GOING BACK
US, 2001, 117 minutes, Colour.
Casper van Diehn, Carre Otis.
Directed by Sidney J. Furie.
Going Back did not get a major release. It is particularly American, focusing on Vietnam veterans and their post-war traumas. The film recreates their fighting in Vietnam in 1968, especially in the Tet Offensive. Mistakes are made, innocent people are killed, blame is laid, guilt is hidden.
However, the group returns to Vietnam, to see what happened to the country in which they fought, to meet people, especially a woman they saved but, especially, to confront their leader.
A journalist is making a television documentary about their visit to Vietnam and is incorporating footage taken during the war. This seems a bit far-fetched in some ways as the documentary group films some very strong moments in the confrontations. However, as they revisit the battlefield, the truth emerges of what really happened, especially as some of the men have a built-up hatred for their leader and attempt to kill him. This all acts as a catharsis, an opportunity for one of the men to admit his mistake and to exonerate the leader.
The film was of interest in a retrospective of the Vietnam War, the action there, the effect on the soldiers – and their subsequent lives.
1. The impact of the for an American audience? Vietnamese? For people of other nations involved in the war? The war themes? Trauma? The need for some kind of catharsis?
2. The Vietnam settings (filmed in Vietnam and the Philippines)? The scenes in Saigon, a more modern Saigon, Ho Chi Minh City? The scenes in the countryside, in Hue? The musical score?
3. The title and the indication of the themes?
4. The war footage, familiar from newsreels and from many Vietnam War films? The action, marines under fire, mistakes, traps, the tunnels, the innocent civilians killed, the B52s and the bombings, the mistakes that could be made in the field, wrong coordinates, hesitations? Men and their mutiny against the captain? The confrontation in the fields?
5. The central characters and their return, as a group, their memories, camaraderie? Their agreement to take part in the documentary? Their gung-ho behaviour on their visit? Enjoying Saigon?
6. The antagonism towards Ramsay, his role as the captain, the mutiny against him in 1968, the deaths and their blaming him? His reluctance to join in the documentary? His arrival, the antagonism? His going along with the group? Their beginning to visit the various places, the woman whose life they saved and her gratitude? Going to Hue? The insertion of the flashbacks? The build-up to the final battle scene, their revisiting, the two men with the guns, their running to shoot Ramsay, Ray and his own searching for forgiveness and feeling he couldn't be forgiven, his running to shield Ramsay and being shot? The other man intending to kill himself and Ramsay stopping him? The effect on the man who gave the wrong coordinates, his anguish, confessing that he was in error and that he had to kill the people?
7. The used car salesman, his attitude towards wanting to sell cars in Vietnam, cavalier, the irony that it was revealed that it was he who gave the wrong coordinates, the effect of his confession?
8. The university professor, more sympathetic, knowing the language, talking to the lady whose life they saved?
9. Ray, the minister, wanting forgiveness? His role in the mutiny, leaving the men, taking the blame, being shot?
10. The other two men who wanted to kill Ramsay, harbouring the long hatred?
11. The final reconciliation, the truth being told, their embracing each other, the final salute? The indications that at least this was something which would purge them of their traumas?
12. Katherine, the documentary, accompanying the group, on-screen, the questions, her learning about the group through the documentary-making? The attraction towards Ramsay, their night together? Her witnessing the confrontation in the field? Her agreeing to lose the material filmed of the shooting and the reconciliation? Her cameraman, his observations, joining in the discussions, the men telling him that he had not been there? The young man in the group, the son of one of their killed comrades?
13. The continuation of the Vietnam War story in American films, the need for a continual reassessment and understanding the place of the war in 20th century American history?
