Fallen Angels

War movies are a motif in Fallen Angels that sheds light on the characters’ feelings about their experience in Vietnam. Throughout the novel, Perry and his squad mates frequently reference and discuss famous war movies as a method for coping with the harsh and devastating realities of combat and war.

War movies in the novel function as a form of escapism for the soldiers, allowing them to see themselves as heroes in a movie that follow the same clichés and archetypes that they’ve seen in movies. For example, Lobel tells Perry that he is playing “[t]he part where the star of the movie is sitting in the foxhole explaining how he feels about life and stuff like that. You never get killed in the movies when you’re doing that” (72). This emphasizes how movies function as a way for the soldiers to cope with the dangerous situations they’re in. Lobel continues, telling Perry, “I’m a little nervous, too. I’d be real nervous, except I know none of this is real and I’m just playing a part” (72), introducing the way that war movies allow the soldiers to mentally remove themselves from the terrifying positions they are in as a way to cope. The fictitious nature of these movies allows the soldiers to momentarily suspend their constant fear and the harsh reality of war and immerse themselves in a world where good always wins.

The war movies that the characters discuss create an unrepresentative and almost mythologized conceptualization of what war looks and feels like. These movies glorify war and create unrealistic expectations for the soldiers to grapple with. Perry realizes that war is different than how the movies depict it, and he wants to escape back into the comfort of how simple war looks in the movies. He says, “I didn’t want to get up. I wanted to sit there forever. Where the hell was the popcorn machine? Couldn’t I just watch the rest of this damned war? Couldn’t I just be out of it for a few hours, a few minutes?” (259). This emphasizes the disparity between war movies and the reality of war. Perry wants to escape back into the comfort of this mythologized war where he can be sure he is the hero and that he will survive, highlighting their use as soft propaganda that encourages young men to fight.

Moreover, war movies work as a cultural beacon for the soldiers, connecting them to the society that they left behind when they were deployed to Vietnam. Forced into a new and hostile environment, Perry and his squad use discussions of war movies to foster a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. When the squad discusses movies, they often move into conversations about their lives outside of the war and bond over their mutual discoveries about the truth of war and the simplification of war that is portrayed within movies.