Analyzing Rhetoric of the movie Casualties of War Essay

Analyzing Rhetoric of the movie Casualties of War - Essay Example The movie Casualties of War does not overly provide an abundance of detail about the Vietnam War of 1962-1972. Overall, it is a movie that â€Å"tells† rather than â€Å"shows† the reader about what was experienced, as evident in the high use of evaluative adjectives and adverbs in the script. The movie seeks to share with the audience the ambiguous nature of war, and to highlight that those who may be portrayed by media and governments as the â€Å"heroes† or â€Å"saviors,† could in fact be guilty of unethical and undemocratic behaviors that they accuse others of practicing. As such, the movie was more about war itself, and the realities that often go unreported, than about the Vietnam War itself. From this viewpoint, the movie casts the Vietnam War as a dangerous place for marines, as well as a dangerous situation for the Vietnamese for who the marines are supposedly fighting for. It was a time where North American men could consider themselves truly fr ee as they exist together in the field of war, at least if they lived. Casualties of War portrays the event as a ‘war of consciousness,’ thorough the eyes of one marine who bucks the chain of command.