Formal Film Studies

I chose to watch three post Vietnam war films that essentially protested the war. The films I viewed were Apocalypse Now (1979), The Deer Hunter (1978), and Combat Shock (1984). My main discovery after analyzing is that symbolism, style, and cinematography make these war films great.

Apocalypse Now was written and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. The film follows Captain Willard, played by Martin Sheen, who is sent on a mission to find and kill Col. Kurtz. This film depicts Vietnam war as a downward spiral to madness. The movie was nominated for eight Academy Awards and won two Oscars for sound and cinematography. The movie starts off with a high angle shot of an island, as if the viewer was flying over it, and then proceeds on to a scene in which helicopters are flying over a village. There are shots of the helicopter flying down to the village and the village fighting back. These scenes help the viewer feel like he or she is a part of the film and in the Lieutenant's crew. The use of high angles in this movie  greatly influences the perception.

Specific camera shots play an important role in this film when Capt. Willard finally encounters Col. Kurtz, who has gone AWOL. The first look we get of Kurtz is a close-up where half of his face is lit-up. This shot lets the audience see Kurtz and get a good idea of what he looks like, but also leaves an eerie feeling. Another important scene is before Willard kills Kurtz, Kurtz is positioned in the doorway. He is almost entirely black and it's a shot of his whole body. We get a dramatic feeling from this shot as Kurtz awaits his death.


The Deer Hunter was the next movie I watched. It was directed by Michael Cimino and featured big name stars: Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, and Meryl Streep. It is a film about three young factory workers from Pennsylvania, Michael, Steven, and Nick, who enlist in the Vietnam War. They encounter many horrors throughout the war and end up being captured by the Vietcong as prisoners of war. At the prison camp, they are forced to play Russian Roulette each other, which is a famous scene in the movie. The movie won Oscars for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Walken), Best Editing, and Best Sound. When the movie first came out, it was praised for concerning the psychological and social aftermath of the Vietnam War. Its symbolism is the greatest factor in that. It is an in-depth examination of how the war affected the lives of people. The film doesn't take a specific political stand on the war, but actually depoliticizes it. The movie turns the war into a play on morals and how negative and positive characteristics of the trio make it a deadly and destructive drama. The real enemy in the war is left out in this film, so it ends up being about internal struggles with masculinity and morals.

Combat Shock was by far the most different and unique film of the three. Being a low budget film, it did not have the realistic feel that the other two movies had, but used surreal elements that added to the insanity of the movie. This movie is about a disturbed Vietnam war veteran, Frankie, who struggles with post-war life. He is unemployed and broke, surrounded by junkie friends, constantly being nagged on by his wife, and dealing with his deformed baby. This movie opens with an intense flashback from the war. Then we get to see the depressing life that the Vietnam veteran post-war as the movie progresses with several hallucinations and flashbacks from the war. Buddy Giovinazzo wrote and directed this film on an extremely low budget, which captured the gritty and cruel world of a destitute Vietnam war veteran. This movie is praised by many for being a masterpiece due to its gritty realism, but others see it as one of the ugliest and most depressing film of the decade. Its unique style captures the horrors of the Vietnam war and provided an example of how it completely destroyed one veteran's life.


All three of these films are about the Vietnam War and how it affects the lives of veterans. They all have unique stylistic elements that set them apart from other films. These films marked a turning point in American history because during the Vietnam War, there were no films made showing the harsh reality of the war. These films opened the eyes of many throughout the nation and embarked a whole new outlook on the war. They are unlike Hollywood films prior because they addressed the Vietnam War negatively and expressed the cruel reality of it. Each director took a risk in making the films, and all of them provoked mixed reviews. Overall these films impacted American media by conveying political, social, and cultural messages that were not normally addressed. Each film did this differently through certain symbolic and stylistic elements.