American Cinema depicting the Vietnam War: Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now (Redux)

Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse Now are among the most famous war films in cinematic history. Indeed, moments from both films, from Full Metal Jacket’s Vietnamese prostitute proclaiming “Me love you long time” to Apocalypse Now’s famous eulogy, “I love the smell of napalm in the morning,” both movies hold a special place in the history of both cinema and post-war public perception and understanding of the conflict.

What makes these two films particularly interesting for our class discussion is the fact that both were both well-received by foreign and particularly French audiences. Full Metal Jacket won several accolades, particularly for the screenwriting, and Apocalypse Now took home the prestigious Palme d’or from the Cannes Film Festival in 1979.

In class we speculated about the reasons for the films’ popularity. One reason that came up was the noticeable lack of Frenchmen, women, and soldiers in the films—indeed, with the exception of the French plantation scene in Apocalypse now, the Vietnam War in both movies appears to be a war between Americans and Vietnemese. In doing some background research on Apocalypse now, I discovered that the version I watched was actually Apocalypse Now (Redux), a 2001 re-release that included several scenes omitted from the original film. The French plantation scene was among those not included in the original version.

Although the French plantation scene was not a part of the original movie that won the Palme d’or, the scene is hardly offensive to the French—arguing with Willard, one of the colonists accuses the United States of accusing the Viet Cong, blaming the Americans for their misery.

At any rate, however, colonialism and the French presence in Vietnam are in no way the focus of either film, nevertheless, the American perception of the Vietnamese insurgents and the Viet Cong do mirror, in a way, French sentiments about Vietnam during the colonial period. Soldiers in both films find it difficult to comprehend why the Vietnamese resist their help—the U.S. army is here to save them, and the thanks they receive—bombings, snipers, surprise attacks—indicates not gratitude, but total detestation. This coincidence is not by any means an attempt to say that French audiences liked Full Metal Jacket and Apocalypse now because it showcased how ungrateful the Vietnamese were, but the fact that the French favored Vietnam War movies from an American perspective indicates some preference for Western recollections of a topic that is still very sensitive today.

Link: Full Metal Jacket trailer
Link: Apocalypse Now trailer