I’ve been thoroughly enjoying Scalzi’s listings from the Rough Guides‘ Movie guides. They make me wonder what the canon lists of movies would be for specific topics. I’ve listed a few that I think should be on the list (sticking to movies that I’ve seen, of which there are far too few). What else belongs there?

When I was a kid, “Platoon” and “Full Metal Jacket” came out within about fifteen minutes of each other. I saw both and was lucky enough to get a veteran’s perspective on both of them. My father, who served as a grunt, thought that “Platoon” was particularly well done (he’s gone on to say that “We Were Soldiers” is much more realistic, which absolutely horrified me when I saw the film), while his friend Fred, a journalist during the police action, thought that Kubrick’s film was spot on. Many stories came out of the compare and contrast of these two films. Needless to say, movies about Vietnam have always fascinated me.

I know that there are several big, important, award-winning movies that should be on this list that I haven’t seen. What are the best and the brightest movies about Vietnam? Or, considering the subject matter, what are the worst and the darkest? Either way, I’d love to know.

• Born on the Fourth Of July
• Full Metal Jacket
• Good Morning Vietnam
• Platoon
• We Were Soldiers

More Alternate Film Canons.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 15th, 2005 at 6:10 am and is filed under Alternate Film Canon, Weekly Feature, Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.