Customer Reviews

In the Year of the Pig

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If by chance you've stumbled upon this documentary, count yourself lucky. This film helped change a nation without the benefit of the subsequently revealed Pentagon Papers or now known confirming documents. In retrospect it seems a cautious, subtle condemnation of the war. Nevertheless, the film remains important in various ways: cameras on location could accidentally reveal an unintended story; the truth could be discovered despite secrecy; and, careful storytelling can change the opinion of a nation.

This may well be one of the finest documentaries ever made. Some of it is luck in that the time in which it was made allowed Antonio to speak with US polititions from a (sadly) bygone era and, yes, both sides of the aisle were interviewed. It could reasonably be viewed as well inside the anti-Vietnam War camp, as a warning for any of you who supported the war. But, in fairness, it seems to be more of a precocious examination of how and why the US lost (this is made before the Tet Offensive). I wouldn't dismiss it on ideological grounds.

. . . has not diminished the power of this documentary. I sought it out in the used market and found it at last. Get a copy for your Viet Nam era collection and stack it with "The Anderson Platoon", "Medium Cool", "Getting Straight", "Alice's Restaurant", "The Green Berets", and others made during, not after, that conflict.

I watched it again today - the anniversary of the reunification of Viet Nam - with my two youngest sons who are interested in that war, having played virtual versions of it in their video worlds.

Seems the conflicting ideologies were all given pretty fair treatment to me. See the internet movie data base (imdb) for the strange bedfellows cast of original characters, including General Curtis "bomb them back into the stone age" LeMay to Daniel "Brother of Philip" Berrigan.... Original and amazing combat footage supplied by North Viet Nam includes the 1954 fall of Dien Bien Phu. There is some horrifying footage of the self-immolation of Thich Quang Duc, and revealing, candid interviews with American enlisted and officers in the field. In short, if you are at all interested in the Viet Nam War and have read or are planning to read Christan Appy's "Patriots", be sure to buy this video for yourself and your family and friends. I am a Viet Nam combat infantry veteran.

This film is very interesting in how it depicts the story of the Vietnam War. To see the politicians of the that time make the same sorts of arguments that today's politicos make, in regards to the justification of the Iraq war, is stunning. It is like the same reasoning and purposes that they say we now need to be in the Middle East, they all said about Southeast Asia. Just insert the word Terrorism for Communism as we do it all over again. "As the War Machine keeps turning..." I am glad I purchased this film.

That's right. The Vietnam War never ended. Yes, the Vietnamese won their Independence and today are sought out by Americans as lucrative trading partners. But their victory was never acknowledged by the US government. More importantly, many Americans still cherish the myth that the war, whch killed 60,000 American troops and 3,000,000 Asians, overwhelmingly civilians, was "a Noble Cause" as Ronald Regan proclamed, after taking office. Yet before the war even ended the US had become "Bosom Buddies" with Comunist China, which had been labeled the "real adversary" at the war's beginning, the main justification for fighting the Vietnamese. Out of deference to China, the US, under Nixon and Ford, even went on to support the Cambodian Regime of Pol Pot, at the very time he was comitting genocide on his own people! And the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident" which was supposedly the "trigger" of the war, had been exposed as a HOAX, via The Pentagon Papers!

The hostilities between the countries ended, but the war that had divided our nation raged on passionately at home, but never died... it just quietly "faded away" over time, unresolved.

The Vietnam War re-emerged as our "AWOL" President debated John Kerry, the outspoken Antiwar Veteren of the Seventies, who had somehow changed sides along the way, during the 2004 Presidential Election. The same "Swift Boat" individuals who were paid to justify the additional deaths of their fellow soldiers during the Vietnam War were now being paid again to justify the deaths of the children of their dead comrades, this time in Iraq.

Withdrawal of troops from Vietnam would result in the "collapse of the world as we knew it," the argument of the "Domino Theory" went. Now the same forces claimed that a withdral from Iraq would result in a "Failed State" (i.e. a country not totally controlled by our "much wiser" US leaders) and result in "International Ruin and Chaos!" Nevermind the fact that the diversion of National Guard resources in Iraq has resulted in the Greatest Natural Calamity in US history at home- the Katrina Hurricane Disaster of 2005!

All the elements of the current debate of the Iraq war are present in de Antonio's brilliant film, "In the Year of the Pig", yet there are some differences. There was no Fox News, to act as the Propaganda Wing of the War Lobby then, and the media wasn't controlled by War Corporations like General Elecric that gets much of it's profits from military contracts, and owns NBC Television outright.

Without de Antonio there would have been be no "Hearts and Minds" later to shatter more underlying myths of the Vietnam War. There would be no Michael Moore, who followed in his tradition, or recent reflective films like "The Fog of War".

The artistry of those earlier films such as "In the Year of the Pig" was that, unlike Moore, there was no "voice-over" or intervention by the filmmaker to prove a point. The viewer was just shown a juxtaposition of the sides, of different pieces of reality, and was left to draw his own conclusions. It was great filmmaking!

I give "In the Year of the Pig" my own humble gesture of "a solid Upward Fist"!

Who would ever have thought Senator Thruston Morton could be so interesting? Yet De Antonio got some great material from him. Tonkin Gulf "No"-votes, Senators Ernest Greuning and Wayne Morse, also make wise appearances. Like LBJ, all three Senators left the government after the 1968 elections.

This film is really about film-making, more than it is a History of the Vietnam War. It ends before Tet and the Paris peace talks, more or less around the time of the South Vietnamese national elections of 1967. It has compelling shots of Buddhist immolation, but overall it's addressed to the Hearts and Minds of late 60's Americans.

This is not a history for your kids: too much is missing. That being said, In the Year of the Pig is a fine documentary. Emile de Antonio works forward from his material to present a viewpoint, instead of using cinema to work backwards from some deeply-held prejudice, a la Michael Moore. A good example would be the filmed address by General LeMay: how easy it would be to turn him into General Jack D. Ripper instead of presenting his argument in an almost, I-don't-know, reasonable way.

The Home Vision Entertainment edition comes with a great essay by Douglas Kellner explaining de Antonio's cinemagraphic methods.

Another reviewer mentioned similarities between the run up and US involvement in Vietnam and the run up and involvement in Iraq. I think he nailed it.

The USA for some reason holds itself accountable to no one and, should it seek to go to war, it will create false truths to do so.

The second Gulf of Tonkin incident which effectively got the USA into the war is commented on by Naval servicemen of the time. Their collective comment is one of fabrication. Washington pressured and pressured for a "positive attack" that they eventually got despite all the evidence to the contrary.

Two lone voices from the Senate rang out in dissent of the "Gulf of Tonkin resolution" which basically gave the President (then Johnson) unrestrained power to wage war without a declaration of war.

Further into the documentary we see a "rally" reminiscent of Nazi Germany taking place. Young boys marching with flags on poles, Steel helmeted soldiers and hateful rhetoric by politicians and high ranking Armed forces officials that make your soul quiver.

The arrogance of these people as they talk about "dead China men, Asians etc" as being animals and not caring about life makes you angry and just shocked at the zero value placed on the Vietnamese by the Americans.

For 1968 this documentary dares to go against the popular support for the war by explaining the history of Vietnam and the decent by USA into a war that could never be won.
It's fascinating, sad, emotional and you are left with a "Wow, I'm almost ashamed to be part of this" feeling.

Iraq is today's Vietnam without the coverage. A needless waste of life in a war where neither the Vietnamese nor the Iraqi's ever threatened the United States.

This documentary for me, is a study in "The arrogance of Power".

Even though this film came out in 1968, before the Tet Offensive, Nixon's Vietnamization Policy, the Pentagon Papers, etc., it is important in that it reveals what people were thinking of during that time in the late 1960's, when the War was already dividing the U.S.

A lot of information that many books don't cover about this war is touched on (up to early 1968, of course), including the viewpoint of the Politicians that either supported or was turning against this war.

A nice little history lesson of what was going on with the war just about halfway through the bloody conflict. As others have said, there are better films and books out there, but this does help out in a topical sense, in that you can understand what both sides felt 40 years ago.

I think the biggest flaw with this documentary is the gap between 1968, when the film was made, and now. First, so much happened in Southeast Asia after "the end" of the film: Tet, My Lai, the invasions of Laos and Cambodia, Operation Menu, etc. This is not to fault the film for not showing events that had not occurred yet, but it makes the film less comprehensive. The events of the Nixon administration add an even deeper layer to the war and its legacy. Second, in that 40 years, so many books, films, and documentaries have been made about the war and that abundance dulls the impact of this film. In 1969, this might have been groundbreaking. But, now, nothing about the war is particularly shocking to us and, thus, the film is less of a must-see. I would recommend "Hearts and Minds," "Vietnam: A Television History," and even "Fog of War" before this film. Each of those films has a more lasting impact than this one, IN MY OPINION. There is value in this film (I particularly enjoyed seeing and hearing the late David Halberstam), but this isn't a must-have.

One of the reviewers said that if you like combat footage then this is the documentary for you. THAT IS COMPLETELY FALSE! I do not know what he was smoking at the time. This documentary is 95% footage of political dialog and 5% maybe of actual field footage.

I m not saying this isn't a film worth watching as that would depend on your interest. It has a great historical background of how everything came about over there and where it went, and who was involved. But if your looking for a lot of combat footage this isn't the film for you.