The Vietnam War had a major impact on American society, as reflected in four decades of Vietnam war films. In the 1940s the theme of triumph ran throughout World War II movies. But the frustrations of the Korean War sowed the seeds of national self-doubt. Most Vietnam films display contradictions that give way to scant sense of resolution.

1965–1975

During the actual period of conflict, relatively few films dealt with the war itself. Those that did, such as A Yank in Viet-Nam (1964), To the Shores of Hell (1966), and The Green Berets (1968), relied on old war-movie formulas irrelevant to the complex nature of the conflict. However, several films addressed the war indirectly in more creative ways. Robert Aldrich's western Ulzana's Raid (1972) pointed to the conflict as arbitrary and meaningless, rendering civilized values irrelevant. Sam Peckinpah's The Wild Bunch (1969) developed the political implications contained in Aldrich's earlier western, Vera...