VIETNAM WAR AND ITS IMPACTS ON AMERICAN WAR MOVIE THEMES BEFORE AND AFTER 1968 =

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vietnam War was America’s most divisive and disastrous war. For the first time in U.S history the war was conducted without military censorship and attracted a great deal of attention from domestic media, in which cinema world, specifically Hollywood- the motion picture industry of the US, made special efforts to create striking memorable films. In an attempt to dig deeply into the relationship between US motion picture industry and Vietnam War, the author did a research called “Vietnam War and its impacts on American movie themes before and after 1968”. First of all, the research demonstrates the dominance of jingoistic or propagandistic war film themes prior to the Tet Offensive (1968) by analyzing Vietnam War’s American motion pictures produced during that period of time and supplying a reasonable explanation for why such type of war film was the primary trend. The discontented reaction of American audiences towards that kind of films is also revealed. Then, the author proves there is a significant change in the Vietnam War films of Hollywood after the Tet Offensive event by looking into motion pictures made at that time. Jingoistic or propagandistic war film themes was no longer has chance to exist. The reason for such an immense alteration is examined as well. Overall, the study makes it evident that Vietnam War, particularly the Tet Offensive event has remarkable influences on U.S’ motion picture industry by changing the general theme of Vietnam War’s American films from traditional nationalistic films to honest realistic ones.