Vietnam : Viewed Through the Dual Lens of Movies and History

"Where Trouble Comes" is a fascinating, albeit, horrific look at the atrocities of Vietnam as seen by historians and film makers. Point of View is a major theme throughout the article, giving th reader a fresh perspective at every turn.

Up, Up and Away.

This particular concept starts with "Point of View, ground level:" A unique perspective of a farmer's wife on the way to the market square when she hears bombs exploding, immediately seeking shelter among other terrified neighbors and witnesses, witnessing several helicopters hovering overhead-one landing in a rice paddy close by.

You are then elevated to "Point of View, altitude 500 feet: where several "army assault helicopters" filled with fearful yet anxious soldiers descend upon Son My, a small Vietnamese village, suspected of being a hold-out for the VC or "Viet Cong."

Flying at an even higher altitude of of 1,000 feet, the Point of View of the Task Force Commander looking down upon his troops, watching them disembark, as wave after wave of choppers overtake the hamlet below, is of a larger angle of view, yet is far removed from the carnage taking place down below.

Higher Still.

Higher still at 2,500 feet above the scene, the American Division's commander is so far-and-away, as to be invulnerable from enemy ground fire and immune from the horrors of the killing fields below. "Stacked in layers of airspace, looking on from higher and higher perches, these Point of Views provide increasingly wider views of terrain," further removing them from the close-encounter perspective. "Because these observers see more, they also see less," the author tells us, and we have here before us, a wide angle panorama of ever widening perspectives of how life is, and how life was, through a historians eyes.

Movie maker vs Historian.

The article then switches gears by contrasting the film industry's depiction of Vietnam, with that of the historians realistic POV. While Hollywood is more concerned with holding a viewer's short attention span with dramatic episodes of artistic-license, "The historian's first commitment is to remain faithful to the record." History, from a historians Point of View, can be

approached from different angles, such as, a critique of a particular film or films, as to their accuracy in depicting the events as they happened: Are the clothing, culture and customs presented as they were in actuality? Are the characters portrayed in a realistic manner?--and so on. Exposing the film media this way, like a "historical lie detector" can be revealing, but may not be as effective as a historian telling the story point by point based on historically proven facts.

Conclusion.

Using Point of View, either through the image of movie cinema, or through the analytic eyes of a historian, can be a fascinating experience. The movie-goer experiences life as it could be, or might have been, but not necessarily as it actually was: The producer and director are looking for ways to hold the viewers attention and true facts don't always lend themselves to such abstractness. The historian, on the other hand, seeks for truth, however boring it may seem to the reader. Both approaches, if taken for what they are, can be used for learning and entertainment-if you don't confuse the facts with the fluff and wind up believing a fabrication perpetrated by Hollywood mogules.

Works Cited:

"Where Trouble Comes." In After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection, edited by James W. Davidson and Mark H. Lytle. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2005, 400-431.