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Exactly How Many Red-Headed Anglo Prostitutes Were There In Viet Nam?

posted 17 years ago by richard.fuller1
10 replies | jump to latest

I've always construed Helgenberger as portraying a hooker in Viet Nam to be the absolute depths of Hollywood discrimination, no matter what the 'reasons' for her character to be in Viet Nam and doing this.

Fact was, the show didn't want to cast an actual Asian actress for the role, because it would have been offensive?

Yet, Donna Reed (From Here to Eternity) to Jane Fonda (Klute) to Jodie Foster (Taxi Driver) can all play hookers with no one saying it discriminates against Aryans.

[–] alexisdetroit 17 years ago

I was in an Air Force hospital at Cam Ranh Bay when the Tet offensive broke out in Jan 68. I was with the Marines near Phu Bai when I was wounded and eventually medevaced to Cam Ranh for surgery.

I was approached by a male AF sergeant one day who asked if I would like to have a nurse provide a stress management session for me. I told him that I didn't have any cash, that everything was taken from me when I was medevaced and all I had to my name was the pajamas I was wearing.

An Army sergeant in Kuwait during the '91 Gulf War told me similar stories about gals in the rear doing well moonlighting in stress management.

In Ly Hayslip(sp)'s book "When Heaven and Earth Changed Places" (Oliver Stone's "Heaven and Earth") she had the boldness and maybe courage to write about her days in Danang turning tricks. Not to put any female Vietnam vets on the spot here, but I would someday like to see similar honesty. That sort of thing strikes me as a missing chapter in Vietnam War literturea.

[–] MovieCriticMarvelfan 17 years ago

I can believe that story there is so much that goes on that isn't written about as for the original poster so who would you have cast then if you had an Asian actress?

You know Helgenberger was absolutely awesome in this she owned the role.

"We have guided missiles and misguided men."

[–] alexisdetroit 17 years ago

When China Beach ran twenty years ago an East Asian woman in that series playing an Asian American or a Viet probably would have reinforced the "oh so hawnee" sterotype of them ( a la that line from 2 Live Crew about the same time as the series).
Margaret Cho, for example, would not be my first pick as a stress management specialist in any story. (wink)

Since there were so few female Asian Americans serving in Vietnam it would not have been a plausible role for one to play an American nurse moonlighting as a said type specialist. I like Marg Hell' in any role, even my sister.

Marvel, have you ever seen The Men's Club an 80s movie? A mens therapy group degenerates into a wild party and then they go to an upscale SF brothel. Frank Langella and Harvey Keitel star.

As for My Khe ("me kay") Beach, what us GIs called China Beach, you should see it today. It has been completely re-done with palm tree lined boulevard running along it. Not glitzy like South Beach (thank gawd) but it does have a micro brewery that makes Czech style beer.

[–] MovieCriticMarvelfan 17 years ago

Yeah it would not have been plausible plus I think had an Asian actress been cast somebody might have made a big deal out of it as in "there's another minority being stereotyped".

I never heard of The Men's Club I'll watch it if it's worth watching. There's still a few Keitel movies I haven't seen like "Blindside" which I just bought, probably will buy Exposed and a few others since I can't find them in any videostore.

So did you know any nurses like McMurphy? I'am sure you have lots of stories to tell.

[–] too_beaucoup 17 years ago

I don’t know anything about 2 Live Crew, but I am nevertheless reasonably certain that any use they made of the words “so horny” would have been a reference to Stanley Kubrick’s Full Metal Jacket (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0093058/). The scene in that movie involved a Vietnamese prostitute coming on to a group of G.I.s, whining “Me so horny! Love you long time!”

Astute readers may notice that my own screen name comes from the same scene.

[–] Scab16 16 years ago

actually your screen name does not come from that scene. "so horny" is in Saigon. "too bou coup" is in Hue.

[–] too_beaucoup 16 years ago

Yes and no.

A local cinema showed FMJ a couple weeks ago (a 35mm print! I was impressed), and I took the opportunity to refresh my memories of it.

You are right that I had mentally confused the two hooker scenes. Still, when Da Nang Hooker (that is her name in credits, so it was not Saigon) tells Joker “Fifteen dollah,” Joker does respond “No, five dollars. Fifteen dollars too beaucoup.” But the line I was recalling was the later scene with Motorbike Hooker in Hue, when ARVN Pimp told Eightball he was “too buckoo, too buckoo,” so you were right about that.

[–] Galagatron 10 years ago

This was "the absolute depths of Hollywood discrimination"? Not hardly. Her being there adds to the surrealism of the whole show, which was more common in the first season. It doesn't matter how many there really were; this is this particular character. She is also more relatable to the other American women in the show and serves as a contrast. A Vietnamese prostitute would not have been the same character, so I doubt one was even considered as you assume. Also, your use of the term "Aryan" suggests more about your offense at White actresses being depicted as prostitutes.

[–] richard.fuller1 10 years ago

IamDweeby: " A Vietnamese prostitute would not have been the same character, so I doubt one was even considered as you assume."
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Oh, I KNOW a Viet-namese character as a prostitute was NEVER considered, whether she would have been similar or not. Just like MASH, any kind of central Asian figure other than someone seen in the background would have never been in an American tv show about Korea or Viet Nam.

[–] 10 years ago

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