bombed Hanoi, Hai Ninh’s The Little Girl of Hanoi* is evocative of post-WW2 realist films. As such, if you were more interested in the city setting of Good Morning, Vietnam , then The Little Girl of Hanoi is for you, as all of the action takes place in Hanoi’s concrete jungle. This movie was produced before the War’s end, as director Ninh was moved to express the horror inflicted on unsuspecting residents of the city after witnessing it first-hand." (Seven Vietnam War Movies You Probably Haven't Seen, But Should)
*I couldn't find English subtitled trailers for the Vietnamese films. The embedded video for each is of the entire film with English subtitles.
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