The Green Berets and Casualties of War The films I chose to do my comparative paper on are The Green Berets and Casualties of War. Both of these films deal with issues concerning the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was viewed as unpopular and pointless by society; The Green Berets objective was to gain support for the Vietnam War. The film puts great emphasis on liberal war journalist George Beckwith (David Janssen). Beckwith originally doubts America's involvement in the war, but after spending time with the Green Berets, his attitude changes significantly. Casualties of War has a different perspective on the Vietnam War. The film is based on a real-life incident and it focuses on the emotional and psychological aspects of war. The film …show more content…
Lighting is also used to tell the dramatic state of mind of a character, as is the case with Private Eriksson in Casualties of War. Eriksson suffers an injury from combat and taken to a hospitable. Shadows from the fan blowing on him go around his face in a rapid motion. As this is shown, Eriksson dreams of hearing the screams of the Vietnamese woman who was killed by Sergeant Meserve. As the screams increase in volume, the shadows from the fan go around Eriksson's face at a faster pace. Right when the screams and shadows reach their height in intensity, Eriksson wakes up from his dream. With this expressionistic use of lighting, it allows the audience to see how much of an impact the murder of the Vietnamese woman had on Eriksson. Now that we have covered lighting, let's take a look at color in these two films. The use of color in The Green Berets creates a mood for the audience. The Green Berets were labeled the "liberators from oppression," and the film creates an environment that is colored in green to express that slogan. By using the color green, it creates a tranquil and comfortable mood for the audience. The colors blue and green help create what a character is feeling. This is proven when George Beckwith is telling John Wayne about his change of heart toward the war. The shot shows Beckwith with a blue sky and
In The Great Gatsby blue and green show Jay Gatsby’s real character and how he is as a person. “In his blue gardens men and girls came and went like moths among the whisperings and the champagne and the stars. (p.43)” Blue is often symbolized by depression. Jay’s house is surrounded by blue gardens by showing the sadness in his life without Daisy. “If it wasn’t for the mist we could see you home across the bay...You always have a green light that burns all night at the end of the dock. (p.92)” Green often symbolizes life. In Gatsby’s
In addition, the yellow color also indicates death as it was the color of the car that Daisy used to murder Myrtle. The green (The green light) color that exists between Daisy and Gatsby’s pictures symbolizes American dream. The position of the color and the color itself shows how Gatsby hopes and dreams for a life with Daisy. Also, another important symbolic color used in the collage is golden as it is found in the background of the pictures of the characters, and it symbolizes “New Money” and indicates how important is the theme of class and society. Also, the color grey represents lifelessness through the character George, while the color white represents innocence through Nick Carraway and Jordan Barker.
Throughout literature, colors are used to represent feelings, emotions and actions of characters. In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the color green is used to represent the love story between Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan. As he grew up and worked for his immense fortune, Gatsby transformed his life into one he felt would impress her the most. Fitzgerald uses the color green to represent Gatsby’s perfect image of Daisy, and the greed that engulfs the couple throughout the entire novel.
Colors can invoke feelings for people. Certain colors are attached to moods. Red can represent anger, green sometimes represents envy and blue can represent calm or even melancholy. Much art, music, and literature is dependent on color to convey the intended mood of the artist. In the novel, The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby, a man with wealth, power, and possessions is on a quest for the dream that he will never attain. He cannot have all that he already has plus the true love of Daisy. Fitzgerald creates his own unique motifs surrounding certain colors and uses these colors to emphasize the futility in Gatsby’s quest for this dream. Through the use
This paper will be discussing the two movies The Green Berets (1968) and Apocalypse Now (1978), and argue how The Green Berets is a propagandist pro-war film depicting the unrealities of the Vietnam War while Apocalypse Now is an ambiguous anti-war film that shows the social and political absurdities of the Vietnam War.
What do colors say about a person? Well according to personality innovator Don Lowry, there are four colors to represent the types of people in the world. green’s are thinkers, gold’s are planners, orange’s are impulsive, and blue’s are compassionate. In F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, the character of Jay Gatsby is best represented by the color blue. Gatsby’s personality best fits this color because blue’s are willing to work hard for what they believe in and are very caring for others.
Since 1968, there have been at least 25 films made that portray the events of the Vietnam War. Historians have to ask themselves when watching these films, "Did the fictional character represent historical figures accurately? Is this how a soldier would react in this situation?" The point of view of the director of the film can change with simple alterations in camera angles. For example, a view from the ground of a battle seen can show how the innocent people had the war in their own backyards. The view from a helicopter can show Viet Cong firing rounds at American troops and the troops can't tell the difference between the innocent and the enemy. The audience feels empathy and sympathy for the person from whose point of view the
Colors are an essential part of the world around us. They can convey messages, expressing that which words do not. Gentle blue tones can calm a person and bright yellows can lift the spirits. If an artist is trying to express sorrow or death he often uses blacks blues, and grays basically he uses dreary colors. Without one word, a driver approaching a red traffic light knows to stop. Colors are representative of many things. In his novel The Great Gatsby, F. Scott Fitzgerald uses color symbolism throughout as a major device in thematic and character development. He uses colors to symbolize the many different intangible ideas in the book. Throughout the book characters, places, and objects are given "life" by colors, especially the more
Red is very widely accepted as the color for anger and passion and yellow is very often the color related to happiness. Of course, colors can often symbolize or foreshadow certain events or traits in characters as well. In medieval times, the color green was always associated with witchcraft or demons. The fact that the color green played such a prominent role in the story is probably due to the fact that Morgan Le Fay was the one who created the Green Knight and who orchestrated the whole test for Gawain.
The film is intentionally designed and shot as a high action thriller to engage the viewer. Unlike a documentary film in which the filmmaker can simply state directly to the camera his or her point of view and the ultimate message of the film, a narrative film like Green Zone must rely on the filmmaking style, the plot, and the characters to gets these points across to the viewer. Greengrass’s filmmaking style helps throughout the film to create a sense of realism and credibility in the film. His shooting style consists of hand held cameras, overlapping dialogue, and quick edits that gives the viewer the impression of being in the middle of the action. Chief Miller is definitely the conflicted hero who believes in the United States and in helping the Iraqi people. As the film continues, he does not know if his actions are helping or hurting the situation. To prove his suspicions that the reasons for war were fabricated, Miller searches for the source of the information, an Iraqi general codenamed “Magellon.” He finds him eventually and confronts him about the existence of the WMDs. Magellon replies that he told the government that the WMD program had been dismantled years ago but that “your government wanted to hear the lie... they wanted Saddam out and they did exactly what they had to do... this is why you are here” (Green Zone).
A prominent color in the movie and novel of The Great Gatsby is green. It is the color that represents Gatsby’s hope. For example, the green light across the bay that Gatsby associates Daisy’s house with is a symbol of his destiny with her. Also, Gatsby gives Daisy a ring with a green jewel but because he is her past and she is married now, she tells Gatsby to keep it. As the movie progresses and Daisy and Gatsby spend more and more time together, green became more and more visible. The most prominent scenes of green were a series of cuts. Daisy and Gatsby sitting between multiple trees cuts to a bird’s eye view of the pair running through a forest, which then cuts
The Vietnam film is a specific sub-genre of the conventional Hollywood war film that arose as a result of the 1960s counter culture. According to Elliot Stegall’s article Ideological, Dystopic, and Antimythopoetic Formations of Masculinity in the Vietnam War Film many American war films depicted the glorification of war and emphasized the concept of American masculinity (Stegall). Previous to the Vietnam period, Hollywood war films stuck to contemporary tropes. These films often re-enact the idea of good versus evil in which the male hero of the film triumphantly fights for their country against a vilified enemy; thus reinforcing the American ideology of conquering the frontier (Schweitzer 67). The hollywood war films are often enjoyable
After nearly fifteen years of troops committed to the conflict beginning in 1959 and withdrawal in 1975, a number of films were made about Vietnam (Goldfield, 2014). The Green Berets, the sole movie produced during the conflict, featured an image presented by John Wayne consistent with the heroic battles in Europe during World War II. Filmmakers emerged in greater numbers in the late 1970s and 1980s after considering that rather than focusing on the perception of losing the war, there were more important stories to tell about the conflict. Some of the notorious films about the Vietnam War are Born on the Fourth of July, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, We Were Soldiers, Rambo, Deer Hunter, Full Metal Jacket, and Hamburger Hill. Vast differences between how and why the films were made and the background and inspiration for the directors who made the film were apparent. Within each director lay a unique interpretation of the conflict based on personal experience (Toplin, 1991). There were some films that attempted to counter the feeling that the U.S. had lost the war and explored a hypothetical favorable American outcome in unifying North and South Vietnam under democracy (Siskel, 1985). Movies like Full Metal Jacket explored new concepts such as how the press’ presence in Vietnam influenced public support for the war. Many of these films were popular because of their violent imagery. Scenes depicting
The author of American history, uses many colors to symbolize things in the story. In this story, it uses colors such as gray, green, and flower colors (red, yellow, purple,) to symbolize the emotions throughout the story. Colors may not have too much meaning at first Justin glance, but if you go back and read it over, you may be able to pick up on something that you didn’t he first time.
However, all visuals aren’t created equal. Color is a powerful psychological influence for all customers. For instance, if you want to cultivate customer trust us the color blue. Green symbolizes nature—ideal for companies selling outdoor products.