European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 27, 1994, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Vietnam hits movie bump after Gump by Robin Rauzi Scripps Howard n film it looks As if the Vietnam War May finally be Over. Maybe it s just a cease fire but after a near constant barrage of War films for 15 years there is a suspicious silence in Hollywood. No More screaming sergeants at Boot Camp. No More pounding helicopter Blades. No More napalm dropping jets. Vietnam left an imprint on american culture and on film in particular. Certainly that influence has not disappeared. But moviegoers in the 1990s Are wit Nessing a slow transition into the Post War years through films like Forrest Gump and the War. Forrest Gump based on the Book by Vietnam vet eran Winston Groom contains one War sequence. The rest of the film examines How its dim witted title character is influenced by the experience. John Hellmann an English professor at the Ohio state University Campus in Lima teaches a class on Vietnam films and wrote the Book american myth and the legacy of Vietnam. He sees Forrest Gump As one of the first films that reconciles two divergent views of the 1960s that of the Vietnam vet arid that of the hippie. Forrest Tom Hanks is a caricature of american innocence upon entry into Vietnam. His beloved Jenny Robin Wright experiences everything but the War protests Folk singing hippies the Black Power movement drug experimentation. Her Side of that Story Hellmann says is one that s rarely been seen on film in the last 15 years. The War with its slightly deceptive title is entered not around Vietnam but on a children s Battle Over a tree House in 1970. Kevin Costner in a supporting role plays the father of two of the Chil Dren and a recently returned Veteran. In focusing on the returning Soldier these movies Aren t that much different than Vietnam movies that appeared in the late 70s. But those that came a few years after the War s end after a notable three year silence were More allegorical than realistic. Apocalypse now was adapted from Joseph con Rad s Novella heart of darkness. The Deer Hunter Hellmann says is reminiscent of the 1956 Western the searchers. The Early 1980s saw allegory replaced with brute Force. If first a oof still had traces of symbolism its Kambo sequels were pure Macho Over compensation. The similar missing in action films were fuelled by pow Mia culture where yets with superhuman strength went Back to mop up after a War that never had a tidy ending. And then came Oliver Stone. By bringing the Veteran s Story to the screen Stone has become essentially a genre unto himself. His Vietnam trilogy platoon born on the fourth of july and heaven and Earth Are the obvious entries. But Vietnam overtones infiltrate much of his other work such As Juk. The critical and commercial Success of platoon launched a Battery of Vietnam films. Such movies As full Metal jacket hamburger Hill and casualties of War brought the living room War Back into the living room this time on the . The films varied in Quality and accuracy but they gave the country a vocabulary to discuss Vietnam and ended a decade Long silence. So we be reflected through about 150 films not to mention to series such As China Beach and tour of duty. Big name directors Stanley Kubrick fran Cis Ford Coppola Brian Depalma have offered their spin on things. We be discussed argued contemplated and staked out ideological turfs. An now perhaps we re tired. Paramount Tom Hanks meets Vietnam in Forrest Gump. The most compelling evidence May be the stun Ning failure of Stone s heaven and Earth to stir up any interest last year. The 140-minute epic was first marred by lukewarm reviews Washington Post film critic Hal Hinson said Stone has now gone past the Point where his thoughts about this particular topic Are either original or  it made a paltry $5.9 million at the Box office and disappeared into video oblivion. The videocassette version was marketed As a Tommy Lee action flick rather than the tale of a vietnamese woman s endurance. Clayton Townsend who produced heaven and Earth born on the fourth of july and several other Stone films still thinks the Public in t done with Vietnam movies. There might be momentary Lull but people Are always interested in War pictures he says. A few filmmakers Are still banking of that. Director Doug Mchenry is working on the walking dead about Black soldiers in Vietnam. Writer and Veteran James Webb was trying to make a film of his novel Fields of fire but was stalled by Lack of cooperation from the defense department. I think people Are still interested in the subject. It s just such a big part of american life today Townsend says. I m mid-30s and i remember grow ing up hearing about world War ii and being inter ested in it. I Don t think you have to be born in the Era to be influenced by  but it May be the War s influence on american life not the life of americans in the Jungles of Viet Nam that takes Over As the subject for future projects.  have already become Stock and frequently stereotyped characters. Need a troubled Middle aged Man put a tour of duty in his Back ground. Forest Whitaker s character in Jason s Lyric is a prime example. Others Are homeless like Danny Glover in the Saint of fort Washington or human prey As in hard target. The Central character in the upcoming dead presidents by Allen and Albert Hughes is a Veteran who turns to crime. The Success of a film like Forrest Gump shows that such an approach May sustain Vietnam s life on film when actual War movies have become redundant if not stale and continue to draw in younger  to shoot Vietnam on film this time by Tom Bowman Baltimore Sun he american presence in an Hoa Viet Nam has All but vanished reclaimed by " nature and the vietnamese people. Water Buffalo Graze among the sea of grass and Baca plants. An old military Road is just a Sandy scar among the vegetation. Women stoop Over the pockmarked Airfield and spread their Rice to dry. Laughing children pedal their bikes along the runway wearing the red Ker chiefs of the communist Yozing pioneers. More than two years ago novelist and decorated Marine combat Veteran James Webb stood on this Dusty scorching spot the setting f6r his Book Fields of fire. Scanning the misty Blue mountains that rim the Valley he was overcome with what the Vietnam Ese Call con a the ghosts. He could almost see and hear the Bustle of the former military Encampment soldiers trudging along and choppers churning overhead the mechanical mules darting around the red tents and sandbag bunkers. And he re called that 100,000 men from both sides died in an area that once bore the names Henderson Hill and football Island and the Arizona Valley. That Day he made a pledge to be the first american to film a movie about the Viet Nam War in the country where it happened. If i Don t do anything else in my life i want to make the Book into a movie said Webb a former Navy Secretary under president Reagan. And i want to shoot it  in his Arlington va., Apan ment with its panoramic View of Washington the 1968 . Naval Academy graduate sternly repeats the pledge his fingers marking cadence on a Coffee table with each word. Then he brightens. It s like the old Irish saying How do you get Over a Fence you can t climb throw your hat Over the other Side " said the Boyish 48-year-old screenwriter erupting in laughter. Of How am going to do this his Best Selling 1978 novel a Gritty and powerful depiction of a Marine platoon at an Hoa has been compared to the works of Stephen Crane and James Jones. He writes of the fear that rises in the Throat of men on night patrol the loyalty that prompts soldiers to save wounded comrades. And he tells of the less Noble acts during the insanity of War executing suspected Viet Cong torching huts and wounding or dragging a despised sergeant. Since that Day in the an Hoa Basin Webb has drifted Between the divergent worlds of Hollywood image making Pentagon bureaucracy and Hanoi officialdom to make the Book into a movie. The Only problem i be had was with Dod department of defense said Webb. The Pentagon rejected any assistance. Top officials were troubled by the script s inclusion of less honorable acts. Moviegoers would be left with the perception that this is How marines act under duress said Philip Strub the defense department s special assistant for audiovisual. This was presented As the  unlike the Book the film version will begin and end in the Vietnam of today. Los Angeles times Washington Post news service James Webb pages sunday november 27, 1994