Soldiers How to Tell if Essay

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 724 words ( 2 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1+

Page 1 of 2

69).

For O'Brien there is no moral or rectitude in a war story because even what is good and beautiful in it comes from an obscene and evil motive. It is impossible, in a true war story, for a soldier to die declaring that he is glad to have died for his country, as does happen in We Were Soldiers. In a true war story no one is glad to die, neither for their country nor for their comrades; in a true war story people die because they are afraid of being called cowards. We Were Soldiers screams that war is hell, but Kiley, much more eloquently declares, that war is the retaliatory death by torture of a baby water buffalo.

We Were Soldiers could not be obscene or rooted in evil because no sensible American audience would have accepted it then. Sensible Americans like things that feel good and the obscenity and evil of a true war story shames and embarrasses. We Were Soldiers, in order to appeal to that audience, had to connect to it through national pride and the uplifting victory at the movie's end. In an O'Brien war story there is no national pride, men fight because they are too scared to run. In an O'Brien war story there is no victory, only survival and even that is dubious.

Stuck Writing Your "Soldiers How to Tell If" Essay?

View All Our Example Soldiers How to Tell if Essay

Have A Custom Example Essay Written



Sometime early in the 90s, perhaps during the filming of Braveheart, it seems that Mel Gibson developed this tried-and-true, red-and-blue nationalism and felt, thereafter, compelled to reproduce the Braveheart story in as many American-centric permutations as possible. His flagship movie of the time was entitled the Patriot, even. We Were Soldiers continues this trend of be-proud-of-American-military-heritage, and so could never be true. Gibson's image of war as a proud and difficult thing could not be farther from that of O'Brien, one of the Vietnam War's most eloquent survivors. It is likely that, too O'Brien at least, Gibson too is just another "dumb cooze.".....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Soldiers How To Tell If" (2010, May 18) Retrieved May 5, 2024, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/soldiers-tell-3114

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Soldiers How To Tell If" 18 May 2010. Web.5 May. 2024. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/soldiers-tell-3114>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Soldiers How To Tell If", 18 May 2010, Accessed.5 May. 2024,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/soldiers-tell-3114
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example