Word: nam
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
VIDEO: Revisiting the Viet Nam War in prime time...
...being a pretty depressing human endeavor, has never been a favorite subject for network entertainment. The Viet Nam War, being pretty depressing even as wars go, would seem to be nearly untouchable. Not only was there too much R-rated action (drug abuse, massacres of civilians) but the story had an unhappy ending. Such recent movies as Platoon and Full Metal Jacket could immerse their audience in the muck and moral quicksand for a couple of hours and then let go. But TV series must keep viewers coming back week after week, adhering to standards of "family entertainment" along...
...surprise, then, is that two weekly shows about Viet Nam have established themselves on the prime-time schedule. To be sure, both of them -- CBS's Tour of Duty and ABC's China Beach -- add plenty of TV fabric softener to the abrasive material. Each fills its sound track with '60s pop songs, as if Viet Nam were just another trip down nostalgia lane, like high school mixers and afternoons at the malt shop. Both have taken a predominantly male experience and leavened it with female characters and soap-opera story lines closer to Dallas than Saigon...
...context. Rarely are they linked to any specific complaint about the conduct of the war -- a policy mistake or a battlefield blunder. It's just the eternal tragedy of war. At the same time, the angry pacifism once expounded by M*A*S*H (a TV series about Viet Nam that was set in Korea) has been tempered by sympathy for the average grunt. There is still a place, in TV's current view of Viet Nam, for courage in battle, duty and loyalty to buddies. At a champagne dinner for officers in China Beach, a Red Cross worker blurts...
Tower: Yeah, you're right George. I talked about this type of thing with Danny Q. when we were campaigning together. Danny was telling me how that damned liberal press was giving him such a hard time for serving in the National Guard during 'Nam. I told him not to worry because those damned limp wrists knew more about the weather in Ottawa in the late '60s than they did about what our boys were doing in Southeast Asia. Still, I think you and Boydsy are right. I don't want them after...