In both of the documentaries that we have seen now, a lot of what is described is also very graphic. Both had the same clip, which featured the brutal murder of a man with a shot through the head. Many other violent images were shown throughout both of these documentaries.
What purpose do you think having these images serves? The Weather Underground said that they had wanted to wake up America to the atrocities that had been happening around the world and especially in Vietnam. Do you think these clips served the same purpose for us when we watched these documentaries? What would have been the impact without them?
The gruesome images that were used in the documentaries serve the purpose of emphasizing the vicious actions that Americans were putting upon towards Vietnam. In a sense, I think the clips were used in both documentaries for the same purpose. They both wanted to show American citizens the brutality that was the soldiers were putting Vietnamese through. Both documentaries showed soldiers piling the dead bodies together but the exact clip of the man shot in the head, I'd say, was the most effective when reaching out to the audience. I mean, in both films, I cringed and thought "Why are they doing that?" when I saw that scene. If that's how I felt and thought, I think it's used to represent the emotions that the Vietnamese were having during this war.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with Wendy. Gruesome and unpleasant images force a person to think about and question the topic more. The images highlight the severity of the situation in Vietnam, and how uncomfortable the whole situation made everyone. reporting of number of deaths does not resonate in someone nearly as much as SEEING the dead bodies.
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