NEW YORK -- This is shaping up as the year America's media machines suddenly remember the forgotten war -- Vietnam.
Oliver Stone's Academy Award-winning movie 'Platoon' started the avalanche. It showed what it was like for a group of men to be in the midst of hell. There followed 'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Hamburger Hill.'
This fall, CBS brings the first weekly dramatic series about Vietnam to television, 'Tour of Duty,' which picks up where 'Platoon' left off, and with a time slot opposite the warmth and security of NBC's 'The Cosby Show.'
Now comes the cable version. 'Vietnam War Story' is Home Box Office's salve for the wounds of the war. It is more moving than 'Platoon' and more disturbing than 'Tour of Duty.'
The HBO Showcase special tells three half-hour stories inspired by the real-life accounts of the men who fought in Vietnam. (The stories will air together Aug. 29, 9-10:30 p.m. EST, and be repeated separately in September).
Why Vietnam? There are several reasons. Enough time has passed to reflect on the experience. Also, 'Platoon' proved that people were interested in the real Vietnam experience, and therefore such tales could make money.
'I pitched a similar series, and other series like this have been pitched to the networks and so on for quite a few years, by myself and other people,' said Patrick Duncan, supervising writer on all three stories. 'The general response was that, 'Studies show ...' or 'We know the American public doesn't want to see anything to do with Vietnam.'
''Platoon' came out and did a lot of business and proved that rule, like many others, to be totally false. And now it's big box office and everybody's trying to cash in. That's generally how things work out here,' Duncan said recently in an interview in Los Angeles.
Unlike 'Platoon' and 'Tour of Duty,' HBO's 'Vietnam War Story' avoids combat scenes. Only one of the three stories, 'The Mine,' features troops in the field. But the enemy -- 'Charlie' -- is never seen, much like the way it was in Vietnam.
In 'The Mine,' a platoon is walking through rice paddies, when a 'click' -- the sound of a mine being activated -- is heard.
'Oh, sweet Jesus. It's me,' says the soldier whose foot rests on the explosive device.
The platoon moves on. A squad remains with the soldier to wait for the explosives ordnance team to deactivate the mine. For 3 hours, the soldier stands there with his foot on the trip wire. If he moves he's dead. Or is he?
Standing atop the dike of the rice paddy, a sitting duck for a sniper, the soldier's life passes before him. His body already bears the scars from three bullet holes. God has just been toying with him, he says, and now God is finished playing around.
If he survives, he must go back to the war. If he is blown to bits, his war is over. Which is better?
'The Pass' is set in an illicit after-hours bar in Kwinyong, where American troops drink themselves into a frenzy and cuddle with prostitutes during the day, and the Viet Cong do the same things at night. Two GIs find themselves trapped in the bar during Charlie's play period. Do they make peace, or more war?
By far the most moving story is 'Home,' centered in the amputee ward of a VA hospital. They are all survivors, but all have lost something -- a leg, an arm, a mind. Most are bitter. Many have no will to live. But a one-legged Marine named Zadig (Nicholas Cascone) buoys everyone with his irreverent humor.
To coax a man with no legs to walk, Zadig holds up a Playboy centerfold. When one soldier becomes bitter about losing both arms to an exploding flamethrower,Zadig suggests that maybe he accidentally chewed them off in the chow line.
Zadig is up for a Silver Star for heroism in combat, but Harris (Tom Harris) tells him he'd be a fool to accept a medal in a senseless war where men fought for hills nobody wanted.
'I didn't do it for the president. I didn't do it for the Silver Star. I did it for buddies,' Zadig says. 'I didn't trade my leg for a medal. I lost it helping some buddies.'
The men in these three stories are connected by the Vietnam experience. They were ordinary men, many fresh from high school, thrown into an extraordinary situation. The dramas capture their courage and heroism, their pain and suffering.
It is said that every man who served in Vietnam has a story to tell. These three stories were inspired by the experiences of four men. They are:
-Anthony Chisolm, 4th Armored Calvary, 1st Infantry Division, 1966.
-Ken Campbell, 2nd Battalion, 4th Marines, 1968.
-Josh Cruze, 1st Battalion, 27th Marines, 1968.
-Ray Robertson, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines, 1966-67.
With any luck, HBO will have a lot more stories to tell.
