Cycnos | Numéros | Volume 21.2 - Les États-Unis et la guerre. Les États-Unis en guerre

Résumé :

This paper analyzes four of the latest American ‘Vietnam movies’ (A Bright Shining Lie, 1998, Tigerland, 2000, We Were Soldiers, 2002, The Quiet American, 2002/2003) in the light of recent American political and social history. Two major questions emerge. First (and this is the usual question one poses when working on such movies) how do the ideological currents running through American society and politics show up in the films and inform them. Second, to what extent are these recent movies influenced by the ‘Vietnam movies’ of the past decades ? Is it possible to make such movies now without consciously or not referring to the inter (or intra) text made up of all the references, themes and mannerisms that have characterized such movies across the years ? In this perspective, can these recent movies add anything to what we already know about the war and its impact on the American psyche ?

Mots-clés : guerre du Vietnam, A Bright Shining Lie, The Quiet American, We Were Soldiers, Tigerland, Vietnam War Films

Date de publication : 2006-10-12