A Hollywood War of Wills: Cinematic Representation of Vietnamese Super-Soldiers and America's Defeat in the War

Abstract

MOST SCHOLARSHIP ON THE REPRESENTATION of Vietnamese enemy in Hollywood Vietnam War films has emphasized depiction of America's foe as a primitive, bloodthirsty, yellow horde. As historical and theoretical studies of Albert Auster, Leonard Quart, Gaylyn Studlar, David Desser, and Gregory Waller affirm, such an emphasis is entirely appropriate when discussing films such as The Green Berets (1968), The Deer Hunter (1978), Uncommon Valor (1983), and Rambo: First Blood Part Il (1985). This emphasis, however, does not adequately characterize all cinematic representations of Vietnamese enemy. In fact, they are not portrayed in all Vietnam War films as only mindless, barbarous insects in need of extermination; rather, enemy often exhibits extraordinary endurance and power. For example, depictions of Vietcong and North Vietnamese in Go Tell Spartans (1978), Apocalypse Now (1979), and Hamburger Hill (1987) do not adhere solely to yellow peril stereotypes popularized in World War Il combat films. Although remnants of yellow peril persist, these films also portray a Vietnamese enemy who is dedicated and worthy of respect. Extrapolating from historically documented dedication of Vietcong and North Vietnamese Army, these films also construct an enemy of unbeatable Asian super-soldiers, an enemy of amazing, almost superhuman, willpower and wisdom. Such a representation broadly supports Edward Said's notion that Western culture and its belief system are largely defined through its contrasting representations of East. All of these films, to a certain degree, use supersoldier to explore failure of US in Vietnam; thus, their primary focus is signification of war for United States. As Said suggests, images of East created by West have less to do with Asia than with West itself (12). In Go Tell Spartans, Apocalypse Now, and Hamburger Hill, Vietnamese enemy is portrayed in two ways, as both yellow peril of classical combat film and as super-soldiers with astonishing fighting abilities and almost impossibly small needs for sustenance. By focusing on super-soldiers in these three films, I am not suggesting all Vietnam films represent Vietnamese enemy in this way, but rather demonstrating how elements of savage yellow peril stereotype can coexist with characteristics of other enemy stereotypes. Furthermore, investigating Asian super-soldier stereotype in Spartans, Apocalypse, and Hamburger Hill reveals its role in exploring meaning of Vietnam War for US. This stereotype serves as a means of examining futility of war and of justifying America's loss. A Brief History of Othering and Yellow-Peril Stereotypes Hollywood films about US war in Vietnam often use stereotypes of Vietnamese enemy. This stereotyping is largely achieved through othering, process through which a specific group is defined by another group as the Other-that is, distinct from and in opposition to normal authority. Othering is often used by dominant powers in orderto justify conquest of a group or people. As Gayatri Spivak argues, dominant powers (for her, Western colonizers) achieve othering of another group (whom she refers to as the colonized) by describing them as treacherous, brutal, and depraved (134). Marianna Torgovnik explains that such terminology sets up a dichotomy between civilized and savage, in which West is treated as norm and Other as deviant (21). Thus West defines itself in opposition to this supposedly uncivilized Other. Othering depends on stereotyping, or production and repetition of fixed characterizations of a group of people in a way that suggests that these characterizations are normative. Stereotypes often help to distinguish one group from another, usually through identifying members of that group with a number of stock characteristics (Hayward 358-59). …

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