Did the madness lead to the greatness? Who can say. It probably didn’t hurt.
As someone who served in the Vietnam War, has studied it ever since, and written two well-received books about the war (The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club and Going Downtown), the war WAS madness on every level - of course it would drive anyone trying to explain and illustrate the central madness insane on some level.
I used to hate the movie; in retrospect because I "got" the madness in and didn't like to say I had been there with that. However, I recently downloaded and watched the director's cut, and it is indeed a masterpiece, a work of art that does explain the deeper insanity at the heart of Vietnam's darkness for us. Too bad most Americans - and most particularly most American politicians - will never "get it," so we will be condemned to continue the insanity, as we have.
The Vulture article about smoking reminded me of the scene in "Thank You for Smoking" with Rob Lowe where he and Aaron Eckhart lament that only "RAV's" (Russians, Arabs and Villains) are allowed to smoke in movies anymore, then at the end of the movie when William H. Macy's character has launched a campaign to replace cigarettes in classic movies with candy. Nota bene: I am currently watching Season Three of True Detective, and there are a lot of great smoking scenes in it.
Did the madness lead to the greatness? Who can say. It probably didn’t hurt.
As someone who served in the Vietnam War, has studied it ever since, and written two well-received books about the war (The Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club and Going Downtown), the war WAS madness on every level - of course it would drive anyone trying to explain and illustrate the central madness insane on some level.
I used to hate the movie; in retrospect because I "got" the madness in and didn't like to say I had been there with that. However, I recently downloaded and watched the director's cut, and it is indeed a masterpiece, a work of art that does explain the deeper insanity at the heart of Vietnam's darkness for us. Too bad most Americans - and most particularly most American politicians - will never "get it," so we will be condemned to continue the insanity, as we have.
The Vulture article about smoking reminded me of the scene in "Thank You for Smoking" with Rob Lowe where he and Aaron Eckhart lament that only "RAV's" (Russians, Arabs and Villains) are allowed to smoke in movies anymore, then at the end of the movie when William H. Macy's character has launched a campaign to replace cigarettes in classic movies with candy. Nota bene: I am currently watching Season Three of True Detective, and there are a lot of great smoking scenes in it.
i interviewed the directors of the sixth here IF YOU CARE https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-new-abnormal/id1508202790?i=1000654554440
This NEW ABNORMAL podcast is lively!
oh look at you mr fancy podcast man
that’s right