Apocalypse Now 1979
Robert Duvall's beach assault opens the episode; Coppola's Cannes boast that the film 'is Vietnam' gets fact-checked on the spot.
The Big Picture · Discussion
Prologue | Do We Get to Win This Time?
August 8, 2023/ 17 min/ Brian Raftery
Sean and Amanda hand the feed to Brian Raftery's new narrative series on how Hollywood turned the Vietnam War into its own genre.
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 Warfeed takeover: prologue for Raftery's eight-part narrative series
Full Metal Jacket 1987
R. Lee Ermey chewing out Marines is the other defining image Raftery reaches for.
Rambo: First Blood Part II 1985
Stallone going back to 'win' the war he lost the first time.
The Losers 1970
The drive-in end of the genre: a Vietnam-vet biker caper Raftery quotes the trailer copy for.
The Deer Hunter 1978
Cited for Michael Cimino's famously grueling shoot.
Platoon 1986
Oliver Stone sent his young cast into the jungle for weeks to prep.
Born on the Fourth of July 1989
One of the films Marine vet and military advisor Dale Dye worked on.
Casualties of War 1989
Also advised by Dale Dye.
Good Morning, Vietnam 1987
The R-rated movie an 11-year-old Raftery talked his parents into.
Heaven & Earth 1993
Oliver Stone's adaptation of Le Ly Hayslip's memoir; Hayslip herself appears to question what the film gets wrong.
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV Tour of Duty
Comics The 'NamPeter Porker and the Spectacular Spider-Ham
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