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by Jacqueline Joyce
Emerson College
The recent commercial
success of films depicting the Vietnam War has been an issue of interest
and debate among film theorists and critics. Critics argue about the authenticity
of these films. Are their representations historical or a historical,
realistic or exaggerated? Theorists wonder what type of ideological statement
these films are a result of. Do they glorify the Vietnam
soldier or do they serve to advocate anti-war sentiment?
Popular Vietnam films, such as Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, and
Born On the Fourth of July, have caused theorists to question even
the genre of these films. Can they he considered as classic Hollywood
combat narratives (which focus on the soldier as a member of the fighting
machine) or as classic drama narratives (which feature the soldier as
a man with individual emotions and needs)?
Feminists have added to the confusion by critiquing the representation
of women in this recent series of Vietnam films. Is it just a case of
misogyny that the majority of these films characterize the female as the
prostitute, the unwanted distraction or even the "castrating bitch."
Or are these negative representations a case of displaced male aggression
as a result of a war which the U.S. lost?
As a feminist, I am most concerned with the discursive nature of women
as represented in Vietnam films. Within the process of researching this
topic, I have discovered that the issues of genre and gender ideology
are crucial areas of study in the effort to reach any conclusions as to
why Vietnam films present such a critical problem as well as why women
are portrayed so negatively in them.
By examining Born On the Fourth of July as an example of a Vietnam
film, I will argue that Vietnam films, on the whole, can be categorized
as melodramas due to their rare portrayals of male victimization I will
also demonstrate that Born On the Fourth of July typifies how the
resentment of the male victim is taken out on the female image (in this
films case, the mother) and that she is subversively blamed for the failure
of the US intervention in Vietnam.
In an initial viewing, the film Born On the Fourth of July appears
to be a model example of the popular classical Hollywood narrative. Its
pretense is one of classic realism; it has been, described as a "realistic
portrayal of Vietnam... one to set the record straight" (Seidenburg
29), in an interview with the autobiographical film's subject, Ron Kovic.
However, in a closer, subtler reading of the film, the structure of a
family melodrama within the text becomes apparent. Through an examination
of gender roles within the film's depiction of Kovic's family, more specifically,
the family's reversal of gender roles, it becomes possible to parallel
the film's structure with that of the melodrama. I will argue that this
gender reversal serves as a device to mask the melodramatic tendencies
of the film. In doing so, the film presents the mother as a repressive,
patriarchal figure and ultimately places the blame and burdens of the
Vietnam War on her.
In establishing the connection
between the genre of melodrama and the Vietnam film, the issue of victimization
becomes centralized. Though the melodrama has been classically
coded as "feminine" (due to the genre's focus on the female and emotions)
as opposed to the "masculine" arena of warfare in the Vietnam film,
the two are drawn together by the similar effects that victimization has
on each genre's narrative protagonist.
The woman of the melodrama is usually portrayed as a victim of bourgeois
patriarchy. The female protagonist is often pitted against ideology and
the roles it has created for her (the ideal wife, mother). Likewise, the
soldier of the Vietnam film is often portrayed as a victim of "had leader
or mistaken policy.., that led to an unworthy or overly cruel war"
(Cawley 69). Films such as Born On the Fourth of July and Platoon
"address the obvious shift in recent war movies involving the image
of the male hero" (Blake 62). The classic portrayal of the WWI and
WWII soldier as the invincible warrior seems obsolete in comparison to
"today's delicate, boyish heroes.., who appear as victims as much as heroes"
(Blake 63). The soldiers of many Vietnam narratives are portrayed as sacrificing
their innocence and lives for the sake of the war.
Another similarity between the melodrama and Vietnam film is a common
focus on the emotions of the individual within an institution or superstructure.
In the melodrama, the "individual personality becomes identified with
emotional states and psychic relations.., the family, as a psychic
institution locks into unconscious desires and emotions" (Gledhill
32). In the Vietnam film, "war becomes a personal battle, with combat's
impact on the individual as the primary constituent of the film's critique"
(Selig 190). The institution of the family is also prevalent, but in quite
a different and unique way.
Since an important characteristic of the Vietnam film is the elimination
of the woman from the arena of warfare, "families" created within
the soldiers' infantry/division are taken over by men. Chris Taylor in
Platoon, says at one point that he feels like the son of two fathers
(his sergeants- Elias and Barnes). Susan Jeffords suggests that "warfare
becomes the male appropriation of reproduction" (107), combat as
the control over life and death. The masculine appropriation of reproduction
negates all necessity for the existence of the woman (therefore the threat
of femininity is gone). It also allows the male to metaphorically "give
birth to himself as a technologized body in which the individual is an
extension of the equipment he carries" - equipment, as in the phallic
gun (Jeffords 109).
A final, important connection between the melodrama and the Vietnam film
is both genres' ability to subversively question dominant ideology. The
dramatic excess used in the melodrama serves to question patriarchy/dominant
order while appearing to subscribe to it. The contradiction lies within
the melodrama's exaggerated portrayal of a "utopian" society and
the inability of the protagonist (the woman) to live up to its standards.
In fact, "formal contradiction became a new source of critical value because
it allowed apparently ideologically complicity films to be read against
the grain' for their covert critique of the status quo" (Gledhill
6). Vietnam films achieve this in that they "tend to show how trapped
the country is in its wholesome perception of WWII" (Cawley 70).
Films like Full Metal Jacket do not attempt to hide the disillusionment
of the young Vietnam soldier. They enhance the horrors of war, work on
our emotions of fear and failure, and portray a sense of purposelessness.
As a result, the text opens up to controversy surrounding the U.S. policy
in the war and a questioning of those responsible for it. "Vietnam was
simply inexplicable, portrayed as a place nobody really understood"
(Haines 94). In these ways the Vietnam film debunks the authority figures
of the time (the govt.) and questions the concept of the American myth.
The theoretical analyses presented in this article have served to explain
and explore the genre of melodrama and films depicting the Vietnam War.
In doing so, a number of comparisons have been made between the two. The
major difference lies within the ideological genderization of the melodrama
as "feminine" and the Vietnam war films as "masculine . I argue that
it is because of this reason that a "masculine" Vietnam film such
Born On the Fourth of July disguises its melodramatic tendencies
within its classical Hollywood narrative structure.
In fact I will argue that the film in many ways, is a family melodrama
but masks this structure through a reversal of gender roles within the
film's depiction of the protagonist's family. ho verify this argument,
a textual analysis of Born On the Fourth of July will focus on
the text's oppositional construction of the family, the loss and reclamation
of the protagonist's manhood (the catalyst of this melodrama), and how
the film uses melodramatic elements to criticize ideological stances on
the war, patriarchy, the institution of the family, and gender issues.
The textual analysis will also
point out how the film's image of the mother is distorted and that she
is subversively blamed for her son's victimization (symbolized in the
protagonist's "feminization" /castration) as well as for the war
itself.
An examination of the film's construction of the family is crucial in
decoding the melodrama within the text. The family of the traditional
melodrama is set up as follows: the father role is recognized as the patriarchal
figure, the leader, the representative of ideology. The rote of the mother
is identified as weak, passive, submissive and maternal. The protagonist
is (usually) female arid victimized by a patriarchal society. The closure
of the melodrama will recoup the woman back into her ideological place
in society that she once attempted to break from. The family of Born
On. . . is set up in the same fashion; however, the genders of
the character roles are reversed.
The father role of the film is taken over by the female, Ron Kovic's (the
protagonist's) mother is portrayed as the dominant force in the family,
the patriarchal figure. It is the mother who has control over the family.
Many scenes depict her disciplining Ron (for hiding pornographic magazines
under his bed and yelling at him to watch his language). His father is
never shown like this.
His mother is also portrayed as the representative of dominant ideology.
In one particular scene, the family is shown gathered around the television
to hear John F. Kennedy speak the famous tine, "Ask not what your country
can do for you, but what you can do for your country." The camera
focuses on the mother's face, mystified by the words of J.F.K. She then
pulls the young Ron onto her lap to relay to him her dream that one day
Ron would "talk to large crowds and say great things." The shot then
returns to the black and white TV screen as the image of J.F.K. fades
to black.
The maternal role of the film's family is taken over by Ron's father.
He is portrayed as weak, passive, and domestic. He is depicted washing
dishes and being ignored by Ron and his siblings. His build is small and
his character is worrisome. In one scene we see him watching the nightly
news, hoping that the recently enlisted Ron would get shipped to Europe
where he would he safe. To this sentiment Ron explodes, claiming that
he loves his country and will die in Vietnam to defend it. At this point
the mother re-enters the room to reaffirm that "Ronny is doing the right
thing, Communism most be stopped." As she stands over the seated
father, her compliance and reaffirmation of dominant ideology overshadows
the father's questioning of it. The scene culminates as the mother turns
the channel of the TV She turns off the news report of anti-war (anti-dominant
ideology) protests and onto an episode of Laugh-In.
The character of Ron Kovic can he equated with the melodramatic role
of the victimized female. Though he is male, he is symbolically "feminized"
by the process of castration, a result of the paralysis he suffered after
being shot during combat. In Maria LaPlace's essay, "Producing and Consuming
the Woman's Film" she claims that in female fiction books (in relation
to film, the melodrama) the hero (protagonist) "must be feminized",
that is he must abandon his position of control and dominance and take
up a position of equality to the woman (106). The loss of his penis marks
the loss of the phallus (the Freudian signifier of masculinity/power/control).
In this way he is equated with the female and her lack of the phallus.
The distorted familial structure sets op the melodrama of the text, whose
main objective now becomes the reclamation of the phallus and the achievement
of manhood.
The opening scenes of this film state its objective. We first hear the
voice of Tom Cruise (as the adult Ron Kovic) narrate that when he was
a child his "backyard was turned into a battlefield, filled with little
boys playing war, dreaming that someday they'd become men."
The suggestion made here is that in order to become men, they must
succeed in battle and win their manhood. The following scene is a foreshadow
of Ron's fate; we see him getting "shot dead by his pals." He is
shown lying on his hack on the ground (wearing an over-sized WWII helmet
- a suggestion of the over-glorification of previous
wars which the U.S. won). His friends loom over him chanting "Ronny's
dead! Ronoy's dead." The association of losing battle with failure/not
achieving manhood is formulated by this scene, This allows the film to
shift more towards the quest for manhood and away from combat. In fact,
the only battle scenes depicted in the film are those that directly endanger
his manhood (mistakes - Ron's accidental shooting of his squad member,
the massacre of the village women and children, Ron getting shot).
With the film’s main objective established as the quest for manhood/regaining
of the phallus, the text opens up to an Oedipal reading. It implies that
Ron needs to regain his masculinity (become a man) to regain the love/acceptance
of his mother. This is set up within the first half hour of the narrative,
during a wrestling match in which Run's mother is expecting him to become
the next stale champion. These scenes depict Ron putting up a strong fight,
but eventually he loses. The referee's hand comes down on the mat like
a judge's sentence. Ron is devastated; a shot of his mother in the crowd
shows usher look of disappointment (even disgust). The scene fades to
black and then in on a high school assembly. The boys of Run's high school
are being addressed by the Marines (who "challenge boys to become men").
Tom Berenger (as a Marine sergeant) dares the boys to "come and find out
if you can become a man." The next scene follows Ron to a
diner, in which he decides to enlist.
The juxtaposition of these scenes (mother encouraging Ron to win the match,
Ron losing the match, Marines recruiting, Run deciding to enlist) strongly
suggests that by losing the wrestling match, Ron has to prove his manhood
to his mother. Here manhood is equated with success (thereby, failure
is associated with femininity). The Marines serves as a place that Ron
can earn/prove his manhood by serving his country. The implication here
is that the country is equated with Ron's mother. If mother=country, then
Ron can prove his manhood to both simultaneously. This can he achieved
only through success on the battlefield.
The fact that Run was shot and paralyzed marks his failure in combat.
His ensuing castration strips him of his masculinity, emphasizing his
association with the female (and failure). The larger statement that this
film is making is quite powerful. If the mother is equated with the country
as a whole, then Ron can represent Vietnam soldiers in general. This film
suggests that the loss of the war "feminizes" the Vietnam soldier/veteran,
therefore it reaffirms the "femininity of failure. The film goes one step
further in portraying the mother as the force that encouraged Ron to go
to Vietnam, to succeed. As a result, the film blames the mother for Ron's
castration/feminization and ultimately, it blames motherhood in general
for the failure of the American soldiers to win the Vietnam War.
In accordance with melodramatic format, the conclusion of the melodrama
involves a recouping of the female/victim back into her allotted place
in society. I argue that Born On . . . has two conclusions. Since
the film works within the constraints of the classical Hollywood narrative,
it ends in a typical CHN manner - the achievement of the protagonist the
"happy ending." By the film's conclusion, Ron has reached his goal
(during his speech at the Democratic Convention). He fulfills his mother's
prediction that he will "talk to large crowds and say great things."
However, the melodrama within the CHN ends during Ron's triple Mexico.
Mexico takes on a quality of "another world," isolated from the U.S.
culture. It is here that Ron is allowed to fulfill the objective of the
melodrama. Though he lacks the male sexual organ, he achieves in giving
a female Mexican prostitute an orgasm-thereby reclaiming the long sought
after phallus. The reclamation of the phallus restores Ron's masculinity,
situating him hack into his place in society-a male. In fact through scenes
depicting Ron and other disabled veterans taking over the Democratic Convention
as if it were a battlefront (symbolic of his second chance to succeed
in war), Ron seems to be reproduced
(as S. Jeffords would put it) as a through the empowerment of the regained
phallus (the "equipment", the extension of himself). His success
at the "battle" of the convention compensates for his failure in
the battle of the war, allowing him to finally complete the rile of passage
into manhood.
Though the film ends in a classical Hollywood narrative style, the appearance
of the melodrama within the text results in an extreme amount of openness
and room for counter-readings. The film never resolves the family conflict;
the mother/son relationship is never cleared up. This can he read as a
result of the subversive manner in which the mother is blamed for the
war. The film seems to criticize not only the mother, hut more importantly,
the bourgeois ideology she served to represent.
There are many suggestions within this film of contradictions within dominant
ideology. A comparison of the two Fourth of July parades portrayed in
the film (one before the Vietnam Conflict, one after) point out an ideological
shift in the attitudes of Americans as a result of the lost war. The first
Independence Day parade occurs during Ron's childhood. The parade is held
in honor of WWII veterans. As the camera pans over the crowd, we pass
by a happy-faced clown who entertains the clapping, proud bystanders.
The camera looms in on a disabled veteran in a wheel chair. The scene
then closes in on the young, mystified Ronny, waving the American flag.
The excess of "Americana" - the flag, references to baseball (Ronny's
Yankees cap), the music ("Rock Around the Clock") all serve to exaggerate
the idealized America of the 1940s and 50s. The excess suggests that this
glorification of the ideological American myth (that war is glorious and
should he celebrated) and the iconography of the WWII soldier caused disillusionment
among the young Vietnam soldiers who went into a war that they were not
prepared to fight.
The second Fourth of July parade (of 1969) is a powerful critique on the
ideological shift of Americans towards war and the war veteran. This parade
does not feature patriotic music and "Americana", but rather blatant
commercialism. Sixties pop songs are blaring and "hippies" are protesting
the war. There is no honor, no misty- eyed patrons to idolize the returning
soldiers; instead the young men and women on the sidelines greet the veterans
with insults and middle fingers. Even the clown wears a sad face. There
is a slow- notion shot of a young boy in a Yankees hat (an
echo of the young Ron) who shoots at Ron with an imaginary gun. Ron and
the disabled vets do not parade in their wheelchairs; instead they are
seated in the hack of a convertible, as if America does not want to acknowledge
the damage the war has done to them. The differing portraits of the parades
serve to open up the text, allowing for criticism of American ideology
and the contradictions within it.
One of the intentions of this articles has been an attempt to clarify
the critical chaos surrounding the rise of the Vietnam film. By classifying
the Vietnam film as a melodrama, I hope to eliminate the tendency to genderize
films into restrictive senses of "masculine" and "feminine."
Perhaps once the sexes are neutralized, there will be no state of patriarchy
and no devaluation of women to protect it. Perhaps then a mainstream film
such as Born On the Fourth of July will not have to resort
to a tactic like displacing the blame of the Vietnam tragedy unto women
and motherhood when the fault lies within a patriarchal ideology that
views imperfection as a threat to "masculinity" instead of an element
of human nature.
WORKS CITED
1. Blake, Richard. "The Tide of Pomp: Images of War." America
27. January, 1990: 62-5.
2. Cawley, Leo. "The War About the War." From Hanoi to Hollywood,
L. Dittmar and C. Michaud. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press,
1990.
3, Gledhill, Christine. "The Melodramatic Field: An Investigation."
Home is Where the Heart is. London: British Film Institute Publishing,
1987.
4. Haines, Harry. "They Were Called and They Went." From Hanoi
to Hollywood. Eds. Linda Dittmar and Gene Michaud. New Brunswick:
Rutgers University Press, 1990.
5. Jeffords, Susan. The Remasculinization of America: Gender and the
Vietnam War. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1989.
6. LaPlace, Maria. "Producing and Consuming the Woman's Film.'' Home
is Where Heart Is. Ed. C. Gledhill. London: British Film Institute,
1987.
7. Seidenberg, Robert. "In Hell and Back." American Film; 15.4
(1990): 28-32.
8. Selig, Michael. "Genre, Gender and the Discourses of War: The
A/historical in Vietnam Films."
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