by Kevin on

I wrote a piece at IFC.com, originally titled “Holy shit, six movies I hadn’t realized are totally about VIETNAM.” They changed the title, but it’s still pretty good. You can read it here. It’s “smart”, in a Cracked.com sort of way. 

Interestingly (well, interesting to no one but me) — my college thesis was about Vietnam in popular memory, so this essay was a return to that. I barely graduated college because of my non-traditional thesis-lecture-show. So writing this essay about Vietnam movies felt very Rambo; but instead of returning to Vietnam I was going back to the treacherous landscape of media studies. “Do I get to win this time?” 

Lastly: I would make a case that GHOSTBUSTERS is about Reagan not dealing with the ghosts of Viet Nam. But I don’t want to risk “ruining” someone’s childhood with that theory. 
RELATED: 
My STAR WARS personal essay. (Don’t worry, I don’t argue that STAR WARS is the first pro-war film since John Wayne’s THE GREEN BERETS.) 

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