Many of us have images of the Vietnam War from the movies that we have watched. Few of us can forget Forrest Gump in Vietnam or John Wayne walking with a young orphan boy as the sun sets in the east instead of the west. What few people know is that one of the first films about America's involvement in Vietnam was based on a Graham Greene novel, The Quiet American. This was also the only movie actually filmed on location in Vietnam. This chapter makes sense of films about the conflict in Vietnam and puts them into perspective.
For many of us, the film that we remember the most, perhaps because it was so controversial, was The Green Berets, which starred John Wayne, who vehemently believed, despite resistance, that the movie had to be made. Although reception of the film was not what Wayne wanted, or even anticipated, it forced filmmakers and viewers to take a new look at the war. Noting the two waves of Vietnam movies, the chapter analyzes films that were about the war without being explicitly about the war, those that were critical of the war, and others that attempted to persuade the viewer that Vietnam veterans were heroes. It argues that the films have come full circle and accomplished what The Green Berets did not-they have "turned Vietnam into a WWII movie.