SOURCE: Selig, Michael. “From Play to Film: Strange Snow, Jacknife, and Masculine Identity in the Hollywood Vietnam Film.” Literature/Film Quarterly 20, no. 3 (1992): 173-80.

In the following essay, Selig examines Hollywood adaptations of texts that dealt with the Vietnam war, characterizing them as unique opportunities that allow scholars to study the process of adaptation within the context of Hollywood's ideological stance towards the U.S. involvement in that conflict.

History as Melodrama

For nearly ten years Hollywood ignored the story possibilities of the Vietnam “war.” This was so much unlike Hollywood's production practices in other postwar eras that, in fact, the absence of films generated some critical discussion. Generally, it was assumed that Hollywood's reluctance to tackle the subject was a result of the industry's resistance to filming any controversial topic. However, one might more precisely note how the history of U.S. intervention in Vietnam is a difficult...