Response to the film, Platoon: an analysis of the Vietnam veteran as journalist‐critic and “priest”

• Scott Baker ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Maryland, College Park

     University of Maryland, College Park

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Southern communication journal, ISSN 1041-794X, Vol. 55, nº 2, 1989, págs. 123-143
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • This article explores the response of a Vietnam veteran to the film, Platoon. The rhetoric reveals two voices, the veteran as journalist‐critic and as “priest.” These voices combine to mystify rather than explain the Vietnam experience, resulting in the mystification of knowledge itself. This form of priestly rhetoric, it is argued, serves a hierarchy of power and knowledge that endures as long as the mysteries of Vietnam persevere through periodic invocation by members of a priestly class. In light of past orientations to the cultural priesthood and the social mystery, this veteran's rhetoric is viewed as ironic.