Loin du Vietnam (1967)
Directors: Joris Ivens, William Klein, Claude Lelouch, Agnès Varda, Jean-Luc Godard, Chris Marker, Alain Resnais
Runtime: 115 min
At the time when this issue was predominant, seven French film directors have jointly made a documentary that grappled with the issue of the Vietnam War. At the beginning of the film we see a huge difference in technological development of the confronted sides. This conflict is described as “technology of the poor” against “technology of the rich”. We see the incredible persistence of the Vietnamese, who are determined to win at any cost, and the astonishment of the Americans who didn’t believe that such a poor country could withstand total material destruction. Besides the analysis of the real Vietnam, the film explores a multitude of meanings of Vietnam as a symbol, because Vietnam has at that time become synonymous with imperialist crimes against third world countries, the cause for numerous international protests, and the focal point of a growing gap within the American society in the second half of the 1960s.
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