Oral de BAC Myths and Heroes

I am going to talk about the notion myths and heroes by answering this following question.

How are soldiers portrayed in American war films?

First of all I will explain why in certain films they are portrayed as heroes. Then in a second part, I will discuss the fact that in other films they are depicted as fallen heroes.

I. Soldiers are heroes

    - To start of, in the We were soldiers' trailer, a little girl ask her dad: "Daddy what is the war?" To what he answers: "It is when some people try to take the life of other people and Soldiers like your daddy have to go over there and stop them"

In this movie, soldiers are represented as heroes, but not only that, they are also represented as family men : "tell my wife I love her" -> last word of a soldier. This film is about being both a father and a soldier. "If I am good at one maybe I can be better at the other."

They defend many values as well, like righteousness, patriotism, freedom and bravery. "When we are goibg into battle, I will be the first to step on the field and the last to step off, but we are all coming back together".

- Moreover, we studied many reviews of the Black Hawk Down. In one of them, it is written that this film "puts you right in the middle of the hellish horror faced by U.S soldiers". That implies that American war films only focus on the heroe side of the U.S soldiers and how they conquer war.

However the war, being described as hellish and horrible explains how Soldiers can also be seen as fallen heroes.

II. Soldiers are fallen heroes.

     - In an oral comprehension we listened to a Vietnam veteran who explained how hard the war was. Soldiers were young, unprepared and so scared. Those make them victims of the war and so does the fact that they commited atrocities that still haunt them. The Vietnam veteran does not consider himself as a hero.

      - We have also seen this side of the soldier in the poster of Platoon. The soldier is down on his knees, he is wounded and seems desperate. He looks like he is imploring for God's forgiveness. Here the soldier is depicted as a martyr.

       - Finally, in Rambo's film "First Blood", Rambo says "It was not my war" which implies that he only did what he had to do. He does not understand why he does not have the recognition he deserves or why people call him a killer, a monster. He is a casualty of war.

Some war films represent soldiers as brave and heroic whereas others depict them as discouraged and traumatised.

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