Visual/Verbal/Written

As General Patton's speech was read out loud in class, the visual image I got in my head, which initially I thought was pretty good, was simply a man standing at a podium in front of the enlisted men giving this speech. However, when we actually watched Patton, my perspective changed completely. The American flag in the background immediately gave off a sense of strong patriotism. The camera zoomed in closely on Patton's many decorations, showing that he is a highly revered and honored man. He conveyed the speech powerfully, emphasizing particular words, using the word "when" as opposed to "if" when speaking of returning home after the war. Patton built up the honor of serving one's country, encouraging the men that victory is the apparent and only end.

Full Metal Jacket and Platoon are two of the most powerful movies I have ever watched. Unlike usual Hollywood war movies these days which include more romance and dramatizations, the two movies portrayed the reality of the Vietnam War and the brutality both sides of the war underwent. At the beginning of the year when we were to read about the facts and details of the War, I understood factually the pain and suffering the soldiers and civilians had to live through. But now, after watching the two movies, my emotions have pushed me to a new level of understanding. Listening to the cries of the villagers and watching the American soldiers try to stay mentally sane through all the hardships was all hard to take in. Seeing the events of the war portrayed in the movies is completely different from simply looking at pictures in textbooks or on the internet. The entire effect of the anguish of the people involved in the war if more fully felt through watching a movie. In Full Metal Jacket, I felt the most moving moment was at the end, when the sniper, who ended up being a young girl, was shot by Joker, but then right after that scene, the army men were all walking and singing together, which is such a sharp contrast from just the previous scene. In Platoon, the burning of the village, for me, was the most intense. Listening to the villagers plea for their lives and the lives of their loved ones was hard to watch. And seeing Barnes and some of the other men kill the innocent because they were annoyed was so striking. From the movies' portrayals, it often seemed that the Americans, made indifferent by all they had to put up with in the war, were heartless and at times totally vulgar. Still, it is hard to imagine what it would be like to be in all the situations each person had to go through, no matter what side of the war he was on. The emotional strength of visual rhetoric is powerful and moving.