Pod Academy

In this podcast, Tatiana Prorokova considers gender ambiguity in Vietnam War films. The Vietnam War takes a specific place in U.S. military history. Having influenced generations of Americans, the conflict unsurprisingly found a wide reflection in American cinema. The most famous, as well as the most significant ones were the films created in the 1970s-80s, including Michael Cimino’s Deer Hunter, (1978), Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979), Oliver Stone’s Platoon (1986), Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (1987), and Brian De Palma’s Casualties of War (1989). In these films, the directors aptly touch upon the questions of the army, war, and morality, which are generally the key themes of war films. Yet, they also unveil the issue of gender representation, discussing the problem of masculinity. The issue of gender, precisely the problem of masculine power and female vulnerability, is one of the leading themes in these films. Interestingly, such issues as class, race, and nationality apparently disap