The Deer Hunter 1978
The 1979 screening that shook vet Jan Scruggs and set him on the path to the Vietnam memorial wall.
The Big Picture · Discussion
5. Nothing Is Over | Do We Get to Win This Time?
August 18, 2023/ 47 min/ Brian Raftery
The Vietnam-on-film series traces how First Blood turned a doomed-vet novel into a franchise, and how the POW-rescue movies let Reagan-era audiences re-fight the war.
10 films across 1 segment.
AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.
How Hollywood Made the Vietnam WarFirst Blood and the Vetsploitation wave
First Blood 1982
David Morrell's novel adapted for the screen by Kotcheff and Stallone, who flipped the ending so Rambo survives instead of dying with Teasle as in the book.
North Dallas Forty 1979
Cited as one end of director Ted Kotcheff's range before First Blood.
Fun with Dick and Jane 1977
The Jane Fonda caper, cited as the other end of Kotcheff's filmography.
Uncommon Valor 1983
Kotcheff's follow-up; Gene Hackman leads a POW-rescue mission. Paramount recut the marketing to sell it as feel-good after fans said they liked it because 'we get to win the Vietnam War.'
Missing in Action 1984
Chuck Norris as Braddock returning to free POWs; Norris's brother Wieland was killed in Vietnam in 1970.
Rambo: First Blood Part II 1985
James Cameron drafted the script, Stallone revised it; Julia Nixon plays Co. A number-one hit that Reagan quoted and that vets picketed as pro-war propaganda.
Cobra 1986
Cited as director George P. Cosmatos's later collaboration with Stallone.
Strike Commando 1987
Named as one of the Vetsploitation knockoffs that filled 80s video-store shelves.
Deadly Prey 1987
Another Vetsploitation title cited in the same breath as Strike Commando.
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
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