MovieChat Forums > Dead Presidents (1995) Discussion > Morale of the story?

Morale of the story?

posted 11 years ago by Archeoterrex
13 replies | jump to latest

Just finished viewing this picture, and I'm not sure what to make of it. It starts off really slow, but it picks up pace once they get into Vietnam. Then when he comes back and copes with his post military life, I had mixed feelings about it.

Most of the post war scenes were fairly interesting with a few exceptions, but the ending left me feeling somewhat melancholy. Obviously there is some kind of message here, but I'm trying to figure it out. Anthony sacrifices his life to "serve his country", but what that really means is killing people that never did anything to him as Chris Tucker's character puts it. I found it ironic when the judge at the end pontificates to him about "decency" "dedication" and "honor", when the scenes in Vietnam were anything BUT "decency" "dedication" and "honor". There's some irony when the judge is being played by Martin Sheen who himself acted in a Vietnam War flick, but I digress.

The judge also denigrates Anthony's contributions to his country (and pretty much every single other Vietnam War Vet) by insinuating that the Vietnam War wasn't a "real war". Holy crap, what a low blow, but it was done intentionally. After Anthony receives his sentence, he feels nothing but frustration and anger over what he sacrificed for his country, and the "reward" for his sacrifice was punishment. Someone else pointed out a poignant irony. When Anthony was killing for his country it was alright but when his country turned it's back on him he had to resort to desperate measures in order to survive, but his country then punishes him for doing the same exact thing it was encouraging him to do in Vietnam. Morale of the story? I think it may be subjective, but what I got out of that was, "Don't sacrifice for what you don't believe in".

There's some inevitable comparisons to Deer Hunter, and while Deer Hunter had some better scenes, I think the overall message in Dead Presidents is better. I never got a "message" in Deer Hunter, just simply that war *beep* up people's lives, Dead Presidents makes me feel like there is a message, despite whether or not the message I formulated is what the directors intended.

Few other things that bothered me is that Anthony never got "revenge" against that pimp that manhandled him, if anyone had it coming, it was that POS.

Anyway pretty good picture, there were some boring parts, but I liked it more than Boyz in the Hood and the good outweighed the bad.

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[–] Archeoterrex 11 years ago

That... really has nothing to do with my post or the movie. It's just your own pre-concieved bias against military men.

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[–] Archeoterrex 11 years ago

You ain't talking about the movie my friend. You're talking about something in your personal life, and it's frigging obvious.

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[–] Archeoterrex 11 years ago

Like I said, you're not talking about the movie, you're talking about yourself.

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[–] marbleann 11 years ago

Morale of the story, you get beat up about every thing a person will do things they never would of before because they lost their spirit.
I remember Vietnam. Those soldiers were treated like they were the enemy. Only toward the end of the war, which they never made official did people get fed up because of all of the body bags were seeing on tv coming into Dover. People who protested about the Vietnam seem to be protesting about the soldiers too. Soldiers came back and got spit at. They were ashamed to wear their uniforms. Vietnam destroyed families.

People want to talk about how bad black families are going well a lot of that could be blamed on the Vietnam War that took people right out of high school in slums , nobody had a chance. Kids who thought fighting in that war would give them a chance for a better life. They were fooled.

People came back as junkies. White folks did not do much better but because of their supports systems it was easier for them to get help. But one was offering help to a Viet nam vet.s So yes beat a person who thought they were doing a good thing down and their spirit dies with them. So we not be surprised why we have the turmoil that is mainly in the communities of people with color. They never had a chance. No resources no hope.

[–] Killingforcompany 11 years ago

It really is a sad shame that the boomers treated Vietnam vets like that. It really wasn't their decision to go off to war in Vietnam. Like Iraq II, it was the official and misguided policy makers who decided. I really don’t think much has changed, though. I haven’t seen anyone ever spit on an Iraq/Afghanistan war vet for having the misfortune of being sent overseas, but a lot of these returning soldiers are facing the same sort of overwhelming apathy and total lack of jobs/opportunities that past vets have faced. Simply put, the poor are the ones who fight these wars. That hasn't changed one bit.

[–] Mandingo609 11 years ago

People that look too deep in films or music and Post on message boards suffers from intellectual inferiority complex. They try to make themselves appear to be intelligent by posting question that they know have no correct answer. How really looks that deep into films? Critics? Sure. But, who listens to them. They may as well be talking to themselves.