The Green Berets
The Green Berets was a film produced in 1968, at the height of the Vietnam War. It was meant to project a strong anti-communist message and to improve the image of the US-Vietnamese allies. The film starred and was co-directed by John Wayne. According to an article by Marilyn B. Young in the Organization of American Historians' magazine, OAH Magazine of History, the film was "John Wayne's explicit effort to sell the war to the American public".[1]
Young quotes producer Michael Wayne (John Wayne's eldest son[2]) as explaining:
- We're not making a political picture; we're making a picture about a bunch of right guys . . . Cowboys and Indians . . . . The Americans are the good guys and the Viet Cong are the bad guys. . . . Maybe we shouldn't have destroyed all those Indians, but when you are making a picture, the Indians are the bad guys.[3]
Young comments:
- What is particularly interesting, however, is the effort the film must make to explain why the Indians are the bad guys and why they must die. In the old days, movie goers could tell the good guys from the bad guys without a scorecard. Now, the justice of the cause must be explained--and at considerable length. Very early in the film, the upstanding men of the Green Berets answer the hostile questions of an aggressively liberal press corps: why is the U.S. fighting such a useless war? Is it not a civil war? Do the Vietnamese want us there? Is the Saigon government not dictatorial? Patiently, one by one, their questions are answered. It falls to a black master sergeant to describe how desperately the Vietnamese desire U.S. intervention: "If this same thing [the NLF insurgency] happened in the United States, every mayor in every city would be murdered. Every teacher . . . every professor. . . every Senator, every member of the House of Representatives and their families . . . But in spite of this, there's always some little fellow out there willing to stand up and take the place of those who've been decimated. They need us . . . and they want us." "It's strange that we never read of this in the newspapers," a housewife complains. "Well, that's newspapers for you, ma'am . . . ," one of the officers responds.[4]
Contents
Directors
Writers
- James Lee Barrett
- Kenneth B. Facey (US Army Col.)
- Robin Moore (wrote the novel on which the film was based)
Producer
Notes
- ↑ Marilyn B. Young, Now Playing: Vietnam, OAH Magazine of History, October 2004, accessed 14 Jan 2010
- ↑ Michael Wayne, John Wayne's son dies, Obituary, contactmusic.com, 4 Apr 2003, accessed 14 January 2010
- ↑ Marilyn B. Young, Now Playing: Vietnam, OAH Magazine of History, October 2004, accessed 14 Jan 2010
- ↑ Marilyn B. Young, Now Playing: Vietnam, OAH Magazine of History, October 2004, accessed 14 Jan 2010
