1. When the platoon levels a civilian village after a deadly battle with the Viet Cong, the move’s central moral dilemma appears. When Chris awakens, the focus on his facial expression is a key directorial decision, as it shows his own yielding to a state of almost insanity. It shows him waking up and realizing the pleasure that violence gives him. His pause disappoints Bunny, who continues by taunting Chris and murdering the farmer. The scene of brains falling out of a crushed skull brings that pleasure vividly into the mind of the viewer. It is the tight focuses within this scene that make it particularly gripping – and horrible – for the viewer.
2. The Do Lung Bridge scene from Apocalypse Now is one of the more enduring pieces of cinematic artistry from the film. The masterful uses light turns an ordinary battle into a surreal fantasia induced by drugs. The scene begins with the bridge, outlined by darkness. The party lights, blasts, flares and spotlights add the aura of an acid trip to the whole thing, which makes sense, given the fact that Lance mentions dropping acid. The shadowy shells of the choppers just make things even less real. The wandering searchlights and the Christmas lights add to the sense of absurdity and randomness that haunt the soliders.
3. The lesson from Last Night I Dreamed of Peace that has stayed with me is the fact that it is almost always the point of view of the invader that is communicated in books and movies about war. In the situation of Vietnam, where there are almost no publishers and very few writers, it is difficult for native writings to make it into full publication. This makes the diaries of Tram, written between 1968 and 1970, historically valuable – as well as illuminating. While Dr. Tran could come from any culture, it is her most private thoughts, about her desire to serve, and her insecurities, that makes this a powerful record of what goes on in the human heart, even in the Communist part of the world.
4. One of the key similarities - - and differences – between Dr. Tram and Kieu has to do with love. Both of the characters, in their respective stories, think about romantic love and how it might transform their lives. However, while Kieu is hurt by the avarice of a mandarin, mandarins were trained to listen to the ideas of sages. Dr. Tram is captured and held by a force that had left the ideas of the wise behind – the Communist menace. Just focusing on holding and maintaining power, the Communists held a position that Kieu would have struggled to negotiate with.
5. One of the rewarding aspects of a study on literature is that it allows the reader to contemplate themes from one’s own life, and from one’s own times. Dr. Tram’s inability to give up, even in the face of massive repression during the upheavals in Vietnam, is a useful trait for all of us to understand in light of that story. While the hope is that none of us would live in a nation that has such political instability, where the authors do what they want because they have the alcohol or other means of enforcing their will. Such tactics do work, but only in the short term. The dignity of the human spirit must be acknowledged fro a true government to even think about beginning.
Works Cited
Apocalypse Now. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Martin Sheen, Marlon Brando and Robert
Duvall. Zoetrope Studios, 1979. Film.
Platoon. Dir. Oliver Stone. Perf. Charlie Sheen, Tom Berenger, and Willem Dafoe. Hemdale
Film, 1986. Film.
Tram, Dang Thuy. Last Night I Dreamed of Peace. New York: Random House, 2007. Print.
