The Vivid Reality of Vietnam!

WOW! Talk about an intense way to learn information! For me war movies have never been my first choice, but after watching both of these I realize we can learn a lot from them, not saying I'll go pick one up at a moments notice, but it was definitely a good experience to see the information of war portrayed through a visual form. The action packed scenes of both movies were intriguing and very intense. The grotesque violence showed a loud approach to the war and what happened with the soldiers that were involved.

For me watching Platoon was a sad, yet informative way to learn Vietnam. It stood out to me that they followed more of the character of Chris rather than the whole Platoon. Through this we were able to see the war through a soldiers eyes, which in my opinion is one of the best prospectives. In Platoon the reality that some innocent people in Vietnam were shot and killed or had to abandon their homes was a sad shock. When Chris found the guys raping the young girls from the village they destroyed, it made me realize how much psychological damage these soldiers truly had to face. Along with that, when one of the guys shot another man within his own platoon I also realized the major toll it took with their minds and how crazy some of their actions became. I feel that through out Platoon as a whole, these crazy actions were highlighted and shown, even if they were grotesque and horrifying. Platoon overall was a tough movie for me to sit through because of all the violence, but I finished it with a better understanding of a soldier's experience during these tough times.

Much like Platoon, Full Metal Jacket also highlighted the psychological problems with the soldiers. In Full Metal Jacket, Private Pile suffered a severe internal issue because of his attack from fellow platoon members. Private Pile killed the Srgt. and himself showing the toll that the war took on soldiers causing them to go to the extremes. Full Metal Jacket showed these extremes in vividly visual ways that created a tough scene. Full Metal Jacket also showed the battle from a different standpoint. In this movie I was able to tell more of what was happening in relation to the knowledge I had already acquired. The Tet Offensive was one item in this movie that I found very helpful because before the quiz I did not know much about this event. Full Metal Jacket was easier to watch for me, for the most part, but was still as vivid an interpretation as Platoon.

These two movies were much on the similar side, especially when it came to highlighting the psychological effects that soldiers faced when going through the war. I also realized through both that soldiers had issues among themselves that troubled the whole platoon at times. Soldiers face tough situations depicted in both these movies that they must pick back up after and rebuild their lives as Chris puts it at the end of Platoon. I realized this new life has to be a tough one to build up especially after seeing visual representations of what went on. The films were different because Platoon had a stronger combat focus while FMJ had a more wide range of focus. I felt that Platoon was more effective at painting the whole picture because it was so action packed all the time and really gave insight on the soldiers. I also felt FMJ was effective in the way it took us through the boot camp and the war. Both movies had strong points for us to expand our knowledge through and realize the vivid reality that was Vietnam!