List of Vietnam War films

List of notable films related to the Vietnam War

This article lists notable films related to the Vietnam War.

## Themes and genres

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After the Vietnam War ended in 1975, there was an increase in American films that were more "raw,” containing actual battle footage. A FilmReference.com article noted that American filmmakers "appeared more confident to put Vietnam combat on screen for the first time" during that era.[1] These American post-war film representations have generally been more realistic and gritty, such as The Deer Hunter (1978) and Apocalypse Now (1979).[1]

There were several broad stereotypes about American Vietnam veterans. One stereotype was thinly disguised versions of the real Lieutenant William Calley, notorious as the officer responsible for the My Lai massacre of 1968, the so-called "psycho vets” who were portrayed as bloodthirsty psychopaths who wreak havoc upon their return to the United States.[2] Such portrayals of the "psycho vet,” while acknowledging atrocities in Vietnam, most notably blamed the atrocities upon one deranged individual, suggesting that the atrocities, at least by Americans, were aberrations in the war. Films that portrayed the "psycho vet" archetype mostly took place in the United States and the victims of the "psycho vet" were usually his fellow Americans rather than the Vietnamese.[2] (B-movies that feature Vietnam veterans with an emphasis on action, violence, and revenge, belong into the exploitation subgenre called "vetsploitation."[3]) A more popular stereotype was the "wounded veteran”, a veteran who was always psychologically and sometimes physically traumatized by the war.[2] The character of Nick Chevotarevich in The Deer Hunter, a once promising young man who as a result of his war experiences is reduced to obsessively and hopelessly playing Russian roulette for the amusement of sadistic Vietnamese gamblers in Saigon, despite the manifest dangers to himself, is one of the best known examples of the "wounded vet" stereotype.[4] Chevotarevich was drafted into the Army in 1968 and throughout the film is portrayed as a victim, a man who was just incapable of overcoming the damage done to his soul by the war.[5] Another example of the "wounded vet" archetype was the embittered and paralyzed veteran Luke Martin in the 1978 film Coming Home, whose suffering is redeemed by his winning the love of a good woman, Sally Hyde, the wife of a Marine.[5] The British scholar Eben Muse noted in contrast to Luke, Sally's husband, Bob Hyde, is portrayed as a killer who enjoys the war and commits suicide after the war ends, suggesting veterans "...may either be an innocent or a killer, but not both.”[5]

Another stereotype was that of "the innocent,” which portrayed the war as a sort of ghastly coming-of-age ritual for young American men who, provided that they survived, became real men.[6] An example of the "innocent" stereotype is the character of Chris in the 1986 film Platoon. [5] Chris is a naïve and innocent young man who joins the Army in 1967 out of a sense of patrotism.[5] At the beginning of the film, Chris can barely take care of himself; by the end of the film, Chris is no longer an innocent, and has become a man.[5] Although Chris has lost his innocence, the film suggests that this is a necessary part of growing up to become a man.[6] Another example of the "innocent" stereotype was in the 1987 film Full Metal Jacket, where a young man, J.T. Davis, aka "Joker," joins the Marine Corps in 1966.[5] The first half of the film concerns training at Parris island, where an inept and overweight trainee, Leonard Lawrence, is brutally bullied, humiliated and hazed until he snaps, murders the drill sergeant, and then commits suicide.[5] The second half of the film is set in the Battle of Hue in 1968, where the Marines fight to retake Hue, and the film climaxes with an extended scene where an unseen Viet Cong sniper kills a number of men in the Marine squad Joker is attached to.[5] The film ends with Joker coldly executing the sniper, a badly wounded woman who begs for mercy.[5] Joker in his closing narration notes that he has finally become a Marine and hence a man. Muse noted that both stories in Full Metal Jacket that made up Joker's quest were full of repulsive elements and imagery, but argued the film justifies the brutality of these stories.[5] Lawrence, bearing a "disgusting fatboy” label, "clearly needed some sense beaten into him,” even if the methods employed against him were excessive, while the female Viet Cong sniper had just killed a number of men in Joker's squad and her execution might be seen as a mercy killing as she was unlikely to survive her wounds.[5]

Another stereotype was that of the "warrior" who finds his purpose in the Vietnam war despite all of its dangers and horrors.[7] The films featuring the "warrior" tended to be set in what Muse called the "land of Nam,” a "romance wasteland" portrayed in the films that was different from the real country of Vietnam.[8] Muse wrote: "These movies portray the Land of Nam as a cruel, brutal landscape, littered with mutilated bodies and booby-traps, a place where even the women are rigged with explosives. It is a land in which no limits are placed upon aggression or violence unless by the individual soldier... In the Land of Nam, the soldier can learn to control his base nature, gain the "innocence that changes"; but, he can fail to do so and become another Lieutenant Calley. The Land of Nam is a proving ground for the masculine self."[7] Muse wrote that the films set in the "land of Nam" were not really about the Vietnam war per se, but rather were about struggles to define American masculinity with the Vietnam war just providing an exotic settling for these tests of masculinity."[9] Because the Vietnam war was a lost war for the United States, the war is remembered in America as an especially awful conflict where the sufferings and losses were not redeemed by victory in the end as was the case with World War Two.

In the 1980s, a popular genre of Vietnam-related films was revenge fantasies that featured a Vietnam veteran or veterans returning to Vietnam to vanquish the Vietnamese, of which the most popular was the 1985 film Rambo: First Blood Part II.[10] The American historian John Hellman noted that such revenge fantasies were an American version of the stab-in-the-back myth (that Germany actually won World War I, but was "stabbed in the back" in 1918), minus the anti-Semitism of the original myth.[10] In Rambo, brave soldiers such as the fictional character John Rambo were portrayed as more than capable of winning the war as Rambo is portrayed as killing hundreds of Vietnamese single-handedly and also takes out an entire Soviet Spetsnaz squad, but were "stabbed in the back" by spineless politicians who were incapable of standing up to an alleged leftist-dominated and "anti-American" media.[10] Although Rambo is set in 1985, the film's message is that the Vietnam war was a war that the United States could, should and would have won had it not been for the "stab-in-the-back" by American leftists.[10] Reinforcing the film's pro-war message is the portrayal of the relationship between the Soviet characters and the Vietnamese characters as the latter are portrayed as clearly subordinate to the former, suggesting that Communist Vietnam is a sort of Soviet colony, and the claim made during the war that the North Vietnamese were just Soviet puppets was indeed correct.[11] At one point in the film, a character says that Vietnam is "hell", but that this "hell" is "home" to Rambo.[7] Muse noted that the connection made in the film between masculinity and militarism as Rambo's efficiency as a soldier marks him out as an especially noble example of American masculinity who flourishes in the "hell" that is Vietnam.[11]

The American scholar Gina Marchetti noted a tendency for American films and television when dealing with the Bụi đời children to "annihilate the mothers". Marchetti wrote in nearly all American productions, the Vietnamese mothers of these children are either dead or ended up dying while the exclusive responsibility of raising these children falls upon their American fathers, who were almost always white men.[12] Marchetti wrote that "... these narratives allow their American heroes another opportunity to fight the Vietnam war and win this time, by staking a patriarchal blood claim to Vietnam's children. The absorption of the Amerasian children of war into America argues against any residual charge of American racism, cruelty or heartlessness".[13] Marchetti wrote that the domestic dramas dealing with the war's aftermath often used the story of the "boat people", the mainly ethnic Chinese refugees who fled Vietnam following the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese war, which led to a violent anti-Chinese mood in Vietnam, as a way of proving the justice of the Vietnam war.[14] In Vietnam, like all of the other nations of Southeast Asia, the huaren (ethnic Chinese) made up a disproportionate number of the middle-class people, and were widely disliked for their success in business and the professions. When Vietnam's ancient archenemy China invaded in February 1979, anti-Chinese feelings in Vietnam boiled over, leading to the mass exodus of Vietnam's huaren who fled across the South China Sea in makeshift boats, hence the term "boat people."

The picture presented of the "boat people" in American films was of grateful refugees coming to live the American Dream.[15] Marchetti wrote: "However, these dramas do not deal with the real problems of the Indochinese diaspora...Ironically, these stories do not use the Vietnamese refugee as a central protagonist. Rather, the American "white knight" war veteran, victimized by some unspeakable angst, linked to his involvement in the war, becomes the central hero of the tale."[15] Marchetti wrote that these narratives, by focusing on doomed interracial romances between the American "white knight" and Vietnamese women, served to both justify the war and to present the problems of the war's legacy as being more solvable as these stories almost end with the Bụi đời children coming to America to live a better life.[16]

In the 1985 film The Lady from Yesterday, the protagonist is not the Vietnamese refugee of the film's title, but rather her former American lover, Craig Weston, a Vietnam veteran turned wealthy executive.[17] Craig is married to the daughter of his overbearing boss, Jim, who bullies him and is portrayed as having borderline incestuous feelings for his daughter.[18] In contrast to Craig's controlling wife, Janet, Craig's Vietnamese lover Lien who has arrived in Texas as a boat person refugee together with her son by Craig, is portrayed as the "Lotus Blossom" archetype, namely the submissive, frail, docile and highly eroticized Asian beauty.[19] With Lien's encouragement, Craig becomes the warrior he was once was in Vietnam and he learns to stand up to both wife and his father-in-law.[20] Although the film strongly suggests that Craig might actually be happier with Lien rather than with Janet, in the end, Lien conveniently dies, allowing Craig to go back to his white wife who adopts Craig's son by Lien.[21] Marchetti described The Lady From Yesterday as a modern reworking of Madame Butterfly, where a white man has a passionate romance with a Lotus Blossom character, who dies in order to allow him to marry or stay married to a white woman.[22]

## Theatrical films about the Vietnam War

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Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1964  | US  | A Yank in Viet-Nam | Marshall Thompson | A USMC pilot is shot down, but meets a female guerrilla; filmed in South Vietnam.
1966  | To the Shores of Hell | Will Zens | A USMC officer leads a rescue attempt of his brother who is held prisoner by the Viet Cong.
1968  | The Green Berets | John Wayne,
Ray Kellogg | A tribute to U.S. Special Forces, starring John Wayne, filmed mostly in Georgia.[23]
1970  | The Losers | Jack Starrett | An American motorcycle gang is recruited for a mission into Cambodia.
West Germany  | o.k. | Michael Verhoeven | Based on the Incident on Hill 192. An American patrol torture and kill a Vietnamese girl.
1971  | South Vietnam  | Người tình không chân dung | Hoàng Vĩnh Lộc
Chân trời tím (phim) | Lê Hoàng Hoa
1972  | Người cô đơn | Hoàng Thi Thơ
US  | The Visitors | Elia Kazan | A story of a Vietnam War veteran who is confronted by two other members of his platoon.
North Vietnam  | Vĩ tuyến 17 ngày và đêm | Hải Ninh | Life of Vietnamese living on both sides of the 17th parallel that splits Vietnam into North and South.
1973  | South Vietnam  | Chiếc bóng bên đường | Nguyễn Văn Tường |
1974  | Đất khổ | Ha Thuc Can | The Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive in 1968.
US  | There Is No 13 | William Sachs | Surrealist cinema based film involving a young Vietnam War soldier reminiscing about twelve love affairs with the cinematography ending before the subject of the thirteenth romance.
1975  | North Vietnam  | Girl from Hanoi | Hải Ninh | Operation Linebacker II.
1978  | Hong Kong, US  | The Boys in Company C | Sidney J. Furie | A group of Marines go through basic training and a tour of service in Vietnam in 1968.
US  | Go Tell the Spartans | Ted Post | US military advisers during the early part of the war (1964).
US, UK  | The Deer Hunter | Michael Cimino | Three friends from Pennsylvania go off to fight, and come back changed men.[23]
1978  | USA  | Coming Home | Hal Ashby | Jane Fonda who is married to a Marine officer fighting in Vietnam falls in love with a former high school classmate who suffered a paralyzing combat injury in Vietnam. Played by Jon Voight. See IMDB.
1979  | Australia  | The Odd Angry Shot | Tom Jeffrey | Follows a group of Australian soldiers in Vietnam.
Vietnam  | The Abandoned Field: Free Fire Zone (Cánh đồng hoang) | Nguyễn Hồng Sến | An "unnerving and compelling... subjective-camera-eye-view" of life under helicopter fire in the Mekong Delta. The film cuts to an (American) "helicopter-eye view", contrasting painfully with the human tenderness seen earlier.[24]
US  | Apocalypse Now | Francis Ford Coppola | A special forces officer is called in to locate and kill a rogue colonel[23] in a retelling of Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
1980  | Italy  | The Last Hunter | Antonio Margheriti | Set in 1973, a US officer goes on a dangerous mission behind enemy lines to blow up an enemy propaganda radio station.
1981  | UK  | How Sleep the Brave | Lyndon James Swift | A group of new soldiers go on a mission in the jungle.
1982  | US  | Don't Cry, It's Only Thunder | Peter Werner | An Army medic in Saigon takes care of a group of Vietnamese orphans.
Vietnam  | Ván bài lật ngửa | Lê Hoàng Hoa  | Biopic of the North Vietnamese spy Pham Ngoc Thao.
Con thú tật nguyền | Hồ Quang Minh  |
1983  | US  | Streamers | Robert Altman | Four soldiers awaiting deployment to Vietnam.
1984  | Birdy | Alan Parker | The friendship between two teenage boys, Birdy (Matthew Modine) and Al (Nicolas Cage), and their traumatic experiences upon serving in the war.
Purple Hearts | Sidney J. Furie | Love story between a surgeon (Ken Wahl) and a nurse (Cheryl Ladd) who are serving in the U.S. Navy during the war.
1985  | Vietnam, USSR  | Coordinates of Death[25]
(a.k.a. Target for Death)  | Samvel Gasparov,
Suan Tian Nguyen | Stranded Soviet sailors witness American war brutality.
US  | Missing in Action 2: The Beginning | Lance Hool  | U.S. POW breaks out of Vietnamese prison camp.
1986  | Platoon | Oliver Stone | A new recruit's service in a platoon of soldiers patrolling the Cambodian border.[23]
1987  | US, Philippines  | Eye of the Eagle | Cirio H. Santiago | U.S. officer hunts down rogue G.I.s.
US  | Gardens of Stone | Francis Ford Coppola | Set in 1968–1969, James Caan plays the frustrated sergeant in charge of the Arlington National Cemetery ceremonial guard.
UK, US  | Full Metal Jacket | Stanley Kubrick | Battle of Hue
Tet Offensive[23]
US  | Hamburger Hill | John Irvin | Battle of Hamburger Hill in the Ashau Valley.[23]
Good Morning, Vietnam | Barry Levinson | Loosely based on the experiences of AFRS radio DJ Adrian Cronauer.
1988  | Off Limits | Christopher Crowe | Two US Criminal Investigation Command agents investigate murders of Vietnamese prostitutes by high-ranking US officers.
Platoon Leader | Aaron Norris  | An inexperienced officer learns the ropes of fighting in Vietnam.
Bat*21 | Peter Markle | Lt. Col. Iceal Hambleton's experience of survival while MIA.
1969 | Ernest Thompson | The film deals with the Vietnam War and the resulting social tensions between those who support and oppose the war in small-town America.
1989  | The Iron Triangle | Eric Weston | Viet Cong soldier protects captured GI who spared his life.
US, Philippines  | The Siege of Firebase Gloria | Brian Trenchard-Smith | Marines defend a firebase during the Tet offensive.
US  | 84C MoPic | Patrick Sheane Duncan | Found footage-style mockumentary follows a US Long-range reconnaissance patrol.
Philippines, US  | Eye of the Eagle 2: Inside the Enemy | Carl Franklin | US soldier goes to rescue Vietnamese girlfriend who has been kidnapped by superior officer.
US  | The Expendables | Cirio H. Santiago | Commando trains a group of misfit soldiers for dangerous mission.
Casualties of War | Brian De Palma | The incident on Hill 192.[26]
Hong Kong  | A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon | Tsui Hark | A crime story involving the struggle of Chinese mobsters and their family trying to get back to Hong Kong during the fall of Saigon.
US  | Born on the Fourth of July | Oliver Stone  | Based on the experiences of Ron Kovic, who joined the Marines and was wounded and paralyzed in Vietnam. Upon his return to the US, he evolves into a significant activist against the war.[27]
1990  | Air America | Roger Spottiswoode | Air America pilots uncover U.S. plot to smuggle narcotics.
Hong Kong  | Bullet in the Head | John Woo | Hong Kong mobsters travel to Vietnam during the war to smuggle illegal goods. They get entangled with both sides in the war.
1991  | US  | Flight of the Intruder | John Milius | A-6 Intruder pilots go on an unauthorized mission to bomb targets in North Vietnam.
Dogfight | Nancy Savoca | Dogfight shows the last night of several marines in San Francisco, before they are sent to the Vietnam war. Only a short scene of the war itself is shown, where several of the Marines die. Later one marine gets back to San Francisco, where he realises that everything has changed, even the behaviour of the society towards the Marines.
For the Boys | Mark Rydell | Bette Midler and James Caan portray two USO artists who entertain the troops and experience turmoil.
1992  | South Korea  | White Badge | Chung Ji-young | Story of two South Koreans who served in Vietnam.
1993  | US, France  | Heaven & Earth | Oliver Stone  | Based on the experiences of Vietnamese civilian Le Ly Hayslip of the Vietnam war and its aftermath.
1994  | US  | Forrest Gump | Robert Zemeckis | Title character serves in Vietnam.
1995  | The Walking Dead | Preston A. Whitmore II | In the waning days of the war, a group of Marines are sent to rescue US POWs.
Operation Dumbo Drop | Simon Wincer | Green Berets bribe Vietnamese villagers with an elephant.
Dead Presidents | Albert Hughes | Loosely based experiences about the black veterans of Vietnam. Their experiences fighting an immoral war that wasn't their own and coming home to a country still teeming with economic inequality.
1998  | Puerto Rico  | Héroes de otra patria ("Heroes from Another Country")  | Iván Dariel Ortíz | Two Puerto Rican soldiers in action and their family back home.
2000  | US, Germany  | Tigerland | Joel Schumacher | US recruits go through basic training before going to Vietnam.
2002  | We Were Soldiers | Randall Wallace | Battle of Ia Drang.
2003  | Vietnam  | Hà Nội 12 ngày đêm | Bùi Đình Hạc | Operation Linebacker II.
South Korea  | The Classic | Kwak Jae-yong | A romantic movie set in 1968. Joon-ha joins the South Korean Army and goes to Vietnam.
2004  | R-Point | Kong Su-chang | South Korean unit is sent out to find missing platoon in this horror film.
2005  | Vietnam  | Liberate Saigon [vi] | Long Vân  | North Vietnam and Viet Cong's offensive during the fall of Saigon.
2008  | South Korea  | Sunny | Lee Joon-ik | Wife of South Korean serving in Vietnam takes job as singer to be near her husband.
Canada, US, Germany  | Tunnel Rats | Uwe Boll | U.S. "Tunnel rats" who go into Viet Cong tunnel complexes.
2009  | 21 and a Wake-Up | Chris McIntyre | The film focuses on real people McIntyre knew in the Marines, as well as experiences of Dr. Marvin Wayne, renowned and decorated physician at the 24th Evac in its final year.
2012  | Australia  | The Sapphires | Wayne Blair | The Sapphires is about four indigenous Australian women, Gail (role played by Deborah Mailman), Julie (Jessica Mauboy), Kay (Shari Sebbens) and Cynthia (Miranda Tapsell), who are discovered by a talent scout (Chris O'Dowd), and form a music group named The Sapphires, travelling to South Vietnam in 1968 to sing for troops during the war.
2013  | Japan  | Number Ten Blues | Norio Osada | Saigon in February 1975, during the final stage of the Vietnam War, there is another story of love and violence. Japanese businessman Sugimoto (role played by Yūsuke Kawazu) accidentally kills a Vietnamese man.
2014  | South Korea  | Ode to My Father | Yoon Je-kyoon | The main character and his best friend serve in the Vietnam War.
2015  | US  | Ride the Thunder | Fred Koster | The movie takes place during the Easter Offensive in 1972 and the aftermath of the Fall of Saigon in 1975 with the Vietnamese Communist camps. The protagonists are US Captain John Ripley and ARVN Lieutenant Colonel Le Ba Binh.
2017  | The Post | Steven Spielberg | Set in the early 1970s, The Post depicts the true story of attempts by journalists at the Washington Post to publish the Pentagon Papers, classified documents regarding the 30-year involvement of the United States government in the Vietnam War.
2019  | Australia  | Danger Close: The Battle of Long Tan | Kriv Stenders | Battle of Long Tan in August 1966.
US  | The Last Full Measure (2019 film) | Todd Robinson | The story follows the efforts of Pentagon staffer Scott Huffman and many veterans to see the Medal of Honor awarded to William H. Pitsenbarger, a United States Air Force Pararescueman, who flew in helicopter rescue missions during the Vietnam War, to aid downed soldiers and pilots.
2020  | Da 5 Bloods | Spike Lee | Follows four aging Vietnam War veterans who return to the country in search of the remains of their fallen squad leader.
2022  | The Greatest Beer Run Ever | Peter Farrelly | Marine Corps veteran goes to Vietnam to give his childhood friends a beer.

## Theatrical films about the Vietnam War POWs

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Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1987  | US  | The Hanoi Hilton | Lionel Chetwynd | Mistreatment of U.S. POWs in the Hỏa Lò Prison.
In Love and War
2006  | Rescue Dawn | Werner Herzog | Dieter Dengler's experience as a POW.

## Theatrical films about the anti-Vietnam War movement

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Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1969  | US  | Hail, Hero! | David Miller | A young man (Michael Douglas in his screen debut) is torn between joining the army or becoming a hippie.
1979  | Hair | Miloš Forman | Film adaptation of the 1968 Broadway musical of the same name about a Vietnam war draftee who meets and befriends a tribe of long-haired hippies on his way to the army induction center.
1980  | Return of the Secaucus 7 | John Sayles | Reunion of anti-war protesters.
2007  | Across the Universe | Julie Taymor | The main character's best friend is drafted to fight in the war.
2020  | The Trial of the Chicago 7 | Aaron Sorkin | Follows the Chicago Seven, a group of anti–Vietnam War protesters charged with the intention of inciting riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.

## Theatrical films about Vietnam War veterans

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Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1965  | US  | Motorpsycho | Russ Meyer | A US motorcycle gang is led by a disturbed veteran.
1967  | The Born Losers | Tom Laughlin | A Vietnam veteran protects a woman who has been assaulted by an outlaw biker gang.
1968  | Targets | Peter Bogdanovich | A disturbed Vietnam veteran goes on a sniper shooting spree after killing his wife and mother.[28]
1971  | Billy Jack | Tom Laughlin | A Vietnam veteran defends the hippie-themed Freedom School against corrupt local officials. Sequel to The Born Losers.
1972  | The Visitors | Elia Kazan | Vietnam veterans confront each other over war crime.[29]
Welcome Home Soldier Boys | Richard Compton | Four Vietnam veterans embark on a road trip to California and are killed in a Vietnam War-recreated battle with National Guardsmen.[30]
1973  | Forced Entry | Shaun Costello | An unnamed and psychotic Vietnam War veteran who returns from the Vietnam War sexually assaults and kills random women who stop at the filling station where he works as a gas station attendant.
1974  | Canada  | Deathdream | Bob Clark | War veteran returns home as a living corpse.[31]
US  | The Trial of Billy Jack | Tom Laughlin | Follows the story of Billy Jack and the Freedom School during and after his prison stint, culminating in a scene reminiscent of the Kent State shootings. Sequel to The Born Losers and Billy Jack.
1976  | Taxi Driver | Martin Scorsese | A mentally disturbed Vietnam veteran comes to New York City after the war, and gets a job driving taxicabs due to insomnia. He is unable to fit into society, displays obsessive behavior, and is driven to violence.
The Zebra Force | Joe Tornatore  | The film is about a group of Vietnam War veterans who declare war on Los Angeles drug dealers and the Mafia.
1977  | Heroes | Jeremy Kagan | Amnesiac Vietnam veteran seeks out former comrades.
Rolling Thunder | John Flynn | A returning Vietnam veteran loses his family to a violent home invasion, and decides to seek and retaliate against those responsible.
Billy Jack Goes to Washington | Tom Laughlin | In the fourth film of the Billy Jack series, the title character is appointed to the U.S. Senate, where he wages war on corruption.
1978  | Coming Home | Hal Ashby | Homecoming of a Vietnam veteran.
Big Wednesday | John Milius | 3 surfer friends face the draft in 1965, one serves in Vietnam and they reunite in the early 1970s.
1980  | The Exterminator | James Glickenhaus | Vietnam veteran turns vigilante.
The Stunt Man | Richard Rush | Vietnam veteran stumbles on a movie set and takes a job as a stunt man to hide out from police.
1982  | First Blood | Ted Kotcheff | John Rambo, a highly decorated special forces veteran traumatized by his experiences as a prisoner of war, goes on a rampage in a northwestern U.S. town against law enforcement officers who push him too far.
1983  | Americana | David Carradine | A down on his luck, former Green Beret captain, freshly discharged from the Vietnam War, drifts into Drury, Kansas.
1985  | Alamo Bay | Alamo Bay is a 1985 drama film about a Vietnam veteran who clashes with Vietnamese immigrants who move to his fictitious Texas bay hometown.
1986  | Combat Shock | Buddy Giovinazzo | Vietnam veteran goes insane.
1987  | Hong Kong  | Eastern Condors | Sammo Hung | Lieutenant Colonel Lam is an American army officer given a top-secret mission by the US military. The mission entails entering Vietnam to destroy an old American bunker filled with missiles before the Viet Cong can get to them.
1988  | US  | Braddock: Missing in Action III | Aaron Norris | Vietnam vet goes back to Vietnam to rescue left behind wife and child.
Above the Law | Andrew Davis | The main character was recruited into the CIA by Special Agent Nelson Fox and was involved in covert operations on the Vietnamese-Cambodian border during the Vietnam War.
1989  | Jacknife | David Jones | Vietnam veterans have trouble adjusting to civilian life.
In Country | Norman Jewison | Daughter of deceased Vietnam vet explores her father's past through her uncle, also a vet.
1990  | Jacob's Ladder | Adrian Lyne | Vietnam vet is haunted by his past.
1991  | McBain | James Glickenhaus | Vietnam veterans reunite to depose a Colombian dictator.
1992  | Universal Soldier | Roland Emmerich | The film tells the story of Luc Deveraux, a former U.S. Army soldier who was killed in the Vietnam War in 1969, and returned to life following a secret military project called the "Universal Soldier" program.
1994  | The War | Jon Avnet | A returned Vietnam Veteran struggles to find work and re-establish himself back home.
2001  | Spy Game | Tony Scott |
2007  | American Gangster | Ridley Scott | The film is fictionally based on the criminal career of Frank Lucas, a gangster from La Grange, North Carolina who smuggled heroin into the United States on American service planes returning from the Vietnam War, before being detained by a task force led by detective Richie Roberts.
2009  | Watchmen | Zack Snyder | Some characters are Vietnam War veterans.
X-Men Origins: Wolverine | Gavin Hood | The main character is a Vietnam War veteran.
2014  | South Korea  | Obsessed | Kim Dae-woo  | Erotic romance film written and directed by Kim Dae-woo, about a couple having a passionate affair in a military camp under tight surveillance in 1969.
2017  | US  | Last Flag Flying | Richard Linklater | Spiritual sequel to The Last Detail following a group of Vietnam veterans attending the funeral of one of their sons who died in Iraq.
Kong: Skull Island | Jordan Vogt-Roberts | An expedition to Skull Island was made by a US recon team, to explore the odd island.
The Foreigner | Martin Campbell | Ngoc Minh Quan, a former Chinese Vietnam War US special forces operator turned London restaurateur, who looks for revenge after his daughter is killed in a bombing.

## Theatrical films about Vietnam War MIAs

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1978  | US  | Good Guys Wear Black | Ted Post | Former CIA assassin battles duplicitous US government official.
1983  | Uncommon Valor | Ted Kotcheff  | Father organizes a group of Vietnam veterans to go back and rescue his son who is secretly held prisoner in Laos.
1984  | Missing in Action | Joseph Zito | Vietnam veteran goes back to Vietnam to free secretly held POWs.
1985  | Rambo: First Blood Part II | George P. Cosmatos

## Theatrical films about the Indochina refugee crisis

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1981  | Hong Kong  | The Story of Woo Viet | Ann Hui | The story centers on the character Woo Viet, who wants to leave his country Vietnam behind and start over in the United States.
1982  | Boat People | The Fall of Saigon and its aftermath.
1984  | UK  | The Killing Fields | Roland Joffé | A biographical drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg.
1985  | US  | Alamo Bay | Louis Malle | A drama film about a Vietnam veteran who clashes with Vietnamese immigrants who move to his fictitious Texas bay hometown. A despondent Vietnam veteran in danger of losing his livelihood is pushed to the edge when he sees Vietnamese immigrants moving into the fishing industry in a Texas bay town. He teams up with other fishermen and the KKK to terrorize the Vietnamese fishermen in a campaign of violence and intimidation based on true historical events that took place in Texas in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
1992  | Australia  | Turtle Beach | Stephen Wallace | Judith, an Australian photojournalist (role played by Greta Scacchi), leaves her family to cover the story of Vietnamese boat people in a Malaysian refugee camp. There she befriends Minou, a Vietnamese streetwalker (Joan Chen), who has married a diplomat and together they try to bring awareness to the terrible conditions suffered by the people there.
2001  | US  | Green Dragon | Timothy Linh Bui | The experiences of Vietnamese refugees in the United States, immediately following the end of the war.
2004  | The Beautiful Country | Hans Petter Moland | A Vietnamese boy (Damien Nguyen) goes to the US to search for his father, an American ex-soldier.
2005  | Vietnam  | Sống trong sợ hãi (Living in Fear)  | Bùi Thạc Chuyên | A Vietnamese farmer is supporting two families after the end of the war – one in the north, which he abandoned after fleeing during the war, and his new family in the south. To get enough money he sets on to re-cultivate a field full of mines. His life and psyche is changing while he removes each mine by himself.
2007  | US  | Journey from the Fall | Ham Tran | Vietnamese experience of post-war re-education camps and life as refugees.
2009  | Australia  | Mother Fish | Khoa Do | Mother Fish, also known as Missing Water, is a feature film written, produced and directed by Khoa Do. The film draws largely from Khoa Do's own experiences as a Vietnamese refugee, and reflects on the perceived fear in the general population generated by 'boat people' which is prevalent in Australian politics and discourse. Mother Fish follows the story of a middle-aged Vietnamese woman (role played by Hyen Nguyen) working in a suburban sweatshop. In the evening when the workers have left, she is transported back to the night she and her sister (Sheena Pham) fled her homeland, led by an uncle promising to reunite them with their father. Through the setting of the sweatshop, the woman remembers the journey. The boat is unprepared for the ocean crossing, as are they. Food and water supplies are low, their engine breaks, and the threat of rape and death at the hands of South-sea pirates is real. Through the woman's memory the audience relives the experience of crossing the ocean in search of a better life.
2014  | France, Belgium, Cambodia  | The Gate | Régis Wargnier | Based on the books by François Bizot.
2012  | Israel, US  | Foreign Letters | Ela Thier | The movie involves Ellie, a 12-year-old immigrant girl from Israel, and her family after moving into the United States in 1982. At first, she experiences all kinds of difficulties, but then she meets Thuy, a Vietnamese refugee her age, bringing a changing point as the movie progresses. Its themes include the immigrant experience, learning English, dealing with prejudice, sharing secrets, opening to other cultures, and creatively handling conflict in friendships.
2017  | Cambodia, US  | First They Killed My Father | Angelina Jolie | A Khmer biographical historical thriller film written by Angelina Jolie and Loung Ung, based on Ung's memoir of the same name. Set in 1975, the film depicts 7-year-old Ung, who is forced to be trained as a child soldier while her siblings are sent to labor camps, during the Communist Khmer Rouge regime.

## Television films about the Vietnam War

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1967  | US  | Wings of Fire | David Lowell Rich | Doug Sanborn (role played by Ralph Bellamy) runs a small charter company based at a regional airport. His daughter, Kitty (Suzanne Pleshette), a young female pilot wants to be in the Unlimited class at the air races but her male friends stymie her ambitions. Her former boyfriend Taff Malloy (James Farentino) has recently come back from the US Navy and a stint as a pilot in Vietnam.
1979  | When Hell Was in Session | Paul Krasny | In 1965, Navy Commander Jeremiah Denton's jet is shot down over North Vietnam and he is captured by the enemy who holds him in various brutal POW camps for more than seven years.
1980  | A Rumor of War | Richard T. Heffron | Dramatization of Philip Caputo's autobiographical book on his service in Vietnam and his growing disillusionment with the war.
1998  | A Bright Shining Lie | Terry George | Experiences of U.S. Lt. Col. John Paul Vann, military adviser to the South Vietnamese. Based on the book by the same name by Neil Sheehan.
2002  | Path to War | John Frankenheimer | The Vietnam War as seen through the eyes of U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his cabinet members.
2005  | Faith of My Fathers | Peter Markle | Experiences of US Navy Lieutenant Commander John McCain (later senator) as a POW. Based on the memoir of the same name.
2016  | All the Way | Jay Roach | Biographical drama film based on events of the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson.

## Television films about Vietnam War veterans

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1969  | US  | The Ballad of Andy Crocker | George McCowan | Begins with a Vietnam firefight and then deals with a veteran's readjustment problems.
1979  | Friendly Fire | David Greene | Based on actual events explores the questionable death of a Vietnam PFC and families quest seeking the truth about shrapnel affliction.
1985  | Canada, US  | The Park Is Mine | Steven Hilliard Stern | A Vietnam vet takes forceful control of Central Park to remember those who served and died in the Vietnam War.
2001  | Under Heavy Fire | Sidney J. Furie  | Reunited veterans visit Vietnam 25 years after the war, flashbacks to their battles.
2003  | US  | Word of Honor | Robert Markowitz | A former army officer is charged with war crimes allegedly committed by his unit in Vietnam.
2006  | US, Canada  | The Veteran | Sidney J. Furie  | Vietnam veteran and state senator returns to Vietnam 30 years after the war, and is secretly probed for information on missing soldier.

## Documentary films

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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1965  | Canada  | The Mills of the Gods: Viet Nam | Beryl Fox | Various scenes from the war, appearance by Bernard B. Fall.
1967  | France  | The Anderson Platoon | Pierre Schoendoerffer | Follows a deployed US infantry platoon in Vietnam.
Far from Vietnam | Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker and Alain Resnais |
1968  | US  | A Face of War | Eugene S. Jones | Day-to-day activities of active duty Marines.
1969  | In the Year of the Pig | Emile de Antonio | History of the war.
1970  | Street Scenes 1970 | Martin Scorsese | Follows two demonstrations against the war, interviews with participants and bystanders.
The World of Charlie Company | John Laurence | Follows US troops of Charlie Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, of the 1st Cavalry Division.
1971  | Vietnam! Vietnam! | Sherman Beck  | A United States Information Agency film, narrated by Charlton Heston, was shot on location in Vietnam in October–December 1968, but not released until 1971.
1972  | East Germany  | Remington Cal. 12 | Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann | Mixing Remington Arms publicity and appropriated scenes of The Green Berets, it explains how American troop modified Remington caliber 12 ammunition into "tiny, flesh-tearing aluminum missiles that cannot be detected by X-rays".[32]
US  | Winter Soldier |  | Follows the Winter Soldier Investigation.
1974  | Hearts and Minds | Peter Davis | Interviews with Americans and Vietnamese.
1976  | East Germany  | Der Teufelsinsel | Walter Heynowski, Gerhard Scheumann | Interviews with former prisoner Le Quang Vinh about the South Vietnamese Co Son prison.[32]
Eintritt kostenlos | A tour of the Vietnam War Museum in Hanoi.[32]
1977  | Der erste Reis danach | Links between former German Nazis and anti-Nazis and the Vietnam war.[32]
Die eiserne Festung[32] |
Ich bereue aufrichtig[32] | Through the South Vietnamese commander Lam Van Phat and his North Vietnamese sister, captain Lam Thi Phan, the film reflects on the possibility of re-educating enemies.
1979  | Am Wassergraben[32] |
US  | The War at Home | Glenn Silber, Barry Alexander Brown | About the anti-Vietnam war movement in the Madison, Wisconsin area.
UK  | Year Zero: The Silent Death of Cambodia | David Munro | The war in Cambodia and its aftermath under the rule of the Khmer Rouge.
1980  | Canada  | Vietnam: The Ten Thousand Day War
(TV miniseries)  | Michael Maclear
(producer)  | History of the conflict from the First Indochina War to the Fall of Saigon.
1982  | US  | The Uncounted Enemy | George Crile III
(producer)  | The film alleges that general William Westmoreland presented false numbers of enemy combatants to the US public.
1983  | Vietnam: A Television History
(TV miniseries)  |  | Based on Karnow's book Vietnam: A History.
1987  | Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam | Bill Couturié | Based on letters from US soldiers serving in Vietnam.
1989  | UK  | Four Hours in My Lai
(Yorkshire Television documentary)  |  | My Lai Massacre.
1990  | US  | Berkeley in the Sixties | Mark Kitchell  | Anti-war protesters at Berkeley University.
1995  | UK  | Vietnam: The Last Battle | David Munro  | Review of the history of Vietnam of the two decades since the end of the war.
1997  | Germany, UK, France  | Little Dieter Needs to Fly | Werner Herzog | Documents Dieter Dengler's experience as a POW in North Vietnam, and his escape.
1998  | US  | Regret to Inform | Barbara Sonneborn  | The director, a US war widow, goes to Vietnam to explore the loss of her husband.
1999  | Vietnam  | The Sound of the Violin in My Lai (Tiếng vỹ cầm ở Mỹ Lai)  | Tran Van Thuy | My Lai Massacre
2001  | The Netherlands  | First Kill | Coco Schrijber  | The psychology of war is explored through interviews with Vietnam veterans.
US  | Unfinished Symphony: Democracy and Dissent | Bestor Cram, Mike Majoros  | Follows a three-day protest against the war in Lexington, Massachusetts over Memorial Day weekend in 1971, staged by newly returned war veterans.
Investigation of a Flame | Lynne Sachs | Story of the Catonsville Nine, Catholic activists who burned draft files in 1968 to protest against the war.
2002  | Daughter from Danang | Gail Dolgin, Vicente Franco  | US woman, daughter of US soldier and Vietnamese woman goes to Vietnam to meet her biological relatives.
2003  | The Fog of War | Errol Morris | Interview with Robert S. McNamara, US Secretary of Defense during the war.
2004  | In the Shadow of the Blade | Patrick Fries,
Cheryl Fries | Huey helicopter on cross-US tour reunites veterans and veterans' relatives.
Stolen Honor | Carlton Sherwood | The film connects the testimony of John Kerry with increased mistreatment of US POWs.
Going Upriver | George Butler | U.S. Senator John Kerry's military service and his subsequent participation in the anti-war movement.
2005  | France  | Enemy Image | Mark Daniels  | Examines the impact of televised war reporting, starting with the relatively unrestricted reporting during the Vietnam War.
US  | Sir! No Sir! | David Zeiger | Anti-war sentiments within the US armed forces.
2006  | Australia  | The Battle of Long Tan | Damien Lay | During the Battle of Long Tan, 108 young and mostly inexperienced Australian and New Zealand soldiers fight for survival against an overwhelming enemy force of 2,500.
2007  | US  | The Camden 28 | Anthony Giacchino | Follows twenty-eight members of the Catholic Left who were arrested in 1971, for attempting to break into and vandalize a draft board.
Bomb Harvest | Kim Mordaunt  | Aftermath of the bombing of Laos during the war, the problem of large amounts of Unexploded Ordnance in the country.
2008  | Between the Lines | Scott Bass, Ty Ponder  | The impact of the war on US surfing culture.
2009  | The Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers | Judith Ehrlich, Rick Goldsmith  | About Daniel Ellsberg and his leaking of the Pentagon Papers, a secret US government history of the war.
2011  | Vietnam in HD
(TV miniseries)  | Sammy Jackson  | Better known as the "Vietnam Lost Films" is a six part documentary of thirteen Americans confronting their experience of war in Vietnam.
2012  | Into Harm's Way | Jordan Kronick  | West Point Class of 1967 and their experiences during college and in the Vietnam War.
2014  | Last Days in Vietnam | Rory Kennedy | About the evacuation of American and South Vietnamese citizens.
2017  | The Vietnam War | Ken Burns and Lynn Novick | History of the war from the anti-colonial struggle against the French to the exit of the Americans in 1973.
2023  | The Movement and the "Madman" | Stephen Talbot | Anti-war protests in 1969 cause Nixon to cancel his "madman" strategy for a massive escalation of the war.[33]

## Documentary TV series

[edit]

Year | Country | Title | Director | Events depicted

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|
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1968  | East Germany  | Pilots in Pajamas | Walter Heynowski [de]
Gerhard Scheumann [de] | Interviews with American pilots in the "Hanoi Hilton" North Vietnam prisoner camp.[32]

## See also

[edit]

* Category:Vietnam War films
* List of Vietnam War games

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ a b Vietnam War: American Cinema After the War, Film Reference, retrieved 2009-03-18
2. ^ a b c Muse 1993, p. 88.
3. ^ Kern, Louis J. (1988). "MIAs, Myth, and Macho Magic: Post-Apocalyptic Cinematic Visions of Vietnam". In Searle, William J. (ed.). Search and Clear: Critical Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War. Bowling Green State University Popular Press. pp. 43, 51. ISBN 0-87972-429-3. "The Avenger Vet evolved in the context of the wave of exploitation films produced in the latter half of the 1960s and the early 1970s, that although coterminous with the course of the war, were part of the phenomenon of psychic denial and collective amnesia about Vietnam that characterized American consciousness during that era. These films might most properly be called "Vetsploitation"5 films. Like the network television shows about the era, they were not directly about the war, but instead focused on returning servicemen "as freaked out [losers] who replayed the Vietnam war by committing violence against others or themselves. Vets were time bombs waiting to go off, a new genre of bogeymen (Gibson 3). Note 5, p. 51: They existed side by side with Blaxploitation, Femsploitation, and Teensploitation films in the world of "B" cinema."
4. ^ Muse 1993, p. 88-89.
5. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Muse 1993, p. 89.
6. ^ a b Muse 1993, p. 89-90.
7. ^ a b c Muse 1993, p. 91.
8. ^ Muse 1993, p. 90.
9. ^ Muse 1993, p. 90-91.
10. ^ a b c d Hellmann 1991, p. 140.
11. ^ a b Muse 1993, p. 91-92.
12. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 100-101.
13. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 100.
14. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 101.
15. ^ a b Marchetti 1994, p. 101-102.
16. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 102.
17. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 102-103.
18. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 104-107.
19. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 105.
20. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 107.
21. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 106-108.
22. ^ Marchetti 1994, p. 103.
23. ^ a b c d e f Neale, Stephen (2000). "War Films". Genre and Hollywood. Psychology Press. pp. 121–124\. ISBN 978-0-415-02606-2.
24. ^ "The Abandoned Field-Free Fire Zone (Canh dong hoang)". University of California, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 10 March 2015.
25. ^ IMDb, plus RUSCICO DVD, 2000, ALL region, with menu and subtitles in English, French; subtitles only in German, Spanish, and Italian.
26. ^ Clarke, 2006. pp. 193–202
27. ^ Clarke, 2006. pp. 181–192
28. ^ Devine, 1995. p. 37
29. ^ Devine, 1995. pp. 87–88
30. ^ Devine, 1995. pp. 84–85
31. ^ Devine, 1995. p. 89
32. ^ a b c d e f g h Alter, Nora M. (1996). "Excessive Pre/Requisites: Vietnam Through the East German Lens". Cultural Critique (35): 39–79\. doi:10.2307/1354571. JSTOR 1354571.
33. ^ "The Movement and the "Madman" | American Experience". PBS.

## References

[edit]

* Clarke, James (2006). War Films. Virgin Books. ISBN 978-0-753-51094-0.
* Devine, Jeremy M. (1995). Vietnam at 24 Frames a Second A Critical and Thematic Analysis of Over 400 Films About the Vietnam War. McFarland & Company, Inc. ISBN 0-89950-848-0.
* Hellmann, John (1991). Micahel Anderegg (ed.). Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television. Temple University Press. pp. 140–152.
* Marchetti, Gina (1994). Romance and the "Yellow Peril" Race, Sex, and Discursive Strategies in Hollywood Fiction. Los Angeles: University of California Press. ISBN 9780520084957.
* Muse, Eben J (April 1993). "From Lt. Calley to John Rambo: Repatriating the Vietnam War". Journal of American Studies. 27 (1): 88–92\. doi:10.1017/S0021875800032692. S2CID 143715980.

## Further reading

[edit]

* Dittmar, Linda; Michaud, Gene (1990). From Hanoi to Hollywood: the Vietnam War in American film. Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0-8135-1586-6.
* Anderegg, Michael A. (1991). Inventing Vietnam: The War in Film and Television. Temple University Press. ISBN 0-87722-861-2.
* Hixon, Walter (2000). Historical memory and representations of the Vietnam War. Garland Publishing. ISBN 0-8153-3536-9.
* Taylor, Mark (2003). The Vietnam War in History, Literature, and Film. University of Alabama Press. ISBN 0-8173-1401-6.
* Raimondi, Antonio; Raimondi, Rocco (2021). The Vietnam War Movies. Amazon Digital Services LLC - Kdp. ISBN 979-8590065837.

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*[Coordinates of Death]: (Russ.) Координаты смерти (Koordinaty smerti) / (Viet.) Tọa độ chết