Vietnam war movies at Teater Utan Kayu.

JAKARTA (JP): What is it about Vietnam War films that warrants a special look and commentary? War films have always been part of the American motion picture industry, dating back to its earliest days (when the world was indeed in war). Filmgoers have been familiar with movies set in the time of World War I and World War II, with stories of courage and heroism, from All Quiet on the Western Front in the 1930s to The Longest Day in the 1960s.

But going into the 1970s and the 1980s, Vietnam War films appeared and presented a different type of war movie. Like the war films that preceded them, these films also depict the horrors and ravages of war as seen through the eyes of the protagonists. But …