Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Mgr. Vladimír Nepraš

Vietnam Veterans, PTSD and Hollywood Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: doc. PhDr. Tomáš Pospíšil, Ph.D.

2017

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I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

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Author’s signature

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………. 4

1. HISTORY OF PTSD …………………………………………………… 7

1.1 Early history of PTSD ………………………………………….…… 8

1.2 PTSD in the 20th century …………………………………………… 12

2. FILM AS CONVEYER OF IDEAS, MEANINGS AND IMAGES …. 21

3. PTSD SYMPTOMS AND THEIR PORTRAYALS IN FILMS ……... 24

4. FILM REPRESENTATIONS OF VIETNAM WAR VETERANS WITH

PTSD ……………………………………………………………..……….…. 31

4.1 PTSD MOVIES IN THE 1960’s and the 1970’s ………………...…. 31

4.2 COMING HOME …………………………………………….…...…. 37

4.3 THE DEER HUNTER ………………………………………………. 41

4.4 PTSD MOVIES SINCE THE 1980’s …………………….………… 50

CONCLUSION ……………………………………………………….……… 63

BIBLIOGRAPHY ………………………………………………….…..…… 67

FILMOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………… 70

ENGLISH RÉSUMÉ ……………………………………….……………….. 71

CZECH RÉSUMÉ …………………………………………………………... 72

3 INTRODUCTION

After a traumatic experience, it is a normal human reaction to be upset and feel lots of emotions, such as distress, anxiety, guilt, shame, hopelessness, sadness and anger. However, if the symptoms persist and get worse, people may suffer from post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Traumatic events which can cause PTSD include natural disasters, terrorist attacks, car or plane crashes, sudden death of a loved one, sexual or physical abuse, and some others.1 The most common cause of PTSD is military combat, which is in focus of this work.

Mental problems of soldiers who experienced an intense trauma have been observed throughout history, but it took a long time before they started to be comprehended in full complexity. PTSD was defined and officially implemented into psychiatric nomenclature in 1980 in the context of consequences of the Vietnam war.

The war inflicted mental wounds to a lot of American soldiers, and it was traumatic for the whole American society, which was reflected both in professional and popular discourse, including a film. A theme of traumatized Vietnam veterans has provided a lot of attractive material for Hollywood movies, which have been able to adapt the theme from unique perspectives. Film is a very popular phenomenon, and as such, it has ability to influence public perception of the Vietnam veterans. It is a powerful conveyer of meanings, ideas and attitudes. Thus, it is worth examining the way films have contributed to the general discussion about Vietnam veterans and their mental wounds.

This thesis explores the image of Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD in the

American cinematography since the late 1960’s. The prevailing theme in the movies is a man who was changed by the war and returns home, being mentally wounded. This work discusses the way this man, a Vietnam veteran, is portrayed in films. How did the war change the veteran? How did it impact him? How was the change and the veteran’s trauma manifested? What factors impacted the change and mental state of the veteran?

1 https://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/ptsd-symptoms-self-help-treatment.htm#what

4 What problems did he face after coming home? What were the consequences of PTSD?

How did the veteran deal with the disorder? Those are the questions that are discussed in the movies and through their analysis in this thesis. PTSD and its symptoms provide an interpretive framework for the analysis.

The first chapter of the thesis explores the way the issue of mentally wounded soldiers was observed and perceived throughout history. Psychological effects of combat on soldiers have been observed since the ancient times, but not fully understood until a rise of modern psychiatry in the 20th century. Although mental traumata of soldiers were often trivialized, underestimated or ignored, massive war conflicts of the last century contributed to better comprehension of the issue. Extensive polemics about the issue amongst psychiatrists in the turbulent Vietnam and Post-Vietnam era broadened into political, cultural and popular discourse and made a contribution to gradually altered perception of Vietnam veterans and their mental troubles. General discussions about the issue and new psychiatric standards concerning veterans with

PTSD influenced portrayals of the veterans in films as well.

The second chapter deals with the essence of film as a means of conveying of ideas, meanings, attitudes and images. Film is a popular and widespread phenomenon, and it can be very influential in shaping public perception of various issues.

Commercial films are made primarily for profit and entertaining their audiences, but they also have an ability to convey a powerful message. Movies have been able to affect the way their audiences have perceived Vietnam veterans. And vice versa, they reflected shifting atmosphere and changes in American society in the Post-Vietnam era. They say a lot about the time in which they were made.

The third chapter discusses symptoms and diagnostic criteria for PTSD as they are described in the third and the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental disorders (DSM-III, DSM-IV), and in the Public section of a website of the

National Center for PTSD. Each criterion is added with examples of its portrayals in movies.

5 The last chapter of the thesis analyses the filmic representations of traumatised

Vietnam veterans since the late 1960s. It covers prevailing trends and themes in films that portray veterans suffering mental trauma. It shows multifaceted image of a mentally wounded Vietnam veteran, which altered and developed over time. Two films – Coming

Home and The Deer Hunter – are more deeply analysed in separate subchapters. The films captured audiences' and critics' attention and presented the issue of traumatised veterans from a new perspective. The Deer Hunter is an excellent psychological study of men who were changed by war, which is the key motif of many movies about

Vietnam veterans and of this thesis.

6 1 HISTORY OF PTSD

The term post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was first defined in the

American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical

Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) in 1980. The term was implemented into the official psychiatric nomenclature and its definition filled an important niche in clinical psychiatry. New specific terminology and diagnostic standards improved methods of treatment for patients with PTSD and ameliorated their lives. PTSD became an official psychiatric disorder.

This kind of disorder had not been unknown though. In fact, it was just a new name for an old story. The idea that people can be afflicted by psychological disorder after being exposed to a traumatic event was not new. PTSD can be diagnosed among survivors of traumatic experiences such as car accidents, terrorist attacks, natural disasters or sexual assaults. The most frequently mentioned group of PTSD sufferers is war veterans who are in focus of this work. Wars, battles and combat situations are significant stressors leading to PTSD. After all, Vietnam veterans, who returned home afflicted by PTSD symptoms, were in focus of discussions leading to introducing PTSD to DSM-III. However, Vietnam veterans were not and will not be the only soldiers suffering from war neurosis. As Steve Bentley states in his study about history of

PTSD: “War has always had a severe psychological impact on people in immediate and lasting ways” (Bentley, 1).

Historians, writers, physicians and other authors throughout history have been aware of mental effects on soldiers who experienced an intense trauma. Symptoms, which are now identified in relation to PTSD, have been noted and they have been given different names. However, the phenomenon was not fully understood, or it was even misunderstood for a long time, and a definition of the disorder was elusive.

Renowned neurologist Michael R. Trimble described it as “a most frequent, yet clearly misunderstood aspect of human experience” (Trimble, 13).

7 1.1 Early history of PTSD

The earliest references to post combat disorder and symptoms, which are today linked to PTSD, were found in texts that are more than 3000 years old. Ancient

Assyrian texts from Mesopotamia dating between 1300 BC and 609 BC, which were translated, assembled and studied by British and American scholars2, included several hundreds of medical records showing how important was diagnosis for Assyrian medical practice.3 The Mesopotamians were able to diagnose not only physical injuries but mental illnesses as well. Their physicians kept records of psychological wounds of

Assyrian soldiers who were regularly exposed to significant traumata associated with combat. Symptoms that were observed among the soldiers correspond with the symptoms of PTSD as it is now recognised.4 However, stress disorder was perceived and understood differently from the current view by the Mesopotamians. Symptoms of mental stress were attributed to spirits of enemies who had been killed by a soldier in a battle and later haunted the soldier.

Stress disorder was not unknown in Ancient Greece as well. Greek medicine related both physical and mental health to the balance of four humours – blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. Disturbance of the balance has negative effects on emotions and mind, and causes mental illness. As regard to stress disorder of Greek soldiers, it is often quoted Greek historian Herodotus’ description of blindness suffered by an

Athenian warrior during the Battle of Marathon (490 BC).5 Herodotus also mentions

Spartan commander Leonidas who was aware of psychological fatigue of his soldiers

2 JoAnn Scurlock and Burton Andersen translated the cuneiform texts into English and published them in a book Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine (2005). The texts were later studied by Walid Abdul-Hamid under the supervision of Jamie Hacker Hughes. They published their findings in the journal Early Science and Medicine in the article Nothing New under the Sun: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders in the Ancient World (2014). 3 Diagnostic manuals were kept. The texts clearly indicate that Assyrian’s physicians needed to see patients and examine their symptoms to specify a diagnosis. Following treatment was holistic. A physician who performed diagnosis and treatment was called ašipu. Asu was a pharmacist, who used specific drugs for specific set of symptoms. See in Abdul-Hamid, W. K., and Hughes, Jamie H. (2014). 4 Scurlock and Andersen mention specific cases and examples of stress disorder of patients in Ancient Mesopotamia in their book Diagnoses in Assyrian and Babylonian Medicine. 5 Although “nothing had touched him anywhere”, he “suddenly lost sight of both eyes” and “continued blinded as long as he lived” after the soldier next to him was killed. See in Regel, Stephen, and Stephen, Joseph, Post-traumatic Stress. Oxford University Press, 2010, 3

8 from previous battles at the battle of Thermopylae (480 BC).6 According to Herodotus, a Spartan named Aristodemus was so shaken by combat that he later hanged himself in shame.

There is no definitive evidence for the existence of PTSD in the ancient world and later in the Middle Ages. Texts from this era concerning mental states of soldiers or of other people exposed to psychological trauma are rare.7 However, those times were harsh, severe, cruel. And it is logical to presume that people were exposed to combat and violence so often, that they must have suffered from psychological trauma. Stefan

Chrissanthos (2005) suggests that “when some human beings are subjected to extremely difficult living conditions and the trauma of combat, certain responses are ‘predictable’ due to ‘biochemical and physiological’ factors. Time and place are of less significance than these constant factors” (qtd. in Melchior, 212). Accordingly to this reasoning, it is assumed that warriors in ancient and medieval battles suffered from mental stress like soldiers in modern warfare. Although experience of “long-ago” warriors and modern soldiers are not absolutely equivalent8, there are parallels between them. It is presumed there is universality of how combat is experienced. Each war, each battle is hell. The nineteenth-century military theorist Ardant du Picq argued for “the continuity of human behaviour and assumed that reactions of men under the threat of lethal force would be identical over the centuries.”9

6 “They had no heart for the fight and were unwilling to take share of the danger.” See in Bentley (2005). 7 Descriptions of psychologically affected soldiers occur in bible and in fiction (such as The Epic of Gilgamesh, Indian epic Mahabharata, Homer’s Illiad and the Odyssey, Lucretius and Ovid’s poems, old Icelandic Gisli Súrsson Saga, Shakespeare’s plays). Jean Froissart, a chronicler of the Hundred Years’ War, mentions a case of a nobleman who “could not sleep near his wife and children, because of his habit of getting up at night and seizing a sword to fight oneiric enemies.” See in Crocq, Marc-Antoine. “From Shell Shock and War Neurosis to Posttraumatic Stress disorder: A History of Psychotraumatology.” Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2000. 47-55. 8 Aislinn Melchior (2011) questions the popular view of similarity PTSD sufferers in ancient times and those in modern times. She points out morality (different moral codes), living conditions (omnipresent death centuries ago), weaponry (modern distance weapons), nature of combat and other (especially psychological) factors that should be taken into consideration. She suggests a “lower frequency of PTSD in the ancient world than that experienced by troops in the present day.” See in Melchior, A. “Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?” Greece and Rome, vol. 58, no. 02, 2011, pp. 209-223. 9 See in Melchior, 213

9 In 1678, PTSD-like symptoms were identified among Swiss soldiers by dr.

Johannes Hoffer. He used a term “nostalgia”, which was characterised by “melancholy, incessant thinking of home, disturbed sleep or insomnia, weakness, loss of appetite, anxiety, cardiac palpitations, stupor and fever”.10 In 1761, Austrian physician Josef

Leopold Auenbrugger widely described conditions of nostalgia in his book Inventum

Novum. Around the same time, German doctors diagnosed psychological problems of their soldiers as “heimweh”. French doctors termed similar symptoms as “maladie du pays”. Spanish physicians came up with the term “estar roto” observing the same problem among their troops. All physicians dealing with the issue described accurately the symptoms, but they did not relate diagnosis with brain and central nervous system.

Basically, they came to a rational conclusion that some soldiers felt homesick more than others. Dominique-Jean Larrey, an excellent French surgeon working in Napoleon’s

Army, suggested three different stages of the disorder, called today as PTSD: heightened excitement and imagination, fever and gastrointestinal problems, depression and frustration. He also works within the parameters of the “Nostalgia” diagnosis and did not come any closer to causes of the symptoms.11 “Nostalgia” as a model of psychological injury remained in military terminology until the American Civil War.

This conflict is considered to be the first modern warfare. Using modern technology made battles more destructive and horrifying. Medical doctors noted that a great number of soldiers was stressed and suffered from psychological symptoms that could not be simply explained as “nostalgia”. American surgeon Jacob Mendez Da

Costa, who studied distressed Civil War soldiers, discovered that many of them suffered from a rapid pulse, anxiety and trouble breathing. The disorder was called “soldier’s heart”, “irritable heart” or “Da Costa’s syndrome”. Dr Da Costa described the symptoms as overstimulation of the heart’s nervous system. The worst cases were discharged from service, but soldiers were usually returned to combat after they

10 See in Bentley, 2. 11 Ibid.

10 received drugs to control symptoms. The government made no effort to offer treatment for mentally wounded veterans after the war.

There were more and more documented cases of psychologically disturbed people exposed to some kind of trauma in the second half of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. Doctors and psychiatrists tried to understand causes and to explain symptoms in new and new theories. The prevailing trend was to attribute the nature of post-traumatic disorder to an organic injury. Eulenberg (1878) proposed the term “psychic trauma” for emotional shock leading to molecular concussion of the brain. Charcot (1882) used the terms “traumatic neurosis” and “traumatic hysteria” to classify patients with PTSD claiming that physical injury could produce psychological symptoms. The term “railway spine” was used as a diagnosis for PTSD of victims of railroad accidents. Page (1885) introduced concepts of “nervous shock” and “functional disorder” claiming that nervous shock was psychological in origin but caused physiologic malfunction of the nervous system. George Miller Beard (1889) coined the term “neurasthenia” (or nervous exhaustion) which included fatigue, headaches, insomnia, melancholia, depression and other nonspecific emotional disorders. In the early 1900’s, neurasthenia became commonly recognised effect occurring after emotional trauma.12

The Russian Army was the first in history to determine that mental breakdown of soldiers was a direct consequence of trauma of war. During the Russian-Japanese

War (1904-1905), post-combat stress symptoms were recognised by both doctors and military command. Russian psychiatrists not only diagnosed the disorder, but they also developed forward psychiatric treatment which is considered to be the birth of military psychiatry. A German physician Honigman, who served with the Red Cross in the war, coined the term “war neurosis” in 1907.

12 More see in Friedman, Matthew J., et. al. Handbook of PTSD: Science and Practice, Second Edition, Guilford Publications, 2014.

.

11 1.2 PTSD in the 20th century

A rise of modern psychiatry and outbursts of massive war conflicts of the twentieth century were catalysts leading to an explosion of interest and to other research related to war neurosis. Brutal nature and horrors of the First World War (1914-1918) produced large numbers of the mentally disturbed. It was believed that exploding artillery shells caused physical injuries of brain resulting in symptoms like panic, insomnia, anxiety, tremor, convulsions, inability to stand or walk, and other mental problems. The disorder was called “shell shock” and it was still explained as consequence of physiological (no psychological) wounds. A lot of physicians and military leaders saw the explanation of the issue in weakness, cowardice or malingering of soldiers.

Unlike previous wars, mentally wounded soldiers were provided help this time.

A treatment in the area of forward psychiatry was standardized, based on three essential principles (proximity, immediacy, expectancy)13, summarized by the American psychiatrist Thomas W. Salmon. In 1917, major Salmon, as a senior psychiatric consultant for American forces in France, assigned a psychiatrist to each U.S. division and established procedures on the basis of the principles of forward psychiatry. The

Salmon program was considered to be successful14 and it was applied later during other war conflicts, including the Second World War, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Atrocities and horrors of the Second World War resulted in another generation of mentally wounded soldiers. “Combat fatigue”, which was a new term used for war neurosis, was perceived as serious issue. It became clear that such a large number of mentally disturbed servicemen could not be simply explained as their cowardice or

13 The principles were later given the acronym “PIE”. Proximity meant treating a patient close to the front line instead of transferring him home or to more relaxed surroundings of the rear, from where he would seldom return to combat. Immediacy meant treating as early as possible to prevent development of chronic symptoms. Expectancy referred to the positive expectation that after a prompt treatment through persuasive psychotherapy, a soldier would return to duty. See in Jones, Edgar and Wessely, Simon. “’Forward Psychiatry’ in the Military: Its Origins and Effectiveness”. Journal of Traumatic Stress. Vol. 16. No. 4. August 2003. pp. 411-419. 14 Jones and Wessely (2003) refers to data showing that “65% of US troops were returned to combat after an average of 4 day’s treatment.” See in Jones, Wessely, 412-413.

12 weakness. Military psychiatrists conducted a number of studies of soldiers suffering from trauma neurosis which led to the new insight of the issue.15 There was a general consensus that it was necessary to standardize diagnostics and treatment of the disorder.

In 1952, APA published the first edition of DSM (DSM-I). This manual for psychiatrists offered a nomenclature and standard criteria for the classification of mental disorders. It contained an entry “gross stress reaction”. According to the authors of

DSM-I, the reaction could occur “in situations in which the individual has been exposed to severe physical demands or extreme emotional stress, such as in combat or in civilian catastrophe.”16 It was assumed that even patients with no previous signs of mental health problems could be affected, and the reaction was considered to be temporary.

When removed from the stressful situation, patient was thought to be cured rapidly.

Work on the second edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-II) started in the mid-1960s. It was the time when the first American troops were sent to

Vietnam. During the Second World War and the Korean War, mental fatigue and combat stress of soldiers were significant problem. The same problem was expected in

Vietnam as well. However, a number of psychiatric casualties was very low at the beginning of the Vietnam War.17 The low figures were attributed primarily to the implementation of the Salmon program, which was employed from the very beginning of the Vietnam War (unlike the Second World War and the Korean War). The problem of emotional breakdown of soldiers seemed to be resolved. In 1968, the DSM-II was published, and gross stress reaction was omitted from the manual. As a matter of fact,

DSM-II contained no classification for combat-related disorders. Scott (1990) suggests

15 A major contribution to the study of combat psychiatry was made by American psychiatrists, such as Abram Kardiner (who accented concomitance of somatic and psychological symptoms, and developed his own concept of the “effective ego”) and Roy R. Grinker with John P. Spiegel (who distinguished “acute reactions to combat” from “delayed reactions after combat”, and described chronic consequences of combat including “passive-dependent states, psychosomatic states, guilt and depression, aggressive and hostile reactions, and psychotic-like states”). See in Crocq (2000). 16 See in Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. Washington, American Psychiatric Association, 1952. 40 17 Scott (1990) states that “less than 5 percent of the total evacuations out of Vietnam between 1965 and 1967 were for psychiatric reasons” In comparison, “the flow of soldiers out of the Army on psychiatric grounds during the Second World War at one point exceeded the numbers of new recruits being inducted. During early phase of the Korean War, psychiatric casualties accounted for nearly one-fourth of all evacuations from the battlefield” (296).

13 that “those writing DSM-II had no first experience with war neurosis from the Second

World or Korean Wars, and initial indications from respected psychiatrists in Vietnam were that the standard nomenclature covered the range of disorders they encountered there” (297).

Not all psychiatrists were in agreement with the omission of war neurosis as a diagnostic category. Several follow-up studies of World War II and Korean War veterans, which were conducted in the 1950s and the 1960s, pointed out specificity and significance of a diagnosis of combat-related mental disorders.18 Psychiatrists Robert

Lifton, Chaim Shatan and Sarah Haley became chief advocates of PTSD diagnosis. It was not only academic discussion. Health and lives of Vietnam veterans were in stake.

The Vietnam War was going on and more and more American soldiers were coming home wounded not only physically but also psychically after they were exposed to combat trauma. They returned home mentally shaken and showed all the typical symptoms of war neurosis such as anxiety, agitation, sleep disturbances, traumatic flashbacks, delusions and numbing. Some psychiatrists still considered gross stress reaction diagnostically valid. Disturbed Vietnam veterans were, however, often misdiagnosed and were not provided with appropriate aid and treatment. It was very difficult for those veterans to re-assimilate back into “normal” lives.

Proponents of recognition PTSD won influential support in Senator Alan

Cranston. His investigation into the issue led to a hearing before the Senate Committee on Veterans Affairs on January 17, 1970. Dr Robert Jay Lifton, who had served during the Korean War as a military psychiatrist and was well-known in academic circles, spoken fervently about psychological trauma experienced by Vietnam veterans before the Committee. He portrayed images of death and destruction, and described horrors and brutalities that led to psychic numbing of soldiers. He explained how difficult was

18 For example, Swank (1949), Futterman and Pumpian-Mindlin (1951), Brill and Beebe (1955) and Archibald and Tuddenham (1962, 1965).

14 for them to leave the war behind after returning home. His powerful words caught senators’ attention, but did not result in immediate actions.19

On April 30, 1971, a Detroit liquor store manager shot and killed a man who tried to rob his store holding a gun. Normally, such a routine crime would not draw much attention, but this time it did. The case appeared in pages of major national and local newspapers, journals and other publications. The life of the offender inspired a play which appeared on Broadway, around the USA and on television.

The robber was Dwight Hal “Skip” Johnson – a black Vietnam veteran who was personally decorated by President Lyndon Johnson with the Congressional Medal of

Honor, the nation’s highest and most prestigious award for heroism in combat, in

November 1968. Johnson’s death was shocking for his family, friends, comrade-in-arms and a black community of Detroit, as he was known as “non-violent man”, “easy-going, hard to rattle, impossible to anger, “a fabulous, all around guy, bright and with a great sense of humour”20 Service in Vietnam changed him though.21 His friends noted that

“when he came home from Vietnam he was different, […] all jumpy and nervous”.22 He had bad dreams. He was quieter than usual. Although he often recalled images of the dead Vietnamese (especially images of face-to-face encounter with the soldier who failed to kill him), he refused to talk about things that had happened back in Vietnam.

According to his psychiatric evaluations, he was anxious, sad and depressed. He felt inadequate and suffered guilt as he had lost control of himself in the battlefield, killed people and was honoured for it later. He questioned his own morality and sanity. He was diagnosed with “depression caused by post-Vietnam adjustment problem.”23 He

19 Dr Clifton mentions the Senate hearing in his book Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir (2014). See Lifton, Robert Jay. Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir. Free Press, 2014. 20 See in Nordieimer, Jon. “From Dakto to Detroit: Death of a Troubled Hero”. The New York Times. 26 May 1971. 21 On January 14, 1968, his platoon was ambushed by North Vietnamese soldiers. The crew of his tank was killed, but he was able to subdue enemies on his own. For about 30 minutes, he shot and killed up to 20 Vietnamese. “At one point, he came face to face with a Communist soldier who squeezed the trigger on his weapon aimed point blank at him. The gun misfired, and Skip killed him. But the soldier would come back to haunt him late at night in Detroit”. See in Nordieimer. 22 Ibid. 23 Ibid.

15 had problems to find a job and to meet his obligations to the Army that eventually offered him a job in public relations and as a recruiter. Although he was a war hero and a local celebrity (being the only living Medal Honor winner in Michigan) and everybody wanted to hire him, to meet him or to be seen with him, he was constantly in financial troubles. With stomach problems, he was sent to a hospital, where he also underwent psychiatric examinations. Although he was not in perfect mental condition, he was discharged from a hospital on a three-day pass on March 28, 1971. He never returned. The store owner, describing the fatal robbery, told later the Police: “I first hit him with two bullets, but he just stood there, with the gun in his hand and said, ‘I’m going to kill you...’ I kept pulling the trigger until my gun was empty.”24 Sergeant

Johnson may have been back in Vietnam in that particular moment and may have seen the dead Vietnamese soldier. Johnson’s mother later said: “Sometimes I wonder if Skip tired of his life and needed someone else to pull the trigger.”25

The Sergeant Johnson’s case drew the most publicity, but it was not rare. Other cases were mentioned in newspapers and on TV. A discussion about traumatised soldiers, coming back home from Vietnam, diffused into popular media. On May 6,

1972, a Canadian psychiatrist Chaim F. Shatan, who was deeply involved with the issue of combat trauma, published in The New York Times an essay “Post-Vietnam

Syndrome”, based on his observations in “rap group” sessions.26 The syndrome

“occurred nine to thirty months after return from Vietnam” and included symptom themes of “guilt, rage, the feeling of being scapegoated, psychic numbing, and alienation.” (Scott, 301). The article caught the attention of other experts and mental health associations. “Things started mushrooming.” (Scott, 301).

In 1973, based on his two years’ intensive participation in weekly “rap groups” in New York, Robert Jay Lifton published a book Home from the War, which became

24 Ibid. 25 Ibid. 26 These meetings were initiated by veterans themselves and later organized by professional therapists. Veterans shared, recounted and talk about their experiences and concerns there. Eventually, this form of therapy became the preferred method of treatment for Vietnam veterans with combat-related mental illnesses.

16 one of the most influential books about Vietnam Veterans.27 Lifton, Shatan and other anti-war psychiatrists came together with a national organisation Vietnam Veterans

Against the War (VVAW). They had contacts in prestigious universities and outside professional community as well. In collaboration with National Council of Churches

(NCC), they organised the First National Conference on the Emotional Needs of

Vietnam-Era Veterans in St. Louis, on April 26-28, 1973. The most significant outcome of the conference was establishing of the National Vietnam Veterans Resource Project

(NVRP), which was supposed to search and gather data on the effects of combat-related stress and to help coordinate a self-help movement of veterans’ groups (Bloom, 2000).

By 1974, the NVRP had catalogued 2,700 diverse veterans’ self-help programs.

(Bloom, 2000). In June 1974, it was published an article “When the Patient Reports

Atrocities”28 by Sarah Haley, who had had years of experience treating Vietnam veterans, and who formed with Shatan, Lifton and other advocates of PTSD the

Vietnam Veterans Working Group.

Since the mid-1970s, APA was developing DSM-III. To the surprise of the

Working Group, it came out that editors of the manual were not planning any changes regarding to combat-related disorders as a diagnostic category. Shatan, Lifton and their other collaborators had to intensify their effort, gather other empirical evidence and raise more public awareness of Vietnam veterans and psychological trauma they suffered.

27 The book discusses experiences, attitudes and transformations of returning Vietnam veterans. It is a psychological insight into souls of a mentally wounded veterans, and it deals with the war and its implications for the larger society. Lifton raises the question of “what we as a society have learned from the pain, guilt and rage of these men, and from our own unease over a small, undeclared war that we lost.” (Zisk, 132). The author also “encouraged Americans to shed their romanticized notions about war and to place a portion of the blame for atrocities in Vietnam on the war itself, and upon themselves for allowing it, rather than exclusively on the Vietnam, veterans who fought it.” (Scott, 302). Reprint edition of the book (2005) connects the experience of Vietnam veterans with veterans of the Iraq War. 28 The article points out specific aspects of the Vietnam War that differentiate this war from previous ones (such as the Second World War and Korean War). Instead of massive battles, guerrilla tactics predominated. The Vietnam war was undeclared and more and more unpopular. Veterans were not always welcomed home as heroes. War atrocities (such as the My Lai Massacre) committed by American soldiers were being revealed and became a national issue. Committing or being witness of these atrocities had devastating impact on veterans. It was also challenging for therapists to treat patients who reported the dreadful deeds. See in Haley, Sarah A. “When the Patient Reports Atrocities.” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 30, no. 2, Jan. 1974, p. 191.

17 In cooperation with WBAI radio station in New York City, they arranged an all- day marathon broadcast on Vietnam veterans encouraging listeners to phone in with questions and comments. They organised meetings and discussion panels. They set up a workshop on combat disorders in annual meeting of the American Orthopsychiatric

Association (AOA) in Atlanta, in March 1976.

The Working Group was widened, and its members were systematically gathering evidence of the disorder which they labelled “catastrophic stress disorder”

(CSD). Until 1978, they had collected data on more than 700 case histories of Vietnam veterans, and they elaborated the theory. They recognised acute, chronic and delayed manifestations of CSD, and their proposal included a subcategory of CSD – post- combat stress reaction. In January 1978, they presented their findings to the APA’s

Committee on Reactive Disorder, which was responsible for the final version of DSM.

Although there was an opposition to the proposal of the Working Group, the Committee approved it and a new separate diagnosis was included in DSM-III under the label

“post-traumatic stress disorder”.

PTSD was classified in a category Anxiety disorders and was described in two pages plus a page stating the diagnostic criteria and subtypes. According to the manual,

“the essential feature [of PTSD] is the development of characteristic symptoms following a psychologically traumatic event that is generally outside the range of usual human experience.” (DMS-III, 236). Three subtypes of PTSD were distinguished in the manual: acute (“onset of symptoms within six months of the trauma”, “duration of symptoms less than six months”), chronic (“duration of symptoms six months or more”) and delayed (“onset of symptoms at least six months after the trauma”). (DSM-III, 238).

Diagnostic criteria for PTSD involved existence of recognizable stressor, reexperiencing of the trauma, numbing, hyper alertness, sleep disturbance, guilt, memory impairment and some others, which are discussed later in chapter 3 in the context of representations of Vietnam veterans in films.

18 DSM-III was revised seven years later (as DSM-III-R) with several minor refinements concerning PTSD. DSM-IV was published in 1994 (with revision of the text in 2000) as the primary information source for mental health service providers and the National Center for PTSD. A significant change from DSM-III was introducing of

Acute Stress Disorder, which can only be diagnosed within the first month after a traumatic event. The manual also expanded the definition of traumatic events. DSM-V was released in 2013 and its most visible change is that PTSD is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder. It is now in a new category – Trauma- and Stressor-Related

Disorders.29

Besides medical aspects, discussions about PTSD and its addition to DSM have had a political dimension. Veterans, who had been either physically or psychically wounded fighting for their country, expected help from the country after coming home.

“Because their dysfunction now was directly tied to military service and not to personality flaws, the Veterans Administration (now the Department of Veterans

Affairs, VA) was required to offer services to affected soldiers.” (Echterling et al., 1)

Furthermore, PTSD was recognised as a disorder with entitlement to disability benefits.

VA required government funding and appropriate legislation to provide proper help. For a long time, government support was not adequate though. Joe Stein in his article

Examining Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Plight of Vietnam Veterans concludes that “the legislation written by the United States Congress regarding veterans with PTSD did not appropriately match the medical understanding of the disorder […] and its ineffectiveness has harshly affected a generation of American veterans.” (8).

President Barrack Obama called America’s treatment of its Vietnam veterans “a disgrace”30

29 More details about changes in editions of DSMs and their analysis see in website of the National Center for PTSD - https://www.ptsd.va.gov, or in http://traumadissociation.com/ptsd.html. 30 In May 2012, the president spoke before a monument to the 58,000 Americans killed in Vietnam and said the war was “one of the most painful chapters in our history”, especially “how we treated our troops who served there.” The president addressed veterans, who gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Hall, with words: “You came home and sometimes were denigrated, when you should have been

19 There was not a small number of those who suffered PTSD after coming home from Vietnam, and who needed help (and not always got it). Studies have estimated that about 30% of Vietnam veterans have suffered PTSD in their lifetime, and according to them, PTSD still remains a chronic reality of everyday life.31 Without appropriate treatment and help, and in combination with other factors (such as physical disability, difficulties with finding a job, and financial troubles), many of these veterans have faced insurmountable problems. As a consequence, they decided to end their lives, unable to find relief from their physical pain and mental anguish. Some experts believe that the number of veterans who committed suicide after coming back home from

Vietnam was at least as great as the number of Americans died in the war.32

Alarming suicide rate. High unemployment rate. High divorce rate.

Homelessness. Drug addiction. Health problems due to exposure to Agent Orange.33

High crime rate. Those were issues which have been discussed in the context of veterans coming home from Vietnam, sometimes in direct or indirect connection with

PTSD.

The issue of returning veterans was significant, and it could not escape attention of filmmakers.

celebrated. It was a national shame, a disgrace that should have never happened.” See in Mason, and MacInnis (1). 31 See in http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/PTSD-overview/basics/how-common-is-ptsd.asp. The most recent study, known as the National Vietnam Veterans Longitudinal Study (NVVLS), was completed in December 2013. It was the first study to measure the long-term health and mental health of Vietnam veterans. The results show that there is still a significant number of Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD and other chronic health issues related to their service. See in Schlenger, William E., and Nida H. Corry. “Four Decades Later: Vietnam Veterans and PTSD.” The VVA Veteran Online, Jan and Feb 2015, http://vvaveteran.org/35-1/35-1_longitudinalstudy.html 32 It is difficult to determine an exact number of suicides, as sometimes suicides are not reported or sometimes it is not easy to determine whether or not a particular individual's death was intentional. Official data about suicide rates among Vietnam veterans see in http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/co- occurring/ptsd-suicide.asp 33 Agent Orange is a mixture of tactical herbicides (2,4,5-T and 2,4-D) which the U.S. military sprayed in the jungles of Vietnam to remove trees and dense tropical foliage that provided enemy cover. It is presumed that exposure to the herbicides may result in damaging genes (and later deformities among the offspring of exposed victims) and it can cause serious diseases such as cancer, leukaemia or Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

20 2 FILM AS CONVEYER OF IDEAS, MEANING AND IMAGES

PTSD can be perceived in two primary meanings. The first one is clinical

(professional) where PTSD is “a diagnosis of mental disorder with formal, structured treatment approaches in the fields of psychiatry and psychology” (Keranen, 38). The

DSM and other medical studies defined and classified the diagnosis, and they introduced a new terminology and determined diagnostic standards. The second meaning is popular culture which covers a variety of sociocultural contexts. It includes clinical PTSD but also contends with the legacy of meanings and terms like “combat fatigue”, “war neurosis” or “shell shock” which circulate outside the current professional nomenclature. In popular culture, PTSD is brought out of clinical discourse into popular discourse.

The popular discourse includes film, photographs, books, magazines, newspapers, Internet content, and other visual media. These visual media, and especially film (which is in the focus of this work), are very powerful conveyer of ideas and meanings about PTSD in the context of Vietnam veterans. Film is widespread and very popular phenomenon, and as such it plays very important role in modern culture.

James Monaco in his book How to Read a Film points out its “profound sociopolitical”

(how film reflects and is integrated with human experience in general) and

“psychopolitical” (each person’s personal and specific attitudes to film) effect on its audience, as it provides “a powerful and convincing representation of reality” (261).

Significant features of film are its visuality and its availability. Film is a mass-produced kind of art and it can reach large numbers of people. As such widespread phenomenon, film can be politically very influential. Monaco suggests that “every film, no matter how minor it may seem, exhibits a political nature” on three levels: ontologically, because “the medium of film itself tends to deconstruct the traditional values of the culture”; mimetically, because “any film either reflects reality or recreates it”; and

21 inherently, because “the intense communicative nature of film gives the relationship between film and observer a natural political dimension” (263).

Films are able to entertain their audience and to convey a message at the same time. They have ability to shape public perception of various issues (such as coming home Vietnam veterans) and history. In this context, historians and other scholars are concerned with the fact that Hollywood movies have become the major source of historical knowledge for increasing numbers of people. The fact that people usually prefer fictionalized versions of history to documentary material is not surprising. Film is potentially more effective and enjoyable form of representation than non-fiction literature or documentaries. It can offer fresh insight into an issue. It has ability to

“articulate dimensions of meaning and experience that could otherwise not be expressed with equal daring, force and justification” (Fluck, 358). It can interpret reality in original contexts and forms. On the other hand, there is a concern about reduction and trivialization of history, and about inaccuracy of real facts in movies. Commercial films are made primarily for profit. They are supposed to attract as much audience as possible. Therefore, factual and historical accuracy can be subordinated to other priorities such as making the story more thrilling and sensational for popular audience.

Filmic interpretation of history can be compelling and its imagery powerful. Winfried

Fluck suggests that “the collective memory of a society like that of the U.S.A. is now largely in the hands of Hollywood, it seems” (353). Mark Carnes in the introduction to the essay collection Past Imperfect: History According to the Movies states that “for many Hollywood history is the only history” (qtd. in Fluck, 353).

Hollywood’s audiences tend to perceive American Vietnam veterans as their representations in films, and to view their problems related to PTSD as they are interpreted in movies. It is relatively easy to associate a Vietnam veteran with John

Rambo (First Blood, 1982), Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July, 1989) or

Lieutenant Dan (Forrest Gump, 1994). This perception may result in oversimplifying

22 generalization, and stereotyped, incomplete and distorted images of veterans with

PTSD.

Some of films dealing with the issue of mentally disturbed Vietnam veterans are based on real life stories (Casualties of War, Born on the Fourth of July). Majority of these films are fictions that interpret reality and the issue of wounded veterans in harmony with filmmakers’ intentions. Using Roland Barthes’ terminology from his

Mythologies, veterans’ representations in the movies can be viewed as “veteran myth” – a particular “kind of message” (Barthes, 110) about veterans which is presented from the perspective of filmmakers.34 There are varieties of the myths, as each film creator sees the issue of Vietnam veterans through his own lens. However, there are also some common elements and trends which are later discussed in chapter 4. Each filmmaker offers his own perspective. Each member of audience, however, can interpret the film in different ways according to his/her own experience and perception. New interpretations of the audience and discussing, sharing and spreading of them are also part of the myth, which “circulate in the sociocultural collective consciousness” (Keranen, 30).

As mentioned above, Hollywood movies have powerful ability to shape opinions, attitudes and viewpoints of their audiences. It also works vice versa. It is a two-way street. Films dealing with the issue of mentally wounded Vietnam veterans have been shaped by changing values of their audience. The symbiotic relationship between influence of Hollywood and shifting values of American society was evident in the turbulent Vietnam and Post-Vietnam era. With changes in American society, the nature of war movies was changing. And the way in which Vietnam veterans were depicted in films varied as well. In the early 1970’s, American movies mostly presented negative images of mentally disturbed veterans as psychotics and threats to society. The

Vietnam war was very unpopular. War atrocities committed by American soldiers were

34 According to Barthes, a myth is “a system of communication”, “a type of speech”. Myth can be everything, “provided it is conveyed by a discourse” (Barthes, 110). He does not define a myth as the object of its message, but as the way in which this message is presented. “The special trick of myth is to present an ethos, ideology or set of values as if it were a natural condition of the world, when in fact it is no more than another limited, man-made perspective. A myth does not describe the natural state of the world, but expresses the intentions of its teller” (Welshmythology, 1).

23 being revealed and they were broadly discussed. After coming home, veterans were not always appreciated and welcomed as heroes. They were perceived as immoral men returning from immoral war. In different societal climate of the late 1970’s and the

1980’s, mentally wounded veterans were portrayed in more sympathetic fashion.

Movies also reflected development in field of psychiatry and psychology (as described in chapter 1). Films of the early 1970’s usually offered rather simplistic images of mentally disturbed Vietnam veterans. More recent movies (such as Deer

Hunter, Coming Home, Distant Thunder, The War at Home and some others discussed in chapter 4) provided more realistic and deeper insight into a soul of a troubled soldier.

Movies and filmic representations of Vietnam soldiers with PTSD are affected by complex of factors. Conversely, these representations affect the way how the veterans are perceived. Varieties of veteran myths also say a lot about the time in which they were made.

3 PTSD SYMPTOMS AND THEIR PORTRAYALS IN FILM

The Vietnam War has become a popular theme in Hollywood. During the war, only one American movie dealing with the American involvement in the conflict was produced – it was John Wayne’s project The Green Berets (1968). Since the end of the war, however, plenty of movies displaying the warfare in Vietnam have been made, including iconic classics such as Apocalypse Now (1979), Full Metal Jacket (1987) and

Oliver Stone’s trilogy Platoon (1986), Born on the Fourth of July (1989) and Heaven &

Earth (1993).

There have also been prolific Hollywood production of films adapting the stories of American soldiers after their return home. Vietnam Veterans have appeared as main, supporting or just minor characters in hundreds of movies, serials and TV series.

Despite their popularity and quantity, there is no specific veteran film genre. According to the theme, films dealing with difficulties Vietnam veterans faced after coming back

24 from Vietnam are usually labelled as the “coming home movies” as a subcategory within other genres such as war movies and drama.

This thesis focuses on a specific subcategory of the “coming home” films – on representations of Vietnam veterans struggling with PTSD. For the purpose of this work, these movies are designated as “PTSD films”, considering only the context of

Vietnam veterans suffering from PTSD as the result of their military involvement in

Vietnam. Veterans in these movies are presented in various forms and interpretations.

And so “PTSD movies” covers a variety of genres, subgenres and their combinations, including war movie (e.g. The Deer Hunter, Casualties of War), drama (majority of

“PTSD films”), biography (Born on the Fourth of July), thriller (Combat Shock,

Cutter’s Way), crime (Casualties of War, Cutter’s Way), mystery (The Ninth

Configuration), romantic comedy and romance (Heroes, Coming Home), horror

(Combat Shock, The Ninth Configuration), action (First Blood), adventure (First

Blood), road movie (Welcome Home, Soldier Boys). It is quite a wide range of genres which blend in most of the movies.

“PTSD films”, as defined in this work, deal with Vietnam veterans who suffer from PTSD after coming home. Veteran characters in these movies show symptoms which are typical for PTSD, and which are portrayed in various ways by filmmakers.

The symptoms provide an important interpretive framework for analysis of the veteran representations in “PTSD films”. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss diagnostic criteria for PTSD as they are defined in clinical and popular discourse. The following summary is a synthesis of symptoms and diagnostic criteria as described in the DSM-III and

DSM-IV, and in the public section of a website of The National Center for PTSD.35

Examples of ways the symptoms are portrayed in movies are added to each criterion.

The first diagnostic criterion is an existence of a recognizable stressor which is an exposure to a traumatic event. This event involves actual or threatened death or

35 The Public section of The National Center for PTSD presents four types of PTSD symptoms - reliving the event/re-experiencing symptoms, avoiding situations that remind you of the event, negative changes in beliefs and feelings, feeling keyed up/hyperarousal. DSM-III defines diagnostic criteria A, B, C, and D for PTSD. DSM-IV presents more detailed description and the criteria A, B, C, D, E and F.

25 serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others. The person’s response to the event involves intense fear, helplessness, or horror. Traumatic events and experiences that cause mental instability of characters appear in almost all “PTSD films”. Revelation of the events helps audience to understand the characters’ behaviours and motives. It exposes and explains the character’s history. These are usually very dramatic and emotional moments of movies: for example, in Distant Thunder, the scenes in which it is revealed that the main character, Mark, killed his best friend during a mission in Vietnam in order not be found and caught by Vietcong. Traumatic events are often presented through flashbacks or they are recounted. Sometimes they are part of the narrative, such as playing Russian roulette in Vietnamese POW camp in The Deer

Hunter.

The second criterion relates to intrusive recollections, reexperiencing and reliving of traumatic events. These recurring recollections have many forms, including images, thoughts and perceptions. People suffering from PTSD may have recurrent bad dreams and nightmares about the events. They may have flashbacks, illusions and hallucinations, and feel like they go through the events once more. They may feel like they are “there” again and act like they are “there”. They may see, hear, or smell something that trigger reliving and reexperiencing of the events. “Exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event” may result in “intense psychological distress” or “physiological reactivity”. (DSM-IV, 428).

Recurring bad dreams are a commonly used way how to express psychological problems of the characters in movies. Flashbacks are also an effective way how to display characters’ inner trauma. Extremely frightening, distressing and horrid nightmares and flashbacks of the main character are portrayed in Combat Shock. These depressing, gloomy and bleak scenes, which are rendered through depressive ambient music, expressive images of war, psychedelic close-up shots and explicit gore effects, expressively show horrors a veteran may face and demons which may haunt him. A relatively common situation can be a trigger which starts off a flashback and re-

26 experiencing of a traumatic event. In Casualties of War, a Vietnam veteran Max

Eriksson sees a Vietnamese woman on a city bus, which triggers his memories of traumatic events that took place back in Vietnam within one of his missions. Police officers’ attempt to shave John Rambo at a police station in First Blood triggers

Rambo’s traumatic memories of torture he was subjected in POW in Vietnam, and sets off his rage which results in injuring policemen, damaging the police station and his flee into the woods. Ron Kovic in Born on the Fourth of July experiences a disturbing war flashback during his homecoming speech at an Independence Day parade. As he is talking on the stage, he suddenly hears a little girl crying from the crowd in front of him, which reminds him traumatic memories from Vietnam. He is evidently shaken and unable to finish his speech. Lieutenant Joe Hardy, who struggles with PTSD in The

Forgotten Man, has repeatedly problems to distinguish reality and traumatic flashbacks from Vietnam, and he becomes dangerous to his surroundings.

The third criterion involves “persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness” (DSM-IV, 428). Vietnam veterans may try to avoid thoughts, feelings, conversations, situations, activities, places or people that can trigger memories of traumatic events. They may forget important aspects of the trauma. They may be markedly less interested in activities they used to enjoy. They may feel detached or estranged from other people. They may have problems to feel love, to establish relationships and to stay in them. Generally, they may have limited ability to feel emotions. Veterans with PTSD often have a “sense of a foreshortened future”

(DSM-IV, 428), as they do not expect to get married, to have children, a career or normal life span. Example of this diagnostic criterion in film includes Mark Lambert, the main character of Distant Thunder, who alienates his wife and his son after coming home from Vietnam. He lives in separation from the community in secluded wilderness and has problem to re-join civilian life. He evinces practically all symptoms described above in this paragraph. Jeremy Collier in The War at Home goes through similar feelings of apathy and emotional numbing, although he is, unlike Mark, surrounded by

27 his family that tries to help him. Like Mark, he is an archetype of a veteran with PTSD displaying above mentioned symptoms, as he has problem to re-establish his relationship to his former girlfriend and his friends, struggles with tense relationship with his father, mother and sister, feels estranged, avoids talking about what happened back in Vietnam and about his feelings, concerns and anxieties, he does not know what to do with his life and does not see clearly his future. Jack Dunne, the main character of

Heroes, persistently avoids talking about everything that may recall his traumatic experience from Vietnam, he suppresses emotions and distressing memories, and only at the very end of the film he is forced to face his demons. Colonel Vincent Kane in The

Ninth Configuration suppresses not only his memories and emotions but even his own identity, thinking he is his own brother.

The fourth criterion includes “persistent symptoms of increased arousal” (DSM-

IV, 428). Vietnam veterans may have problems to fall asleep and difficulties with sleeping. They may be irritable and may burst with anger – often suddenly and without obvious reason. They may have troubles with concentrating. They may be hypervigilant and have exaggerated startle response. They may be “jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger.” (National Center for PTSD, Symptoms of PTSD). All these responses and typical features of troubled veterans are portrayed in many “PTSD films”.

At the very first scene of Jacknife, the character of Megs is introduced, having sleeping troubles, which indicates, in connection with other information that are revealed later in the film, his problems with coping with traumatic Vietnam experience. Many film characters worry people around them with sudden outbursts of anger. Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July) or Captain Bob Hyde (Coming Home) come back from Vietnam changed – distressed and hyper aroused. In several scenes, they are irritated and suddenly become furious. Jeremy Collier in The War at Home yells at members of his family, although they just try to speak with him and to help him. Colonel Kane in The

Ninth Configuration gives impression of calm, patient, level-headed person, but several times he surprises with sudden outburst of anger. An example of vigilance and startle

28 responses is the character of Mark Lambert, who is watchful, suspicious of others, careful, and who can be easily startled by someone who just approaches to him.

The fifth criterion refers to the time of onset of the symptoms, and to the duration the symptoms have been present. PTSD symptoms are usually observed soon after the traumatic event. Some people, however, can notice the symptoms later - months or years after the trauma. If it is six months or more after the traumatic event, the disorder is classified as delayed-onset PTSD. The critical element is the duration of the symptoms. PTSD diagnosis is conditioned by duration of the symptoms more than one month. If the duration of the symptoms is less than three months, the disorder is classified as acute PTSD. If it is three months and more, people suffer from chronic

PTSD. In films, it is usually difficult to specify when exactly a veteran character started to evince PTSD symptoms. It is also not easy to determine duration of the symptoms. In a 90-minute film or a two-hour film, it is not easy to depict the whole progression of the disorder. Usually, just a few symptoms or varieties of a symptom are presented in a movie to show and indicate the mental troubles of a Vietnam veteran character.

Sometimes it is possible to roughly estimate the duration of the troubles as it is shown how they come to an end. The end is not always happy and Vietnam veteran characters who feel miserable, distressed and are not able to cope with the troubles decide to commit a suicide. Such a way out of the troubles is chosen by Captain Hyde and Bill

Munson (Coming Home), Colonel Kane (The Ninth Configuration), Frankie Dunlan

(Combat Shock), and Louis and Mark (Distant Thunder), who is fortunately saved by his son. Jeremy Collier is very close to suicide. Nick’s involving in Russian roulette gambling (The Deer Hunter) can also be considered as a suicidal act. The chronicity of the PTSD is illustrated in Distant Thunder. Mark’s mental troubles connected with the disorder started when his son was a little child. When he decides to make contact with him, after years in wilderness, the son is eighteen and it is clear that Mark still suffers from PTSD. Like Mark and his friends, Joseph “Megs” Megessey and David Flannigan in Jacknife deal with their painful memories of Vietnam years after their coming home.

29 Characters with chronic PTSD are also portrayed in In Country which is set many years after the end of the Vietnam War.

The last criterion in DSM-IV involves “clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.” (DSM-IV,

429). In this context, Mark Lambert and his veteran friends from Distant Thunder must be mentioned once more. They live in makeshift huts and house trailers in the woods.

They are isolated in a remote area where impassable terrain, traps and a sign

“trespassers will be executed” form the boundary of their small secluded world. Their tormented and disturbed souls afflicted with PTSD are not capable of “normal” function in civilized society. Although Mark tries to come back to the civilisation, he has problems to fit in the community and after some time, he runs away into the wilderness again. He clearly needs some help.

To qualify veterans’ symptoms and responses, which are described above in the context of the third and the fourth diagnostic criterion, as PTSD symptoms, these responses and symptoms must not be present before experiencing the trauma. In films, it is not always evident how its characters had behaved and what they had been like before they went to Vietnam. A valuable comparison of “before and after” is offered in

Coming Home, Deer Hunter and Born on the Fourth of July. The last two mentioned movies also contain scenes from the war, and present a stressor - traumatic events the main characters of the movies were exposed to. That makes them a very interesting material for deeper analysis of representations of Vietnam veterans with PTSD.

30 4 FILM REPRESENTATIONS OF VIETNAM WAR VETERANS WITH PTSD

4.1 PTSD movies in 1960’s and the 1970’s

The Vietnam War was the first televised war. Every day, American

audiences could see footages of the conflict in comfort of their living rooms. They could

see the war from the perspective which was different from romanticized, patriotic and

glorifying images which Hollywood studios had tended to portray in the Second World

War movies. In Vietnam, there was no clearly defined enemy. The American

involvement in the conflict was questioned. The war was becoming more and more

unpopular. American soldiers in Vietnam were perceived not only as patriots who

fought for their country but also through the lens of atrocities, violent actions and killing

of civilians they committed in Vietnam. Vietnam Veterans who were coming home

were not seen as triumphant war heroes like veterans of the Second World War, who

fought Nazism, but rather as troubled soldiers, negatively affected and changed by the

immoral war. Filmmakers reflected the atmosphere in the society and they fuelled it

through their movies. A new image of a war veteran was presented in films – a veteran

who is disillusioned, frustrated, violent, dysfunctional, threatening. In a study, which

deals with the film portraits of veteran in the early 1970’s, Julian Smith concludes that

“Vietnam has produced a large body of young men who practised or witnessed at first

hand the sanctioned and pragmatic use of violence – not surprisingly, film and

television writers have assumed the mass audience will accept the portrayal of veterans

as constantly violent.” (10).

“Coming home movies” were not anything new at the time of the Vietnam war.

Movies dealing with veterans facing various problems after returning home were

released after the First World War (e.g. I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang, 1932) and

after the Second World War (e.g. The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946, and Till the End of

Time, 1946). Unlike these films, “coming home movies” which appeared in the late

1960’s and early 1970’s had a different nature. Rick Berg (1990) suggests that they

31 “share a dominant structural feature: In each case, the vet is a catalyst for violence if not violent himself.” (56). Veterans were often associated with gangs of bikers (as being members of these gangs or fighting them) – in films like Motorpsycho! (1965), The

Born Losers (1967), The Angry Breed (1968), Angels from Hell (1968), The Losers

(1970), The Hard Ride (1971) and Chrome and Hot Leather (1971). Veterans were portrayed as being dangerous because they were trained killers. Although sometimes they were depicted as “moral” killers, revenging deaths of their loved ones (Slaughter,

1972, Rolling Thunder, 1977) or fighting the crime (Gordon’s War, 1973, Mr. Majestyk,

1974), they were more often portrayed as criminals.

The story of The Visitors (1972) is loosely based on an actual crime that was committed in Vietnam in November 1966, and which was later adapted for Brian de

Palma’s film Casualties of War (1989).36 A young Vietnamese girl was kidnapped from her village by five American soldiers, gang raped by four of them and later killed. The soldier who refused to participate in the crime reported the other four which resulted in their imprisonment. Unlike Casualties of War, the incident is not shown in The Visitors, but it is only alluded. The story is set several years after the incident when the two convicted veterans unexpectedly visit their former fellow fighter Bill who has sent them to prison. Bill, enjoying a peaceful life in the countryside with his girlfriend and trying to forget what has happened back in Vietnam, is not happy about the visit as he is afraid the two visitors may want to revenge. The tension is rising throughout the story and it culminates in the final scene, in which Bill is beaten up and his girlfriend raped.

Other violent-acting Vietnam veterans are portrayed in Welcome Home, Soldier

Boys (1971). Danny, Shooter, Kid and Fatback who have just come back from Vietnam do not give the impression of cold-blooded killers. Yet they (probably) kill a young woman during the way home in a rented car, and at the end of the story they massacre all population of a small town of Hope in New Mexico. In Open Season (1974), three young Vietnam veterans enjoy kidnapping people and hunting them down in the woods

36 In 1970, the incident was also filmed by Michael Verhoeven in Danish production. The film is called O.K.

32 like animals after they have psychologically terrorised them. In these movies, it seems like the veteran characters forgot to leave their lethal skills back in Vietnam, and they could not stop killing. A father of one of the victims in Open Season, who eventually kills all three murderers, expresses it aptly in the final scene of the movie when he addresses one of the killers: “Your licence to kill ran out after the war. […] But they forgot to tell you.” (01:33:10 – 01:33:39).

A list of violent Vietnam veteran characters in movies would be quite long. In

To Kill a Clown (1972), Alan Alda plays a crippled Vietnam veteran who imprisons a married couple on an island using his two Dobermans. In famous Martin Scorsese’s

Taxi Driver (1976), Robert de Niro portrays a traumatised veteran who sees New York, where he works as a taxi driver, just like a dirty city full of violence, drugs, criminals and prostitutes. He decides to do something about it. He wants to change the world and to make it better, but it involves more violence. In Skyjacked (1972), a disturbed

Vietnam vet hijacks a plane. In Black Sunday (1977), Bruce Dern portrays a crazed

Vietnam-vet pilot who has been imprisoned and tortured in Vietnamese prison camp for a year and is mentally scarred by this experience. After coming home, feeling betrayed by his wife and his country, he joins the terrorist organisation Black September and plots a devastating terrorist attack during the Super Bowl match. In The Stone Killer

(1973), an Italo-American mafioso hires a troop of Vietnam veterans to murder his enemies. These veterans are not heroic figures but rather well-trained, efficient, unscrupulous, obedient killing machines. When one of them, a man called Gus Lipper, is killed, a doctor, standing at him in a morgue, just gives a sigh: “Vietnam doesn’t make heroes. It makes a generation of Lippers.” (00:24:12 - 00:24:16).

The same doctor has been looking for the causes of Lipper’s previous violent behaviour. Being asked by a detective, he responds that “there was not any neurological basis for his violence” and then he continues: “He was one of the wounded, an

American victim. No noticeable scars.” Since the detective does not understand, the doctor explains: “Aggression and violence are part of a learning process. They’re habit-

33 forming. Now, Lipper was a type of addict. We tend to count the victims amongst the innocent, but that’s not always so, Lieutenant. After we’ve shed our pity for the basket cases and the burnt children, we’ve nothing left for the psychopaths we’ve created.”

(00:23:35 - 00:24:10). The doctor’s expert opinion may fit other veteran characters, such as those in Welcome Home, Soldier Boys and Open Season. From the perspective of these movies, the Vietnam war produced mentally wounded veterans, who were not only innocent victims of the war. The war also created psychopaths. “Coming home” movies of the discussed period do not usually provide a deep insight into the personalities of their veteran characters. However, some of them evince PTSD symptoms as they were discussed in chapter 3.

Welcome Home, Soldier Boys could be a feelgood road-movie in the style of a famous Easy Rider (1969), but the participants of this road trip are not as much easy- going as they may look at first. Otherwise they could not commit such horrible acts, as mentioned above. The character the most deeply portrayed in the movie is Danny who does not feel comfortable after coming home. He is happy to see his parents, but it seems like he has nothing to talk with them. He also does not understand his former friends. He feels alienated. When he visits a basketball match and a high school he used to attend he looks lost. He visits places he used to know, but the places mean nothing to him. It seems like he does not fit in there. He joins his fellow veterans, leaves his hometown and sets out on a road trip to California. During the trip, for the first time, he talks about what happened in Vietnam. He confides to a prostitute that he killed people in Vietnam, and he feels uneasy during the conversation. He and his friends are more and more irritable during the way. When it is revealed that they have carried rifles, machine guns, grenades, rocket launchers and ammunition all the time in the car trunk, it is evident that there is something wrong with them. A petty incident at the petrol station results in the final bloodshed and slaughtering of all residents of a small town in

New Mexico including women and children. When it is over, they put on their uniforms

34 and wait for the National Guard to face it and to fight the final battle. It seems like they are mentally back in Vietnam. It seems like they have never leave it.

Not only criminal and psychopathic Vietnam vets were portrayed in the movies of the early 1970’s. Lieutenant Joe Hardy in The Forgotten Man (1971) is a war hero, who experienced a trauma, as he was held as a POW in Vietnam, and who suffers PTSD as a result of this traumatic experience. He manages to escape and his return home surprises everybody as he was reported dead. Back in the USA, he finds out, that his wife Marie has remarried, his father has died, and he has lost a family business, because his father’s business partner has sold the company his father had built for years. There is only one remaining constant in his life – his daughter Sarah, who he loves and who loves him. The radical changes in his life do not help his problematic mental state.

Traumatic flashbacks from Vietnam recur in his mind again and again. Sometimes he is not able to distinguish what is real and what is just a part of his memories. He behaves rationally, but a moment later, something triggers his traumatic memories and he is back in Vietnam, in the prison camp or on the run after the escape. During one of these episodes, he attacks his ex-wife’s husband, considering him to be a Vietnamese prison officer. Marie, worrying about her daughter, tries to separate Sarah from her father and sends her away with her teacher. The teacher, Anne, is Joe’s former friend from a college who supports him and wants to help him to get over his mental problems. Joe visits her, finds Sarah and brings her on a trip. Marie in panic calls the police. Joe is found and forced to escape to the wilderness, which easy recalls his Vietnam memories.

In the key scene of the story, Joe, still accompanied by his daughter, is surrounded by the police, being aimed by a sniper. He is holding a gun and looks confused. Traumatic images from Vietnam blend with reality, and he is not able to differentiate between them. Eventually, the sniper shot Joe in front of his daughter, but Joe survives. The film offers optimistic denouement. Joe recovers both physically and mentally, stays with

Anne and does not lose his daughter. The movie offers faithful portrayal of a Vietnam vet suffering from PTSD (nine years before it was defined in DSM-III), and it is implied

35 here that the disorder can be overcome. The movie also asks in Joe’s superior officer’s words: “How many Joes Hardys must be there?” (00:35:12 - 00:35:16).

There were many of them. There were many of those who were exposed to traumatic experiences in Vietnam and came back home mentally stressed. Another one is portrayed in a romantic comedy Heroes (1977) and his name is Jack Dunne. Jack is a rather eccentric Vietnam vet who escapes from the veteran’s hospital at the beginning of the film. He sets out on a road trip to California to visit his Vietnam ex-comrades, and to start a worm farm with them. On the way, he meets Carol who is doubtful about her planned wedding. Like in other classical romantic comedies, the two do not get on well with each other at first, but they are becoming closer. What Carol does not know is that

Jack experienced an intense emotional trauma back in Vietnam, which is revealed only at the very end of the movie, and he suffers from PTSD. It is not recognisable on him at first sight, since he supresses the traumatic memories and is willing to talk only about the good things he associates with Vietnam. However, he is not okay. He bottles up his emotions. He has bad dreams. He refuses to explain to Carol why he was at hospital. He supresses all bad things about Vietnam and remains in delusive belief that his fellow fighter from Vietnam, Munro, is still alive. All pieces of puzzle fit in together at the end of the story, when he finally reaches Munro’s house in Eureka and Munro’s parents told him, that their son died four years ago in Vietnam. Jack is totally devastated and runs away, screaming. All the traumatic memories suddenly emerge. A street in Eureka changes to a Vietnamese village with explosions, shooting soldiers and killed villagers.

He is back in Vietnam, in a battle, he sees dead Munro in a helicopter and reexperiences the trauma. He releases his Vietnam demons, and after the final catharsis, he is comforted by Carol. He calms down and seems to be relieved from strain. Although he may not be absolutely alright, the film ends in hope that Jack gets over the trauma.

A year after the movie Heroes was released, audiences were presented with two movies which drew widespread attention to the issue of Vietnam veterans and problems they faced after coming home. The films were Hal Ashby’s Coming Home and Michael

36 Cimino’s The Deer Hunter. Both films have earned positive reception of critics and audiences37, and they relevantly contributed to a general discussion about Vietnam veterans in American society.

4.2 Coming Home

Coming Home deals with a number of issues related to the Vietnam war that have been subjects of national debates, such as veterans’ problems with returning to

“normal lives” after the war, treatment and medical care for Vietnam veterans in veteran hospitals, and difficulties that veterans’ wives, partners and families faced to. The film conveys a strong anti-war message. It portrays soldiers who came back home changed – changed by the war which a lot of them may have imagined in different way before.

Some of the soldiers are physically and mentally wounded, and show typical symptoms for PTSD. The story of the film focuses on two main veteran characters, Luke Martin and Bob Hyde, who are linked to the central female character of the movie, Sally Hyde.

In connection with PTSD, yet another film character must be mentioned – Sally’s friend’s brother Bill Munson.

Luke Martin is introduced in the movie as a paralyzed Vietnam veteran in a veteran hospital where Sally works as a volunteer. From Sally’s memories and a school yearbook, it is later revealed that Luke was a football team captain and a funny, clever, nice, young man before the war. After the war, in hospital, he is irritated, nervous, agitated and cynical. He is evidently shaken and upset about his Vietnam experience.

He is distressed because of his immobility. However, he shows that he is able to cope with the situation. He feels much better when he gets a wheelchair and he can spend some time outside the hospital. As he is getting closer to Sally and becomes intimate

37 Coming Home won 3 Oscars (Best Actor in a Leading Role – Jon Voigt, Best Actress in a Leading Role – Jane Fonda, and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen) and received a lot of other Awards and nominations for Awards of film critics. On a popular online movie database imdb.com, the film has user ratings of 7.3 of 10 (see in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077362/). The Deer Hunter won 5 Oscars (Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role – Christopher Walken, Best Director, Best Sound, Best Film Editing) and lots of other Awards of film critics. On imdb.com, the movie has user ratings of 8.2 of 10 (see in http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0077416/).

37 with her, he is more and more good-natured and placid. He accepts what happened back in Vietnam and he is recovering from his mental wounds. Eventually, he comes to terms with the Vietnam experience. He is changed by the war, but he manages to deal with it and to share his experience with others.

Unlike Luke, Bill Munson does not manage to face his Vietnam demons in the story. It is not clear what happened to him in Vietnam. “God only knows what he saw over there…or did”, his sister tells Sally, when they are talking about their men.

(00:37:56 - 00:38:00). Whatever happened to him in Vietnam, it must have been traumatic though. Bill evinces typical symptoms of PTSD. Although he is not physically wounded, he stays in the veteran hospital with Luke and other veterans who need help. Bill appears only in several scenes of the film, but it is evident that he is not mentally alright. He behaves strangely. He is usually distracted, disoriented and absent- minded. He suppresses his emotions and do not share his feelings. He seems to be closed off to the rest of the world. He mentally breaks down in the scene in which he is playing the guitar and singing a song about sunny future. After the words “tomorrow is a sunny day” in the lyrics of the song, he collapses. It is as if he senses that there is no bright future for him. He is not able to enjoy anything – not even playing the guitar he is good at. He is sorely distressed, and his mental state is getting worse, although his sister, Luke and other veteran friends from hospital try to help him. The distress becomes unbearable for Bill. During one evening in hospital, he locks himself in the doctors’ office, takes a syringe and shoots air into his veins. Before somebody gets to him, he is dead.

Like Bill and Luke, Sally’s husband Bob does not have a good time, while he is serving his country in Vietnam. In the beginning of the film, he is about to go to there.

He is self-confident, contented, in a good mood. He is proud of his military service for the country. He is excited and euphoric. “I feel like I'm off to the Olympic games, representing the United States”, he tells his friend before they depart. (00:07:50 -

00:07:53). Several weeks later, Sally meets different Bob during his leave in Hongkong

38 where he invites his wife. Sally feels that her husband has changed since she saw him last time. She feels that something is wrong with him. He is upset and nervous. He is distant and feels uneasy when he is with Sally alone. He is not able to explain what exactly troubles him. “I can't get all this bullshit about 'Nam out of my head”, he just says to Sally in a bar, where he tries to chase away the blues by alcohol. (01:00:56 -

01:00:59). Later in a hotel room, he is a little more specific about his traumatic combat experiences. He tells Sally how a unit under his command took a little hamlet during his first week at service, and how his soldiers chopped dead villagers’ heads off and then they asked him to put the heads on poles. He is evidently shaken by these memories.

“My men…were chopping heads off. That's what they were into,” he says in broken voice. (01:06:00 - 01:06:06). He embraces his wife and goes to bed, being distressed.

Bob’s psychological state is not getting better, and after a few months, he comes back home being mentally disturbed. He looks downcast and discouraged. He is still distant and avoids being alone with his wife. Although Sally prepares a welcome party for him, Bob prefers going to a pub and getting drunk with his soldier friends. He is irritated and is able to suddenly burst in anger. He sleeps with his gun. It is clear that he has not dealt with the Vietnam experience yet, and traumatic images from Vietnam still haunt him.

Captain Bob Hyde comes back from Vietnam with an injured leg, and he is decorated with a Purple Heart as a war hero. However, he does not feel as a hero. His injury was just an accident. He shot himself in the calf on the way to the showers after he had tripped over. He is very annoyed and stressed out when he is telling the story to

Sally and her friend. It seems that this is a very traumatic moment for him. He has always wanted to be a hero. He went to the war to be a hero. Nevertheless, he was decorated not for some heroic deed but thanks to the accident and his clumsiness. He feels he has failed as a soldier, and he does not belong to the army and to the war.

He also feels that he does not belong home. When he finds out about the love affair between Sally and Luke, he feels that there is no place for him anywhere. Being

39 extremely agitated, he takes his loaded rifle with attached bayonet, and goes to talk with

Sally. In a key scene of the movie, Sally tries to find out why he has been so far away from her since he came back. She also tries to explain her relationship with Luke, but

Bob just gets angry and shouts at her, that their marriage is over. However, it is not the marriage that troubles Bob. It is the war. “I want to be your husband”, he says to Sally.

“I just don’t deserve to be your husband. I don’t deserve the medal I’m getting tomorrow either.” (01:54:28 - 01:54:38). Bob is bursting in anger a few times during the talk, but Luke, who has arrived meanwhile, manages to calm him down. Bob puts his weapon away and cools down. He is not okay though. He is still depressed. From his perspective, he does not belong anywhere. He does not deserve to be a soldier. He does not deserve to be a husband. He may not deserve to live. “I just want to be a hero…That’s all,” he sighs at the end of the scene. (01:58:40 - 01:58:43).

The final sequence of the movie is created as crosscutting of three scenes which symbolically relate to each other. On the background, the scenes are accompanied by

Tim Buckley’s melancholic song called Once I Was, whose lyrics corresponds to the actions in the story. Luke Martin is invited to a high school to tell students about his experiences in Vietnam. In a gymnasium full of students, he openly tells them what they can expect if they enlist:

You know, you want to be a part of it, be patriotic, and go out […] When you

get over there, it's a totally different situation. […] You grow up really quick...

Because all you're seeing is a lot of death. I know some of you will look at that

uniform... And remember all the films and think about the glory of other wars

[…] I'm tellin' you, it ain't like the movies. When I was your age... […] I wanted

to be a war hero. I wanted to go out and kill for my country. And now I'm here to

tell you... That I have killed for my country, or whatever... And I don't feel good

about it. Because there's not enough reason. To feel a person die in your hands...

Or to see your best buddy get blown away... I'm here to tell you it's a lousy thing,

man. And there's a lot of shit that I did over there... That I find fucking hard to

40 live with. I don't want to see people like you coming back... And having to face

the rest of your lives with that shit. (02:01:40 - 02:05:07).

While Luke is speaking to the students, freshly decorated Bob Hyde is going to the beach in the alternate scene. He slowly takes off his uniform, which he does not deserve from his point of view. Then he removes the rest of his clothes and shoes. And finally, he takes off his wedding ring, a symbol of the marriage which is over. Being naked, being free of everything, he runs toward the ocean and dives into it probably to end his life.

In the other alternate scene, Sally Hyde is going shopping. At the very end of the film, three symbolic moments alternate. Emotionally moved Luke is finishing his speech. Bob is swimming further into the ocean. And Sally is leaving the shop. When the shop door closes, the camera focuses on the door sign which says: “LUCKY OUT”.

(02:05:54).

The film Coming Home provides images of soldiers who were exposed to stressful conditions during their military involvement in Vietnam, and who bring their trauma back home. The Vietnam War changed them. It was difficult for them to return to their pre-war lives. It was hard for them to leave all traumatic experiences behind. It was not easy to cope with their physical and mental wounds. The character of Luke

Martin shows audiences that it is possible to get over the trauma. It is possible to deal with the personal demons. On the other hand, post-traumatic stress may have devastating consequences. It can ruin people’s lives. Bill Munson and Bob Hyde are not able to come to terms with their traumata, which leads them to end their lives. They are examples of detrimental impacts which PTSD may have.

4.3 The Deer Hunter

In The Deer Hunter, a combat-related PTSD is the central theme. The film focuses on three main veteran characters – Michael Vronsky, Nick Chevotarevich and

Steven Pushkov. What makes the movie interesting for the critical analysis of the issue

41 of Vietnam veterans affected by PTSD is the structure of the film. The narrative shows the main characters before they go to Vietnam, in Vietnam and after their active service.

In compliance with it, the movie consists of three main segments. The first segment introduces Michael, Nick, Steve, their friends and relationships among them. Audiences can observe their personalities, beliefs and feelings before the traumatic experience in

Vietnam. The second segment shows the trauma Michael, Nick and Steve experience in

Vietnam. In the third segment, it is portrayed how they deal with the trauma after their escape from a prison camp. The structure of the film provides an opportunity to comprehend the change the main characters go through, since it is possible to compare them before and after the trauma.

In the “before” segment, Michael, Nick and Steven are introduced as common guys who work in a local steel mill. They live in a small town in Pennsylvania and they are part of a local Orthodox community. They talk about common things. They deal with common things. They play around and do silly things. They enjoy their lives. They watch sport in a bar, play pool, get drunk, sing songs aloud. They look happy. Nick has a girlfriend Linda. Michael secretly loves her. Steven is about to get married to a local girl Angela who is pregnant. A substantial part of the first segment of the film consists of long shots, scenes and sequences of preparations for Steven’s wedding, of the wedding ceremony and of the big wedding feast.

Michael, Nick and Steven are about to go to Vietnam. The weekend the wedding is held is the last one before they leave for a basic training camp. The wedding feast is also their farewell party. Although they enjoy the feast and the next day as well, thoughts about Vietnam sneak into their minds. For Steven, leaving for Vietnam means abandoning his pregnant wife at home. Michael and Nick talk about Vietnam before and after the wedding. It is Nick who particularly worries about the military service in

Vietnam. He wants Michael to promise him that he will not leave him there if anything happens. Michael promises.

42 A living demonstration of what lies ahead of Michael, Nick and Steve shows during the wedding feast. While the three main characters of the story are sitting at the bar, a soldier dressed in uniform walks in and sits at the other end of the bar. He orders a drink and starts to drink it apathetically. Michael wants to get acquainted with him and introduces himself and his friends. The soldier looks indifferent though. They want to know what it is like in Vietnam. The soldier’s response is just: “Fuck it”. (00:43:03 -

00:43:05). The soldier is lethargic, depressed, withdrawn. He seems to be disillusioned with the Vietnam experience. He goes through the feelings which will not be unknown

Michael, Nick and Steve later in the film.

The morning after the wedding, Michael, Nick and their friends go hunting.

They enjoy the day and finish it in a bar. They celebrate and get drunk. At the very end of the evening, one of the friends, John, is playing a soft melancholy melody on the piano. Everybody is listening in silence. There is calm atmosphere in the bar. The scene is about to over. John stops playing. There is silence there. After a while, a sound of helicopter is amplifying. Cut. An audience is thrown into the hell of Vietnam. The second segment of the movie begins.

The sharp contrast between the peaceful scene in the bar and the following scene, which shows the atrocities of the Vietnam War, is powerful. The helicopter is bombarding and destroying a Vietnamese village. A Vietcong soldier throws a grenade into a hideout full of women and children. The village is on fire. Michael comes around nearby, surrounded by dead bodies. He witnesses a hideous scene of heartless killing of an injured woman and her baby by a Vietcong soldier. He kills the soldier by a flamethrower. And then, being consternated, he keeps shooting into the dead body. He is shocked and almost does not notice Nick and Steve who coincidentally find him in the village.

All three friends are captured and kept in appalling conditions of a prison camp.

Like other prisoners of the camp, they are forced to play Russian roulette by vicious guards who place bets on outcome. It is very traumatic experience particularly for

43 Steven who is not able to endure watching other prisoners playing the game and killing themselves. He goes into hysterics after each pulling of trigger. He trembles with fear and consternation. He is on the brink of nervous breakdown. Playing the game against

Michael is unbearable stress for him. He is about to collapse. He loses the game, but is just wounded as he aims his gun above his head in the last moment. He is dragged away in agony. Nick is also extremely agitated and shocked by watching and playing the game. Nevertheless, he is strong enough to cooperate with Michael and orchestrate an escape. Michael copes with the stressful situation better than his friends. In the key scene of the second segment, when he plays Russian roulette with Nick, he shows courage, boldness and determination to get out of the hopeless situation. Whereas Nick collapses having a gun by his head and a finger on the trigger, Michael manages to trick the guards and kill them. They take Steve, and all the three friends float down a river on a tree branch to escape. The escape is very dangerous, and they are separated. Nick is taken to safety by a helicopter that found and rescued them before. Unfortunately, weakened Steven falls off the helicopter, and Michael jumps after him to save him.

Steve is crippled after the fall, and Michael carries him away. Eventually, he persuades some South Vietnamese soldiers to take Steve to hospital in jeep. In the end, each of them gets to safety, although they do not know what has happened to each other. They manage to escape from the combat zone, but another fight lies ahead them. They bear a mental burden which they will find very difficult to cope with.

As Nick remains in Saigon and disabled Steven stays in veteran hospital,

Michael is only one of them who returns to the hometown. And it is him who is in focus of the third segment of the film. He proved to be a very strong personality during the

Vietnam episode. He seemed to be resilient and resistant to the traumatic experience that he and his friends went through. However, Michael who is coming home from

Vietnam is different from Michael who left home for Vietnam. He has changed. He has been affected by the traumatic events in Vietnam. In several scenes of the film, he evinces some of the symptoms of PTSD that are discussed in chapter 3.

44 Avoidance is shown at the very first scene after Michael’s return. He is going home by taxi when the taxi driver notices a big banner “WELCOME HOME,

MICHAEL” which is stretched over the street. Michael realises that his friends have prepared a welcome party for him, but he wants to avoid meeting them. He asks the taxi driver to keep going. Instead of meeting his friends, who are eager to see him, he stays in a motel over the night. During the scene in the motel room, it is evident that he is not fine. His body language shows he is agitated. While melancholy soundtrack music is playing in the background, Michael sits on a chair, having bowed head and looking dejected. Then he restlessly walking in the room, being too jittery to sit. After a while, he just crouches by the wall with an anxious expression in his face. He is clearly depressed. The small, dimly lit room intensifies his isolation and sorrow. Eventually, he pulls out a photograph of Linda from his wallet, and stares at it sadly. He needs to see

Linda. There are also concerns in his facial expression as he is afraid of the meeting.

He intentionally tries to avoid his friends. In a normal situation, the first thing he would probably do after coming home would be to say hello to his friends. He feels it otherwise now. After the night in the motel, he returns to his (and Nick’s) house where

Linda have been living when they were in Vietnam. Before meeting Linda, he makes sure that everybody else has left the house. Linda is very happy to see him and hugs him warmly. Michael behaves reservedly. He is actually in his own house, but he behaves like a visitor, standing all the time. He is restless. He avoids talking about Vietnam. He plays down his wounds when she asks. He deflects attention from himself. Linda notices that he is being strange. When Michael offers her to walk her to work, she pauses for a moment and then says plainly: “Mikie, you're so ... weird.” (01:59:46 -

01:59:51).

It is evident, that Michael does not feel comfortable being in the spotlight. He is reluctant to say hello to Linda’s colleagues in a shop. Once again, he deflects attention from himself when he finally meets his friends and talks with them. They are naturally curious about his experience in Vietnam, but Michael is not much specific. His answers

45 are brief, and he is able to change the subject of the conversation to avoid further talking about Vietnam. There is a distance between him and his friends, which is symbolically seen in the scene in a bowling alley. While Linda and other Michael’s friends are playing, he is watching them from distance. They are wearing uniform bowling shirts, he is wearing a military uniform.

The second evening after his return, Michael packs up his things and is about to leave his house for a motel. Linda, who has been planning to spend a pleasant evening with him, does not understand. He does not explain anything at first, just saying that he must go. However, he realizes that Linda needs some explanations. He apologizes to her with words: “Sorry. I just gotta get out. Look, I don't know. I feel a lot of distance, and I feel far away.” (02:10:51 - 02:10:59). She does not let him go alone and goes with him to a motel. In the motel room, she is ready to join him in bed after she has left the bathroom, but she finds him sleeping in bed, still dressed in his uniform.

Michael’s friends realize that he is not fine. And since they know he loves going hunting they suggest doing it. However, he is not able to enjoy the hunting trip. He is not able to kill deer. When he is aiming at one, he pulls his rifle up at the last moment and shoots above the deer purposely. His face mirrors his frustration. He sits on the cliff, and yells across the valley “Okay!” (02:20:19 - 02:20:24), although he senses he is not. Michael’s depression culminates in a scene that almost has tragic consequences.

After hunting, all the group of friends spend the evening in a hunting cabin. When

Michael enters the cabin, he can see that one of his friends, Stan, is aiming a revolver, which he thinks is unloaded, at another friend, Axel, who has been teasing him. Michael gets angry. He takes the gun away from Stan and finds out it is actually loaded. He loses control of himself. Being furious, he empties the gun and then loads it just with one bullet like in Russian roulette game. He puts the gun to Stan’s forehead, and with the words “How do you feel now? Big shot!” he pulls the trigger. (02:21:39 - 02:21:49).

Luckily for Stan, the chamber is empty. Leaving his shocked friends in the cabin,

46 Michael goes out and throws the revolver away. He needs to get rid of the thing that triggered such painful memories.

The day after the hunting trip, Michael seems to be relieved. He visits Linda at work to cheer her up. He lifts her home and spends a romantic night with her. The hunting episode was emotionally hard for him, but it also served as a needed catharsis.

He has not forgotten the promise he gave Nick before they went to Vietnam. Now, it seems that he realizes what he has to do. He must help Steven. He must find Nick in

Saigon. And he must get both of them home. That is the way how he can overcome his own difficulties.

Steven’s fall off the helicopter during the escape caused him permanent invalidity. Steven has lost both his legs and is partially paralyzed. He came back to the

USA after he had been saved in Vietnam. However, he has not returned home. Although he has a wife and a baby at home, he prefers staying at veteran hospital to returning to his family. When Michael asks him on the phone why he is still staying there, he answers that “the place is great”. (02:30:14 - 02:30:16). However, the reason of his reluctance to return home is not comfort of the hospital. At the end of the phone conversation, Steve is evidently agitated. Michael’s phone call reminds him painfully the traumatic Vietnam episode, which he has not dealt with yet. When Michael visits him personally, he is happy to see him, but he is not willing to go with him home. He tries to look like he is happy in hospital, but Michael sees that he is uneasy and jittery.

He knows it is better for Steven to be back at home, and eventually, he convinces him.

Nick is taken to the Army hospital in Saigon after the escape. At the beginning of the scene in hospital, he is sitting on the windowsill in apathy and looking at rows of covered dead bodies in front of the hospital. An officer starts to ask him personal questions, but he remains lethargic and does not answer for a while. He is oblivious to the surroundings. Eventually, he starts to communicate, but after a moment he suddenly bursts into tears and becomes shaky and hysterical. He is evidently depressed.

47 Nick feels uneasy. He needs to talk to his closest friends. However, he does not manage to get Linda on the phone. He is happy to see Michael in a street, but he mistakes him for somebody else. Being dispirited, he is roaming the streets of Saigon, when some shooting catches his attention. He is on alert and comes close to a building where the shooting is heard. A few dead bodies are thrown out of the building, and Nick finds out that he is outside a gambling den, where Russian roulette is played for money.

He is enticed to walk in by a Frenchman who works as an agent for players. Michael is also in the den, but Nick is not aware of his presence. Seeing the game triggers his traumatic memories of playing Russian roulette in the prison camp, and Nick loses his mind. He interrupts the game, takes a gun from a table and loads it with a bullet. He puts the gun to a head of one of playing Vietnamese and pulls the trigger. Then he puts the gun to his own head and pulls the trigger once more. Luckily for him, the chamber in the gun’s cylinder is empty. Being upset, Nick runs out of the den in the company of the Frenchman. Michael, who tries to catch him, loses him.

Playing Russian roulette, which is the central theme of the film, is the powerful metaphor of “random aspects of combat death associated with war, the questions of luck and fate that haunted combatants and confound survivors” (Devine, 164). It is historically inaccurate, as there is no documented evidence that Russian roulette was used as a torture or as a form of entertainment and gambling in Vietnamese prison camps, and in Saigon. But this lethal game effectively serves the story. It vividly displays a horror that people feel during playing the game, when they sense imminence of death. It is not difficult to understand how traumatic this experience is. People with

PTSD usually try to avoid everything that can recall this experience. Despite this, Nick becomes a professional Russian roulette player. Re-experiencing of the trauma in the gambling den paralysed him mentally. In the final sequence of the movie, he looks like mentally dead, like he does not care anymore. Playing the game is nothing to him. He may just want to lose the game and end the nightmare he is trapped in. There is nobody there who can help him. When Michael finally finds him, it is too late.

48 After Michael has brought Steven home, he travels to Vietnam to do the same thing with Nick. He finds the Frenchman. And with his reluctant help, he gets to the gambling den, where he finally meets Nick. Nick is stolid and unconcerned when he sees Michael. He is apathetic and does not recognise Michael. He does not care what

Michael says. He eventually walks off to play the game. Michael does not give up and he sees the only way how to save Nick - he buys a place in the game against him. Thus, in the key scene of the third segment of the film, Michael and Nick are sitting against each other, playing Russian roulette. Michael is anxious seeing his friend in his current mental state. Nick is still lethargic. Michael wants Nick to remember who he is. He wants him to stop playing and leave. But Nick’s mind seems to be gone. In two dramatic moments, they take turns in pulling a trigger, holding a gun to their heads.

Michael reminds Nick their conversations before they went to Vietnam. He reminds him trees and mountains at home. He reminds him “one shot”, which is Michael’s philosophy about hunting. At this moment, Nick rouses from his lethargy. He smiles at

Michael. Then he raises the gun to his head and pulls the trigger. The chamber is not empty this time. Nick is dead.

The Deer Hunter is a vivid portrayal of how war can change people. It shows psychological consequences of exposure to a traumatic situation. It shows the effects of the Vietnam war on soldiers. The three main veteran characters of the film are able to survive the horrors in Vietnam, but they must deal with the mental wounds they carry with themselves. The first part of the movie, which is almost 70 minutes long, provides audiences enough scope for getting to know Michael, Nick, Steven and people around them. Extraordinarily long wedding scenes and sequences, some of them almost documentary or home-video look-like, impart realism and authenticity to the film.

Russian roulette scenes in the second part of the movie effectively and dramatically portray the traumatic experience which Michael, Nick and Steven go through. The final part of the film shows how the war change them. All three veteran characters show symptoms of PTSD, especially the character of Michael who is in the centre of the

49 story. The symptoms that are demonstrated in the story include avoidance, alienation, numbing, hyperarousal and re-experiencing. The veteran characters show depression, anxiety, jitters, restlessness and intense psychological distress. The characters of

Michael and Steven illustrate that it is possible to overcome mental and emotional instability. Eventually, they seem to come to terms with what happened in Vietnam, but they are far from being happy and contented. There is a dark shadow of Nick’s death.

The final scenes of Nick’s funeral develop pessimistic and cheerless atmosphere. The film ends up in melancholy and depression. In the very last scenes, the group of Nick’s friends sing sorrowfully “God Bless America” and then toast to Nick - another casualty of the Vietnam war.

4.4 PTSD movies since the 1980’s

During the 1980’s and the early 1990’s, a lot of films with Vietnam veteran characters were released. Many of these movies deal with veterans who face difficulties after coming home from Vietnam. Many of them present stereotypical images of mental wounded veterans which films like Coming Home and The Deer Hunter help to create.

Generally, there is an evident change in perceiving and depiction of Vietnam veterans in films. “The image of Vietnam veterans shifted from the ‘psycho’ stereotype of the mid-

1970’s to the more complex and sympathetic portrayals of the mid-1980’s” (Hagopian,

230). This shift coincides with changes in American society which was more and more responsive to traumatised veterans and perceived them with more sympathy. Veterans were seen in a more heroic way. Troubled veterans “were portrayed as traumatised victims of unhinged U.S. militarism”. (Maseda et. Dulin, 14).

Action movies, such as First Blood (1982), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985),

Firefox (1982), Uncommon Valour (1983), Year of the Dragon (1985) and a series of

Missing in Action (1984, 1985, 1988), present Vietnam veterans as strong heroic figures. Some of the characters of these popular movies come back to Vietnam to free prisoners of war. And this time, they win, making Americans victorious. “Most film

50 commentators read these films as messages that America was right in Vietnam, and the fact that the U.S. lost was not the soldiers’ fault but the bureaucrats’.” (Maseda et.

Dulin, 14-15). Soldiers in Vietnam did their best, but they could not win. A Vietnam veteran was then interpreted as “a frustrated patriot, betrayed by his own country that had not ‘let him win’”. (Dean, 184). In this perspective, Vietnam veterans did not fail in

Vietnam. They fulfilled their duties. They went through horrible experience and came home where they often met disinterest, hostility, incomprehension. Frustration with the lost war then intensifies their mental troubles. The character of Rambo of First Blood is a good example of such kind of Vietnam veteran.

John Rambo, who appears in four films (1982, 1985, 1988, 2008), is one of the most iconic movie heroes of the 1980’s. Rambo has been seen and admired as a hard, muscular, courageous, fearless and almost invincible killer machine by millions of his fans. Especially in the first film of the series, he is also portrayed as a mentally disturbed soldier who has difficulties to adjust to civilian life after coming home. He went through horrible things and he also did terrible things back in Vietnam. He is highly skilled Green Beret who fought for his country and was decorated for his bravery. However, no gratitude waits for him in his country after returning. After everything he did and suffered for the country, he encounters hostility and distaste, which frustrates him. He has come back from the lost war, where he saw dying his friends. And he is lonely now. He feels unwanted and uncomprehended. In the war, he was a hero, he felt being important. Back in the USA, he feels he is nothing. He is haunted by traumatic Vietnam memories and suffers from PTSD, which is manifested in several scenes.

From the very beginning of the film, Rambo evinces emotional numbing. It is evident in scenes with Sheriff Teasle, who does not want to see Rambo in his town. He is plagued by traumatic flashbacks from Vietnam. One of them is triggered in the scene at the police station, in which police officers want to dry shave him, holding him tight.

A razor in a hand of one of the policemen reminds Rambo of a knife he was tortured

51 with in Vietnam. Policemen hold him similarly to Vietnamese guards. Frightened

Rambo is suddenly back in Vietnam, and his instinct of self-preservation is set off. He fights his way through the police station and escapes to the woods, where he tries to survive as he was used to do it in Vietnam. He is hunted by the police and later by the

National Guard, and he is able to fight through and escape. But he does not feel he wins.

In scenes, in which he sits alone in a cave, being out of danger, it is evident that he is agitated and distressed. He feels lonely and betrayed by others. When Colonel

Trautman, his commander and mentor, tries to persuade him to surrender, mentioning that Rambo endangers “friendlies and civilians”, Rambo responses that “there are no friendly civilians”. (00:52:36 - 00:52:39).

Filled with rage, frustration and feelings of injustice, Rambo comes back to the town to find Sheriff Teasle, who is, in Rambo’s eyes, initiator of his current difficulties.

He creates chaos in the town by shooting and destructing cars and buildings, and he eventually catches the sheriff. Interesting fact here is that Rambo actually has not killed a person during the story. And he does not kill even the sheriff. He is besieged at the police station with no way out, and Colonel Trautman tries to convince him to surrender once again. When the colonel suggests that “it’s over”, Rambo is seized by anger and openly expresses everything that burdens his troubled mind:

Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don’t turn it off! It wasn’t my war. You

asked me, I didn’t ask you! I did everything I had to do to win, but someone

wouldn’t let us win. Then I come back to the world and I see all those maggots

at the airport protesting me, spitting. Calling me baby killer and all that vile

crap! Who are they to protest me? Unless they’ve been me and been there, and

know what the hell they’re yelling about. […] In the field, we had a code of

honor. You watch my back, I watch yours. Back here, there’s nothing! […] Back

there, I can fly a gun ship, I can drive a tank, I was in charge of a million-dollar

equipment. Back here I can’t even get a job in parking cars! (01:25:27 -

01:26:21).

52 After this tirade, Rambo breaks down. He slides down on the floor, bursts into tears and, being agitated, he tells the colonel about his best friend who died in Vietnam, being torn up by explosion in front of Rambo’s eyes. The incident happened seven years before, but Rambo cannot get it out of his head. “Every day it hurts”, he tells Trautman.

“Sometimes I wake up and don’t know where I am. I don’t talk to anybody. Sometimes a day. Sometimes a week. I can’t put it out of my mind.” (01:28:14 - 01:28:32).

The final sequence of the film provides audiences an explanation of Rambo’s behaviour and actions. He experienced serious trauma when he served his country in

Vietnam, and he has not dealt with it yet. He evinces symptoms of PTSD, such as emotional numbing, re-experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance. Instead of help, which he needs, he meets distrust, incomprehension and distaste after coming home, which amplifies his mental troubles, making him dysfunctional and unable to adjust to a civilian life. Through its central hero, the film displays how important is homecoming reception of the community for coping with the consequences of PTSD.

A Vietnam veteran who has difficulties to adjust to a civilian life after returning home from combat is a common theme in Hollywood movies. Eddie Keller, the main character of Some Kind of Hero (1982), is coming home after spending a few years in a prison camp in Vietnam where he saw his friend dying. He is welcomed home with fanfare, as a hero. But soon he finds how many things have changed for worse while he was in Vietnam. His wife is in love with another man. He has lost his business because of bankruptcy. He lost his savings and financial security. His mother had a stroke and she stays in a convalescent home, which costs a lot of money. The Army stops paying him money, since he signed a “confession” paper in the prison camp to save a life of his friend. In a bank, they have no understanding for his situation. He desperately needs money for his ill mother, and he runs out of options. In despair, he turns to crime. Since

Some Kind of Hero is a comedy, the film ends in happy-ending, and Eddie eventually gets his money. However, not everybody is usually as lucky as him. Dead Presidents

(1995) follows a story of black Vietnam veterans who, like Eddie, turn to crime by force

53 of circumstances. They also experienced horrors of Vietnam, and after coming home, they find that returning to “normal” life is not easy. They do not end up as well as

Eddie. Their attempt to rob an armoured car with money has tragic consequences.

Both films show obstacles and hard realities which a lot of veterans faced after coming back to the USA. In many cases, they went through very difficult (sometimes very traumatic) experience, and the system, bureaucracy, the community did not often make their return to “normal” life easier for them. Another Vietnam veteran character, who experiences it personally, is Stephen Simmons of the film The War (1994). He went through traumatic experience in Vietnam, as he was forced to leave his badly injured friend in the battlefield, and he suffers from PTSD. He is a good father and husband, and tries to provide for his family. However, he has lost a few jobs, because of his mental troubles, and he contends with financial problems. He is aware of his disorder and voluntarily goes to a mental hospital, seeking for help. But he loses another good job and has to explain his wife that “law says you can’t work for the city or state within the vicinity of children if you’ve spent time in a mental hospital or corrective institution.” (00:36:02 - 00:36:11). Through its characters, the film implies a significant aspect of veterans’ troubles after coming home – they were mentally wounded because they served their country, and now the same country hinders them from getting a job and taking care of their families.

Struggling with PTSD in combination with poor living conditions and disinterest of authorities may have very tragical consequences for veterans and their families.

Frankie Dunlan, the central character of an extremely depressive film Combat Shock

(1984), is a Vietnam veteran who came back home shattered by traumatic Vietnam experience. Although he spent three years in Army hospital, he still suffers severely from PTSD. He is haunted by horrible and disturbing nightmares and flashbacks which are portrayed in vividness in the movie. Using depressive ambient music, expressive images of war, psychedelic close-ups shots and explicit gore effects, the film shows horrors that Frankie faces to. When he wakes up from a nightmare, another one waits

54 for him in a real life. He lives with a pregnant wife and a deformed baby in a dirty, dilapidated flat. There is no food and other basic needs in the flat. He is in financial troubles and received an eviction order. A nerve-wracking baby cry, dripping water, a complaining wife and gloominess of the flat make Frankie’s mental state worse. The world outside Frankie’s flat is not better. The film provides images of dreariness, filth, mess and decay in Frankie’s neighbourhood. He is out of work and tries to find one. He waits in a long queue at the unemployment office, but a social worker is not much helpful and is not able to provide him with aid. Frankie returns to bleak streets full of junkies, prostitutes and criminals. More and more traumatic flashbacks are triggered, as he is roaming the streets. He is more and more delusional. He is losing his mind. At the end of the film, he is a nervous wreck. He accidentally gets a gun, and in stupor, he kills gangsters whom he owed money. After that, he realizes what actually happened in

Vietnam. He remembers a Vietnamese village whose inhabitants killed themselves to avoid being raped, tortured and mutilated by American soldiers. He is confident that the war is not over. In his distorted mind, he makes a decision to “save” his own family similarly to the people in the Vietnamese village. Being catatonic and hallucinating, he returns home where he kills his wife, his baby and finally himself.

Without adequate assistance, there was no way out of troubles for Frankie

Dunlan. And there were others like him who were not provided with competent help and support. Mitch Harris, a Vietnam veteran and the central character of The Park Is

Mine (1985), decides to call public attention to the plight of many Vietnam veterans by unorthodox way. He takes over Central Park in New York. It is actually a plan of his veteran friend, who worked on it for a year, and then committed suicide, which is an impulse for Mitch to carry out the plan. Although he uses guns, explosives and a sophisticated system of traps, he does not intend to harm or kill anybody. The action is a symbolic protest to make people listen. He announces the police that he closes down the park for three days until (symbolically) Veterans Day, and sets off the plan. Although the police and the authorities do not take him seriously at first, he eventually succeeds

55 and draws wide public attention. Through the radio and television, he can tell the public short stories of people who went through horrible things, and nobody helped them and cared of them. The film explores similar themes to movies that are mentioned above, such as First Blood and Some Kind of Hero: lack of appreciation for veterans who served loyally their country; problems with adjusting to a civilian life; suffering from

PTSD and other mental problems, which were sometimes trivialized or neglected. The film brings up an image of Vietnam veteran, to whom nobody helps.

Hollywood movies also offer stories, in which their disturbed veteran characters are provided with professional help and support of their friends and families. Still, struggling with PTSD may be very difficult and challenging. And sometimes it may have extreme manifestations, as it is displayed in The Ninth Configuration (1980) and

Birdy (1984). The former is a story of Colonel Kane, a Vietnam veteran, who comes as a new commanding officer to an insane asylum located in a remoted old castle. He is supposed to help other patients to overcome their mental troubles, but he himself is haunted by disturbing nightmares, flashbacks and hallucinations. He gives the impression of even-tempered and level-headed person, but there is something disturbing about him. Meeting a new patient, who is actually Kane’s subordinate from Vietnam, triggers a flashback, in which Kane cuts off another soldier’s head by a wire. Kane realizes the horrible truth. He remembers who really is. He is not Hudson Kane, the psychiatrist who was called up to be in charge of the asylum, but Vincent “Killer” Kane,

Hudson’s brother, who suffered a nervous breakdown after traumatic experience in

Vietnam. He was appointed to the position in the asylum by mistake, but he accepted the reassignment and started to see in it the way he could be cured. Pretending to be his own brother was the way to hide from himself. Curing others was supposed to be his penance for all the killing he had done. Hudson Kane, who has been as Colonel Fell in the asylum all the time to observe Vincent’s mental state, later explains that Vincent’s pretence developed into something more. “His hatred of the Kane who killed became denial, and also projection. ‘Someone else must have done all the killing’. Then after a

56 time the denial became so strong that it totally obliterated Kane's identity. He suppressed the Kane who was the killer, and became the better-self that's in all of us.”

(01:20:29 - 01:20:50). After the flashback episode, Vincent Kane collapses, and after regaining consciousness, he again becomes his “better himself”. He completely supresses his identity. He is not able to recognise his own brother, who continues with other members of the asylum staff in Vincent’s game to see if it helps. Vincent tries to help other patients to redeem. According to his brother, “his only hope of finding a cure for himself is to wipe away the guilt by a saving act.” (01:21:33 - 01:21:40). And

Vincent Kane eventually does one. In the final sequence of the film, he kills himself in a way that ends his suffering and at the same time works as a shock treatment for another patient of the asylum, whose story the film follows. Billy Cutshaw, mentally disturbed former astronaut, is eventually cured by Colonel Kane’s sacrifice.

Birdy is a story of two friends, Al and Birdy, who have been inseparable since they met as teenagers despite their different personalities. Al is a self-confident extrovert. Birdy is a withdrawn loner who is obsessed with birds and flying. Both of them come back from Vietnam, being wounded – Al mostly physically (with a disfigured face), Birdy mentally. He suffered traumatic experience as he survived a helicopter crash, witnessed napalm bombing and was surrounded by a lot of dead mutilated bodies. Before he was found, he had been missing in action for a month.

Since then he has not been speaking. He is locked up in hospital. He is apathetic, oblivious, numbing. He withdraws into himself. He hardly moves, hardly eats, hardly reacts. He takes up very strange positions in his cell. Sometimes he looks like a bird caught in a cage. His mental state is not getting better, so his doctor calls for Al in hope he can help Birdy to return to the real world. He hopes their interaction could be therapeutic for both of them, as Al has his own mental problems. Al spends as much time as he can with his friend, speaking with him and reminding him episodes of the life before the war. Birdy is not making any progress and his doctor gives up on him. Al does not. And eventually he succeeds. In the final scene of the movie, Al gives vent to

57 his feelings, worries and frustration, holding Birdy in his arms. And Birdy suddenly rouses from lethargy and starts to speak. At the end of the movie, both Al and Birdy seem relieved, showing therapeutic effects of presence of the closest friends and family on recovery from mental disorder.

The characters of Colonel Kane and Birdy are examples of extreme outcomes that PTSD may have. Other extreme consequences of the disorder are portrayed in

Distant Thunder (1988). The story focuses on Mark Lambert, another Vietnam veteran with traumatic experience from the war. His mental trauma is so intense that he is not able to live with other people except of his veteran friends. After returning from the war, he abandons his wife and his child, loses touch with them and starts to live along with his veteran friends in separation from the community in secluded wilderness. As described above in chapter 4, Mark shows all typical symptoms of PTSD including presence of stressor, recollections and reexperiencing, emotional numbing, avoidance, hyperarousal, agitation, depressions, jitters, hypervigilance, and social dysfunctionality.

He is also an illustration of chronicity of PTSD. After suicide of one of his troubled veteran friends, he decides to return to civilisation. With help of his new friend, Char, he gets a job, a place to live, and he eventually writes a letter to his son Jack who he has not seen yet. However, he is not able to fit in the community. After an incident with

Char’s jealous boyfriend, Mark runs away and comes back to the wilderness.

Confrontation with his son, who eventually finds him in his asylum, is hard. Mark still keeps him away, unable to communicate with him effectively. He is not able to overcome his mental trauma and starts to live a “normal” life, although Char and Jack try to understand and help him. Mark decides to “kiss a train”, which is walking head on into incoming train and which was a favoured method of suicide of his veteran friends.

Marks’s situation seems to be hopeless, but the film offers an optimistic denouement.

Jack manages to save his father at the last moment. Facing the imminent death is a cathartic moment for Mark. He seems relieved and eased of a burden. The film ends with the father and the son hugging each other, finding reconciliation, finding peace.

58 There are other films, in which their veteran characters feel better in isolation and live in alienation from other people. They have a lot in common with Mark

Lambert. In Missing in America (2005), Jake Neeley lives with other veterans in a secluded place in the Northwest mountains. Like Mark, he is still haunted by his

Vietnam demons. And like in Mark’s case, a young person appears in his life and gives it a new course. A nine-year-old American-Vietnamese daughter of one of his former platoon members, who he has to look after, helps him to deal with his mental troubles.

Another Vietnam veteran who chose to live in isolation of the woods is portrayed in The

Spitfire Grill (1996). Paul, a disturbed Vietnam veteran character of Land of Plenty

(2004), has not been in touch with anybody of his family for almost thirty years until his niece contacts him and changes his life.

People suffering from PTSD often seek an escape from their troubles in alcohol, which is not unnoticed in films. Hollywood movies provide quite a lot of examples of

Vietnam veterans characters who turned to alcohol, having difficulties to deal with their traumata. A list of such veterans includes Alex Cutter (Cutter’s Way, 1981), David

Flannigan (Jacknife, 1989), Ron Kovic (Born on the Fourth of July, 1989), Steve Butler

(Heaven & Earth, 1993), Lt. Dan Taylor (Forrest Gump, 1994), and Walter Sobchak

(Big Lebowski, 1998). Most of them eventually discover that alcoholism is not an effective way how to make peace with their past, and they come to terms with their traumata in some other way. Alex Cutter, who is a private detective, finds a purpose and puts all his energy in investigation of a crime, whose perpetrator, an influential politician, could go unpunished. Lt. Dan finds his peace while fishing with his friend

Forrest Gump, and gradually recovers from PTSD, participating in shrimp enterprise.

Dan Flannigan, who is not able to cope with survivor guilt (a significant symptom of

PTSD), is provided with support of his veteran friend Megs and his sister Martha. After some incidents, in which he is unable to control his drinking, he realizes that he needs help, and he finds a relief in a group therapy with other veterans. Megs, who is haunted by his own Vietnam demons, finds peace in love with Martha. Ron Kovic has a lot in

59 common with Luke Martin of Coming Home. Full of patriotism, he goes to Vietnam to serve his country, and comes back being disillusioned, since Vietnam experience was far from what he had imagined. During one of his missions, he witnesses a massacre of

Vietnamese citizens, and he accidentally shoots to death another American soldier.

These traumatic memories are later very difficult to cope with. He is severely injured in combat and ends in a wheelchair. He experiences a terrible treatment in deplorable conditions of veteran hospital. Being disappointed with the way the government treats its soldiers and suffering from PTSD, he is dragged down. There is a long way before he gets himself together. Eventually, he comes to terms with his troubles through participating in anti-war movement and writing an autobiography the film is based on.

Some of the films dealing with mentally troubled veterans remarkably reflect progress in psychiatry concerning diagnostics, course and treatment of PTSD, and offer deeper insight into a soul of a disturbed veteran. An example of such movie is The War at Home (1996), which is an excellent psychological study of a Vietnam veteran suffering from PTSD. The veteran is Jeremy Collier, who is back home, surrounded by his family that worries about him. He is provided with home and love. Yet, he has difficulties to deal with a Vietnam trauma. His father, mother and sister feel that he is not fine. They feel that Vietnam somehow changed him, and he is distressed. But they are not sure how to help him, as it is not easy to talk with him about what happened.

Jeremy is haunted by disturbing flashbacks, which make him upset. He has terrible nightmares that wake him up. He is constantly agitated, irritable and disconcerted. From time to time, he bursts in anger for petty reasons. He looks listless, not interested in anything. He is not able to enjoy activities and interests he used to like. He does not know what to do with his life, he does not see clearly his future. He has problems to re- establish a relationship with his former girlfriend, who also notices the change in his personality. Letters, which he sent her from Vietnam, worried her. “They were written by somebody I don’t know”, she explains to him. (00:31:00 - 00:31:04). Jeremy’s family has the same feeling - the person, who returned home, is somebody who they do

60 not know. Jeremy avoids talking about Vietnam, and it is very difficult for the members of his family to understand him and ease him of the burden. Conversations with Jeremy are more and more painful. They more and more often turn into quarrels. Discords between family members are escalating. The atmosphere becomes tense and potentially explosive.

The story culminates on Thanksgiving Day, which is supposed to be a day of peace. But it is not at the Colliers. Like some other disturbed Vietnam veteran characters mentioned above in the text, Jeremy come to terms with his trauma through a cathartic moment in which he is able to express what actually troubles him. In the final sequence of the movie, he is on the brink of mental collapse and threatens his family with a gun. It turns out that Jeremy’s father Bob is the one who he has hated all the time. When Jeremy got a draft notice to Vietnam, he begged his father to give him some money so that he could escape to Canada. Bob refused as he believed it was Jeremy’s duty to serve his country. And Jeremy blames his father for all dreadful and traumatic experience he suffered in Vietnam. In the key scene of the movie, an explanatory flashback appears, showing Jeremy who is forced to shoot a Vietnamese captive.

Jeremy realizes that it was not a Vietnamese soldier who he killed. It was his father and his sense of duty and honour. Back in reality, he points the gun at his father, and to all the family’s horror, he pulls the trigger. The gun just clicks, as it is unloaded, and

Jeremy bursts into tears. He hugs his father and asks him for forgiveness. Bob forces

Jeremy to leave. Jeremy, who is full of emotions and still visibly shaken, goes to the bus station and buys a ticket to anywhere in California. He says repeatedly to a ticket agent that he “can’t forget”. He is upset, but it seems he is through the worst. After a conversation with a little girl in the bus station lobby, it is implied that he will be okay.

The film symbolically ends in mentioning Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedication ceremony which took place on November 13, 1982, in Washington. Jeremy was one of thousands of Vietnam veterans who marched that day to the Memorial in

“the largest procession the nation’s capital had seen since President Kennedy’s funeral.”

61 (01:57:40 - 01:57:45). The memorial is “a simple V-shaped black-granite wall inscribed with the names of the 57,939 Americans who died in the conflict, arranged in order of death, not rank, as was common in other memorials.”38 Seeing the names on the wall was an emotional moment for many. “People deposited flowers, miniature flags, service ribbons and badges, medals, photographs and other mementos. Many cried uncontrollably, while others did rubbings of the names or even kissed the walls.” (Ng,

70). Building the memorial was described in newspapers as “the first step in a healing process” (Ng, 70). The memorial itself became for many people “a cathartic, healing wall.” (Ng, 70).

The effect of the wall corresponds to the impact of the PTSD films of the period, which is discussed in this chapter. Like the memorial, the films are considered to be a part of the healing process. Maseda et. Dulin suggest that “the individual trauma of soldiers provided a convenient proxy for the cultural trauma of American society after the war was lost.” (19). They conclude that “soldiers, civilians and ‘the soul of

America’ share the same disease.” (Maseda et Dulin, 18). And films can provide a therapy. Instead of complexities of the Vietnam war itself, PTSD movies focus on individual soldiers who were changed by the war, who suffer because of the war, who are the victims of the war. In films, they usually find a way, how to come to terms with their traumata. That can work therapeutically for real veterans, and for the society. The films can help Americans to find a way how to deal with the Vietnam trauma.

38 See in http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vietnam-veterans-memorial-dedicated

62 CONCLUSION

War has always been a traumatic matter. It is presumed, that soldiers suffered from mental stress in the medieval battles, as well as in modern warfare. Understanding of causes, symptoms, consequences of the stress and of its effects on soldiers has changed and developed dramatically over years. Extensive debates about the phenomenon of post-traumatic stress in the context of the Vietnam war resulted in defining PTSD, and the term has become a part of the common lexicon. Developments in modern psychiatry and related discussions concerning PTSD were reflected in movies which are in focus of this thesis – movies that deal with Vietnam veterans returning home, suffering a trauma.

The Vietnam war was traumatic not only for many veterans and their families, but for the whole American society. The war became a painful mental scar in an

American soul. And it has provided a lot of stimulating, challenging and thought- provoking material for film. Movies that deal with the Vietnam war has become an essential part of American cinematography. Although films are questioned for their historical and factual inaccuracies, and for their liability to prioritize commercial goals, they provide powerful and convincing representation of reality. They are influenced by complex of various factors, but conversely, they have ability to shape perception of their audiences. They have relevantly contributed to the general discussion about the

Vietnam war.

This thesis focuses on a special subcategory of the Vietnam war films, which is usually labelled as “coming home movies”. In the centre of the analysis of these movies is a Vietnam veteran who was changed by the war and who returns home, being mentally wounded. The veteran is portrayed in various ways in the movies. Each film

63 provides a unique story and its own perspective. Each filmmaker sees the issue through his own lens. Conceptions of the films and interpretations of the issue also reflected changes and atmosphere in American society. The image of a traumatised Vietnam veteran, as provided in American cinematography, is multifaceted.

Most of films of the late 1960’s and the 1970’s present an image of a veteran who is dysfunctional, frustrated and violent. It is the image of a psychopathic criminal, who is trained to kill, who is dangerous and a threat for an American society. He is an immoral man who was changed by an immoral war.

Films of the late 1970’s, namely Heroes, Coming Home and The Deer Hunter, introduce a different image of a veteran. This veteran is an innocent victim of the dreadful war that distressed him. He suffered traumatic experience in Vietnam and it is difficult for him to leave it behind. It is hard for him to get over it. Some of the characters of the movies show that it is possible to find the way how to deal with the trauma. Some of the characters, however, are examples of devastating consequences that PTSD may have. The Deer Hunter offers a noteworthy depiction of the change that a lot of American men went through, as it portrays its veteran characters in depth before, during and after their involvement in the war.

The character of John Rambo in First Blood is a prototype of a veteran who suffered horrible things in the war, and being traumatized, he came home where he meets just disinterest, incomprehension and hostility. He feels unwanted and betrayed by his own country he served loyally. The character of traumatised Rambo shows the importance of the way the community receives their veterans for dealing with the consequences of PTSD.

An image of a veteran who has difficulties to adjust to a civilian life after returning from combat is commonly presented in many “coming home” movies. These

64 films show obstacles and hard situations veterans face after returning, which makes dealing with PTSD a lot more difficult for them. Veterans in these films cannot rely on the government and the system, which is not able to provide them with adequate aid.

Films, such as The Park is Mine and Combat Shock bring up an image of Vietnam veteran, to whom nobody helps. The character of Frankie Dunlan in the latter film is an example of tragical consequences that may have a combination of PTSD, poor living conditions and lack of competent help.

Films provide images of veterans who display extreme manifestations of PTSD, such as suppressing own identity (The Ninth Configuration), apathy and withdrawing into oneself (Birdy), isolation and living in alienation from other people (Distant

Thunder). Movies offer an image of a veteran who seeks an escape from mental troubles in alcohol. There is an image of veteran who is able to come with terms with his trauma.

There are also portrayals of chronicity of PTSD. There are movies that point out the therapeutic effects of presence of the closest friends and family on recovery from

PTSD.

The Vietnam war movies of the late 1960’s and the early 1970’s does not usually offer psychologically deep portrayals of their veteran characters. Later movies, such as The Deer Hunter, Coming Home, Distant Thunder, Born on the Fourth of July and War at Home, are more complex and provide more realistic and deeper insight into a soul of a traumatised soldier. There is an evident shift from predominantly negative portrayals of Vietnam veterans in the Vietnam era to the more sympathetic and more responsive images of veterans since the late of the 1970’s. Veterans were perceived as victims of the lost war. Instead of complexities of the war itself, films focused on individuals who suffered their traumata in Vietnam and tried to deal with them after returning home. Their struggle was usually successful. In movies, they usually find the

65 way how to come to terms with PTSD. It may work therapeutically not only for veterans who have suffered from PTSD in real life. An image of Vietnam veteran who comes to terms with his trauma has also been a part of healing process of American society that has tried to come to terms with the Vietnam trauma.

66 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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67 Hagopian, Patrick. The Vietnam War in American Memory Veterans, Memorials, and the Politics of Healing. University of Massachusetts Press, 2009. Haley, Sarah A. “When the Patient Reports Atrocities.” Archives of General Psychiatry, vol. 30, no. 2, Jan. 1974, p. 191. Jones, Edgar, and Wessely, Simon. “’Forward Psychiatry’ in the Military: Its Origins and Effectiveness”. Journal of Traumatic Stress. Vol. 16. No. 4. August 2003. pp. 411-419. Keranen, Diane J. Veteranness: Representations of Combat-related PTSD in U.S. Popular Visual Media. Dissertation, Michigan Technological University, 2014. http://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/etds/814 Lifton, Robert Jay. Witness to an Extreme Century: A Memoir. Free Press, 2014. Maseda, Rebeca, and Dulin Patrick L. “From Weaklings to Wounded Warriors: The Changing Portrayal of War-related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in American Cinema”. 49th Parallel, vol. 30, 2012. https://fortyninthparalleljournal.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/3-masedadulin- from-weaklings.pdf Mason, Jeff, and Laura MacInnis. “Obama Calls Treatment of Vietnam War Veterans "A Disgrace".” Reuters, Thomson Reuters, 28 May 2012, www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-obama-memorial/obama-calls-treatment-of- vietnam-war-veterans-a-disgrace-idUSBRE84R0J420120529. Accessed 3 Oct. 2017. Melchior, Aislinn. “Caesar in Vietnam: Did Roman Soldiers suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?” Greece and Rome, vol. 58, no. 02, 2011, pp. 209-223. Mental Disorders; Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. American Psychiatric Association, 1952. Monaco, James. How to Read a Film. The World of Movies, Media, and Multimedia. Language, History, Theory. Oxford University Press, 2000.

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Ng, Franklin. “Maya Lin and the Vietnam Veterans Memorial”. Asian American Women and Gender. Edited by Franklin Ng, Garland Publishing, 1999, pp. 61- 82.

Nordieimer, Jon. “From Dakto to Detroit: Death of a Troubled Hero”. The New York Times. 26 May 1971.

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68 PTSD, National Center for. “PTSD: National Center for PTSD.” PTSD: National Center for PTSD Home, 15 Aug. 2013, www.ptsd.va.gov/. Accessed 30 Sept. 2017. Regel, Stephen, and Stephen, Joseph. Post-Traumatic Stress (The Facts). Oxford University Press. 2010 Schlenger, William E., and Nida H. Corry. “Four Decades Later: Vietnam Veterans and PTSD.” The VVA Veteran Online, Jan and Feb 2015, http://vvaveteran.org/35- 1/35-1_longitudinalstudy.html Scott, Wilbur J. “PTSD in DSM-III: A Case in the Politics of Diagnosis and Disease.” Social Problems, vol. 37, no. 3, 1990, pp. 294–310. doi:10.1525/sp.1990.37.3.03a00020. Smith, Julian. “Between Vermont and Violence: Film Portraits of Vietnam Veterans.” Film Quarterly, vol. 26, no. 4, 1973, pp. 10–17., doi:10.1525/fq.1973.26.4.04a00060. Stein, Joe L. "Examining Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Plight of Vietnam Veterans," Iowa Historical Review, Vol. 5, Iss.1, 2015, pp. 7-22. https://doi.org/10.17077/2373-1842.1028 Trimble, Michael R. “Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: History of a Concept”. Trauma and its Wake: The Study and Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, edited by C.R. Figley, Brunner/Mazel, 1985. “Vietnam Veterans Memorial dedicated.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, www.history.com/this-day-in-history/vietnam-veterans-memorial-dedicated. Welshmythology. “Roland Barthes’ Definition of Myth.” Welsh Mythology, 21 Jan. 2015, welshmythology.com/2014/11/11/roland-barthes-definition-of-myth/. Accessed 2 Oct 2017. Zisk, Betty H. “International Journal on World Peace.” International Journal on World Peace, vol. 2, no. 4, 1985, pp. 132–134. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/20750980.

69 FILMOGRAPHY

Birdy. Directed by Alan Parker, TriStar Pictures, 1984. Black Sunday. Directed by John Frankenheimer, Paramount Pictures, 1977 Born on the Fourth of July. Directed by Oliver Stone, 1989. Casualties of War. Directed by Brian de Palma, Columbia Pictures, 1989. Combat Shock. Directed by Buddy Giovinazzo, Troma Entertainment, 1984. Coming Home. Directed by Hal Ashby, United Artists, 1978. Cutter’s Way. Directed by Ivan Passer, United Artists, 1981. Dead Presidents. Directed by The Hughes Brothers, Hollywood Pictures, 1995. Distant Thunder. Directed by Rick Rosenthal, Paramount Pictures, 1988. First Blood. Directed by Ted Kotcheff, Anabasis N.V., 1982. Forrest Gump. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, Paramount Pictures, 1994. Heroes. Directed by Jeremy Kagan, Universal Pictures, 1977. Jacknife. Directed by David Hugh Jones, Kings Road Entertainment, 1989. Land of Plenty. Directed by Wim Wenders, Emotion Pictures, 2004. Open Season. Directed by Peter Collinson, Impala, Arpa Productions, 1974. Some Kind of Hero. Directed by Michael Pressman, Paramount Pictures, 1982. Taxi Driver. Directed by Martin Scorsese, Columbia Pictures, 1976 The Deer Hunter. Directed by Michael Cimino, Universal Pictures, 1979. The Forgotten Man. Directed by Walter Grauman, ABC Pictures International, 1971. The Ninth Configuration. Directed by William Peter Blatty, Warner Bros, 1980. The Park Is Mine. Directed by Steven Hilliard Stern, Twentieth Century Fox, 1985. The Stone Killer. Directed by Michael Winner, Columbia Pictures, 1973. The Visitors. Directed by Elia Kazan, Home Free, 1972. The War. Directed by Jon Avnet, Universal Pictures, 1994. The War at Home. Directed by Emilio Estevez, Touchstone Pictures, 1996. Welcome Home, Soldier Boys. Directed by Richard Compton, Twentieth Century Fox, 1971.

70 ENGLISH RÉSUMÉ

The thesis explores an image of a Vietnam veteran suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as it has been portrayed in American cinematography. PTSD was defined and officially implemented into psychiatric nomenclature in 1980.

Filmmakers, however, had been dealing with the theme of detrimental impact of combat-related mental trauma for many years before. The Vietnam war, which was traumatic for American society, provided new perspectives on the issue that became popular in Hollywood.

A prevailing theme in movies which deal with stories of Vietnam veterans is a man who was changed by the war and returns home, being mentally wounded. This thesis discusses the way this man, a Vietnam veteran, is portrayed in films, and analyses the aspects that influence the image of the veteran. PTSD and its symptoms provide an interpretative framework for the analysis.

The thesis is divided into four chapters. The first chapter explores the way the issue of traumatised soldiers was observed and perceived throughout the history until

PTSD was introduced as an official psychiatric diagnosis. The second chapter discusses film as a phenomenon that has a powerful ability to convey a message and to shape opinions, attitudes and viewpoints of its audience. The third chapter analyses symptoms and diagnostic criteria for PTSD in the context of their portrayals in movies. The last chapter explores the filmic representations of traumatised Vietnam veterans since the late 1960’s. It discusses the multifaceted image of the veteran that altered over time.

Two movies, Coming Home and The Deer Hunter, are more deeply analysed in separate subchapters. The Deer Hunter particularly is an impressive psychological study of men who were changed by war, which is the key motif of this thesis.

71 ČESKÉ RESUMÉ

Tato diplomová práce se zabývá způsobem, jakým je v americké kinematografii zobrazován veterán z Vietnamu sužovaný posttraumatickou stresovou poruchou

(PTSD). PTSD byla definována a oficiálně zavedena jako termín v psychiatrii v roce

1980. Filmoví tvůrci se nicméně tématem neblahých vlivů traumatu souvisejícího s bojem zabývali již mnoho let předtím. Válka ve Vietnamu, která sama o sobě byla traumatizující pro americkou společnost, pak vnesla do tématu nový pohled. Téma se stalo v Hollywoodu vyhledávaným.

Velmi rozšířeným motivem filmů, které se zabývají veterány z Vietnamu, je muž, kterého změnila válka, a který se vrací domů psychicky rozrušený. Tato diplomová práce analyzuje způsob, jakým je tento muž, Vietnamský veterán, zobrazován v americké kinematografii, a také zásadní aspekty, které tento obraz utvářejí. PTSD a její symptomy slouží jako interpretační rámec této analýzy.

Práce je rozdělena do čtyřech kapitol. První kapitola sleduje, jak byla problematika traumatizovaných vojáků vnímána a vysvětlována v průběhu historie.

Druhá kapitola se zamýšlí nad filmem ve smyslu fenoménu, který dokáže tlumočit silná poselství a utvářet názory a postoje publika, které ho sleduje. Třetí kapitola analyzuje symptomy a kritéria pro diagnostiku PTSD v kontextu jejich ztvárnění ve filmech.

Závěrečná kapitola rozebírá jednotlivé filmy od konce 60. let, které zobrazují traumatizovaného veterána z Vietnamu. Obraz tohoto veterána má mnoho podob, které se postupem času proměňovaly. Dva filmy, Návrat domů (Coming Home) a Lovec jelenů (The Deer Hunter), jsou podrobněji rozebrány v samostatných podkapitolách.

Obzvláště Lovec jelenů je vynikající psychologickou studií mužů, které změnila válka, což je téma, jež je leitmotivem této diplomové práce.

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