Search and Destroy

by Jack Hunter (Editor)

From the early gung-ho posturing of John Wayne in The Green Berets to the psychedelic rites of Apocalypse Now and the stark horrors of Platoon and Full Metal Jacket, Search & Destroy is a guide to the way Hollywood has progressively portrayed the Vietnam war. From Travis Bickle in Scorsese's classic Taxi Driver to the brutal rapist of hardcore porn movie Forced Entry, psychotic vietnam veterans have been wreaking screen havoc from the early '70s onwards. Dennis Hopper in Tracks, Sylvester Stallone in First Blood, Robert Ginty in The Exterminator; these disparate characters are all driven by the same demons and blood-drenched flashbacks, haunted by the spectre of Nam. In graphic films such as Jacob's Ladder, Troma's Combat Shock, and Antonio Margheriti's Cannibal Apocalypse, Viet vets are subjected to the horrors of physical or mental mutation after being exposed to chemical warfare and experimentation in Nam. Search & Destroy contains illustrated essays on these and hundreds of other movies, ranging from the combat traumas graphically displayed in documentaries such as Army Medicine In Vietnam, to underground classics to the most garish exploitation movies and gun-fixated redneck trash. Search & Destroy is the ultimate guide to the cinematic legacy of Vietnam, a harrowing trip into the heart of darkness Book jacket.
  • Published 2003-03-01
  • Length 256 Pages
  • Publisher Creation Books
  • Language en
  • ISBN 9781871592993

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