A TRUE WAR STORY
War impacts our visions of art through its intensity. Pain and suffering help to create beautiful art. In order for an audience to feel the intensity, it must be shown or told in just the right way. When the artist knows its subject well, especially through first hand experience, he can sometimes, given the talent, make his audience feel the feelings that he felt. The audience can walk away with a better understanding of something that they otherwise would never have the benefit of knowing. Tim O'Brien, in his book, The Things They Carried; and Randall Wallace, in his movie, "We Were Soldiers," were able to penetrate some of these feelings to their audience. The focus here, is how to tell it. In the chapters, "How To Tell a True War Story" and "Good Form," this subject is discussed in detail. At the end of the movie, the journalist agonizes over how to tell his story. They both translated their extraordinary experience to the audience. They accomplish this through their intricate details that are grotesque, gory and bizarre.
In "How To Tell a True War Story," Tim O'Brien says that a true war story doesn't deal with proper human behavior, morality, or leaving the audience uplifted. In fact, he says that a true war story is obscene and evil. He says it makes the stomach believe, it doesn't even have to make a point. It is, he says about love, memories and sorrow. In "Good Form,' O'Brien says, "I want you to feel the way I felt." He says that sometimes "story-truth" is more truthful than "Happening-truth."
He says that through his stories, he can see things he never saw and he can feel again. The details that O'Brien uses, makes his audience feel exactly what he wants them to feel. For instance, he writes, "In the mountains that day, I watched Lemon turn sideways. He laughed and said something to Rat Kiley. Then he took a peculiar half step, moving from shade into bright sunlight, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree. The parts just hung there, so Dave Jensen and I were ordered to shinny up and peel him off. I remember the white bone of an arm. I remember pieces of skin and something wet and yellow that must've been the intestines. The gore was horrible, and stays with me. But what wakes me up twenty years later is Dave Jensen singing "Lemon Tree" as we threw down the parts." This quote has gory detail, but more than the detail, is Jensen singing "Lemon Tree." I think that is the perverse kind of detail that makes you feel it in the stomach and to need to think about it.
In the movie "We Were Soldiers," the reporter was in Vietnam just to cover the story; What he did was live his story. The closer we are to things, the more real they become, and that's what happened to the reporter. His story became so real, and still he didn't know just how to tell it. Anyone can just relay information, accounts of what exactly happened, but he needed to do more than that and what he did was tell the story for the many men who died along side him. He conveyed a message of guilt, loss and intensity that he felt so deeply that he would never be the same. He would never forget. Maybe that's what an artist needs to do, make their audience feel so deeply that they never forget and they themselves are never quite the same. Wallace shows us detail that is unforgettable in the face of the reporter and the colonel when they speak of telling this story. They are dirty and beat up and choking back sobs. He shows us the extent of the horror when he shows the reporter trying to drag off a man who was badly burned. When he grabbed him by the ankles, his skin all pulled right off the bone, and still the reporter got him to the chopper. He shows us huge piles of dead soldiers. These things have an impact on the audience. They are incredibly unforgettable. The movie ends with the reporter typing "We who have seen war will never stop seeing, in the silence of the night we will always hear the screams, for we were soldiers." As he types, he can't keep from crying. So, in the movie, it's the scenes, the acting and the attention to gory detail, the sounds of the choppers, the explosions, and the machine guns, along with haunting music that makes the audience feel deeply.
War impacts our visions of art through its intensity. Pain and suffering help to create beautiful art. In order for an audience to feel the intensity, it must be shown or told in just the right way. When the artist knows its subject well, especially through first hand experience, he can sometimes, given the talent, make his audience feel the feelings that he felt. The audience can walk away with a better understanding of something that they otherwise would never have the benefit of knowing. Tim O'Brien, in his book, The Things They Carried; and Randall Wallace, in his movie, "We Were Soldiers," were able to penetrate some of these feelings to their audience. The focus here, is how to tell it. In the chapters, "How To Tell a True War Story" and "Good Form," this subject is discussed in detail. At the end of the movie, the journalist agonizes over how to tell his story. They both translated their extraordinary experience to the audience. They accomplish this through their intricate details that are grotesque, gory and bizarre.
In "How To Tell a True War Story," Tim O'Brien says that a true war story doesn't deal with proper human behavior, morality, or leaving the audience uplifted. In fact, he says that a true war story is obscene and evil. He says it makes the stomach believe, it doesn't even have to make a point. It is, he says about love, memories and sorrow. In "Good Form,' O'Brien says, "I want you to feel the way I felt." He says that sometimes "story-truth" is more truthful than "Happening-truth."
He says that through his stories, he can see things he never saw and he can feel again. The details that O'Brien uses, makes his audience feel exactly what he wants them to feel. For instance, he writes, "In the mountains that day, I watched Lemon turn sideways. He laughed and said something to Rat Kiley. Then he took a peculiar half step, moving from shade into bright sunlight, and the booby-trapped 105 round blew him into a tree. The parts just hung there, so Dave Jensen and I were ordered to shinny up and peel him off. I remember the white bone of an arm. I remember pieces of skin and something wet and yellow that must've been the intestines. The gore was horrible, and stays with me. But what wakes me up twenty years later is Dave Jensen singing "Lemon Tree" as we threw down the parts." This quote has gory detail, but more than the detail, is Jensen singing "Lemon Tree." I think that is the perverse kind of detail that makes you feel it in the stomach and to need to think about it.
In the movie "We Were Soldiers," the reporter was in Vietnam just to cover the story; What he did was live his story. The closer we are to things, the more real they become, and that's what happened to the reporter. His story became so real, and still he didn't know just how to tell it. Anyone can just relay information, accounts of what exactly happened, but he needed to do more than that and what he did was tell the story for the many men who died along side him. He conveyed a message of guilt, loss and intensity that he felt so deeply that he would never be the same. He would never forget. Maybe that's what an artist needs to do, make their audience feel so deeply that they never forget and they themselves are never quite the same. Wallace shows us detail that is unforgettable in the face of the reporter and the colonel when they speak of telling this story. They are dirty and beat up and choking back sobs. He shows us the extent of the horror when he shows the reporter trying to drag off a man who was badly burned. When he grabbed him by the ankles, his skin all pulled right off the bone, and still the reporter got him to the chopper. He shows us huge piles of dead soldiers. These things have an impact on the audience. They are incredibly unforgettable. The movie ends with the reporter typing "We who have seen war will never stop seeing, in the silence of the night we will always hear the screams, for we were soldiers." As he types, he can't keep from crying. So, in the movie, it's the scenes, the acting and the attention to gory detail, the sounds of the choppers, the explosions, and the machine guns, along with haunting music that makes the audience feel deeply.
posted by Brenda at 10:39 AM
1 Comments:
Hey B,
This is an excellent look at a little piece of both works. Your first paragraph there makes the whole thing work, because you lay out your reasoning and a thesis. That's very nice. Then you give us some support by using examples from both. Again, good. Of course I would have liked to see an example from the movie that paralleled the book one in that last detail -- the 'Lemon Tree' song. Perhaps there wasn't one from the movie like that, but those are the things to really look for.
OK. This is great. Thanks.
CK
Post a Comment
<< Home