The Refusal to Accept Defeat

Saving Private Ryan is personaly one of my five favorite movies of all time. I can’t say I don’t like the movie now, but Jim Shepard really opened my eyes with his essay, “Saving Private Ryan and the Politics of Deception.” After discussing Full Metal Jacket and Platoon I have a better sense of what analyzing a movie is all about, and I feel like Jim Shepard absolutely nailed Saving Private Ryan.
Shepard begins by asking why we believe everything some politicians say even when we have no reason to trust them. He used George W. Bush as an example while he was running for his second straight four-year term as President. Evidently many Americans wanted Bush to get a second go around because they felt “safer” with him as their leader; even though we were a few years removed from the September 11th attacks. From this point on, this essay grabbed my attention more than anything I’ve read this semester. I really found the connection he made with war movies and politics very interesting. Shepard claims that our ignorance as a nation is caused by movies like Saving Private Ryan. I don’t believe this is the sole reason and I’m sure Shepard doesn’t either, but I do agree that it plays a role. Jim Shepard said that war movies please both political parties because they show the brutality of war and the sweet taste of victory all in about two hours. Saving Private Ryan was a great example, and Full Metal Jacket and Platoon are as well.
The Vietnam War didn’t have the same “happy ending” as World War II, making it difficult to make one of those movies that just makes the viewer proud to be and American. I’ll shy away from the final scene of Full Metal Jacket for now, but even the scenes leading up to it give us the arrogant sense that we were still the top dogs in Vietnam. Even after a Vietnamese sniper that could not be hidden any better claimed three American lives, she was still eventually overpowered by The Joker and friends. Full Metal Jacket director Stanley Kubrick was able to provide the USA with the last laugh even in the midst of a seemingly winless war.
I find Platoon even more interesting because although it doesn’t end on the most positive note, it never actually admits defeat to the Vietnamese. Most people can admit that the United States did not accomplish their initial objective during the Vietnam War, but Platoon suggests that we did it to ourselves, not that the NVA and Vietcong were simply more strategic and flat out victorious. As is the case with the George W. Bush example Shepard provided, Americans tell Americans what they want to hear, and we don't want to hear anything about losing. The recent analysis we’ve done along with the Saving Private Ryan essay will hopefully remind me to take a closer look each time I watch a movie. After all, Saving Private Ryan is one of my all time favorites, but maybe that’s just because the USA was victorious…as always.