American soldiers meet the East
Western films taking place in Southeast Asia provide an amazing source of gendered stereotypes. Although westerners have lived and worked in Southeast Asia for centuries the Orient still symbolises a mystic, spiritual, but also dangerous part of the world. American Vietnam related films reflect the controversy spurred by the war and a number of films contrast masculine individualism and the American faith in technology and rationality with the other values of simplicity, mystery and femininity. A considerable amount of war films deal with coming to terms with the fact that a small Asian nation could defeat militarily a superpower. The difficult and hopeless situations of the young American soldiers are at times contrasted to the evil sadistic, ambivalent, and irresponsible behaviour of the Vietcong. Most productions are not apologetic, or attempt to reveal the full scale horror the Americans were responsible for. They are rather tales of friendship and loyalty, where violence plays an important part of what it means to be a man. Great emphasis is given to masculine bonding, which represents a basis for the regeneration of the society as a whole. Within the ranks of the American soldiers there is enormous pressure to step up to the challenge of Vietnam and demonstrate one’s masculinity, even though most of the soldiers have barely entered legal adulthood, creating a confusing rite of passage. (more…)