“Do We Get to Win This Time?”: POW/MIA Rescue Films and the American Monomyth

Abstract

On evening of January 23, 1973, in a national radio and television address, President Richard Nixon announced conclusion of a cease-fire agreement between United States of America and Democratic Republic of Vietnam. Nixon explained all American prisoners of war would be released and there would also be the fullest possible accounting for all those who are missing in action (Agreement 153). In years followed such an accounting never materialized. Since then stories about American POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia have persisted. In early 1990s, U.S. Senate established a select committee to bring closure to this lingering question from Vietnam War. Sutton points out committee concluded there were no American POW/MIAs being held in Southeast Asia but not all Americans were convinced. In 1980s several films with a basic plot structure centered around rescue of American POW/MIAs in Southeast Asia appeared. Budra, in in Garden: The POW Film as Pastoral, argues POW/MIA rescue film is a sub-genre of Vietnam film genre. This essay examines films Uncommon Valor (1984), Missing in Action (1985), and Rambo: First Blood, Part II (1985) and finds these films helped to lay foundation for POW/MIA rescue genre. However, more importantly, this paper argues a key factor in popularity of these films with American audiences lies in their ability to resolve POW/ MIA question while also giving Americans a symbolic in Vietnam War. For at conclusion of these films some of American POW/MIAs finally come home to be reunited with their families, and Southeast Asian Communists are brutally defeated by an American warrior. In short, as Rambo suggests in First Blood, Part II Americans get to win this time. There exists some debate about whether American Vietnam war films makeup a recognizable genre (e. g. Whillock). Budra points to similarities between narratives of these films and narrative conventions of classic Western genre with its ties to American monomyth. The typical story in these films consists of rescue of American POWs from Vietnamese and is closely followed by several of these films and continued with slight variations in others. This essay uses these familiar narrative conventions to demonstrate one of their appeals to American audiences is their use of key images found in classic American monomyth. The films Uncommon Valor (1984), Missing in Action (1985), and Rambo: First Blood, Part 11 (1985) were foundational for POW/MIA rescue film as a subgenre. American audiences flocked to these films, especially Rambo: First Blood, Part II, despite lack of critical acclaim. Although their plots differ in some details, Vietnam War POW/MIA rescue movies contain key images found in classic American monomyth. In their research into artifacts of American popular culture, Jewett and Lawrence found consistent pattern of monomyth: A community in harmonious paradise is threatened by evil; normal institutions fail to contend with this threat; a selfless superhero emerges to renounce temptations and carry out redemptive task; aided by fate, his decisive victory restores community to its paradisal condition; superhero then recedes into obscurity. (xi) Jewett and Lawrence see American monomyth as a secular version of Judeo-Christian stories of redemption combining elements from selfless servant who impassively gives his life for others and zealous crusader who destroys evil (xii-xiii). The heroes of American popular culture act as Christ-like figures. Because of this proximity to religious imagery, popular culture heroes possess a power over their admirers that should be compared with more traditional forms of religious zeal, and belief in abilities of popular culture heroes to do justice imparts relaxing feeling society can actually be redeemed by anti-democratic means (Jewett and Lawrence xii-xiii). …