The motion pictures “Hearts and Minds” and “First Blood” both equally depict the years after the Vietnam War in America. “Hearts and Minds”, which is a documentary, displays how war veterans and individuals during that period contributed to the war. The documentary reveals veterans and their particular accounts pertaining to situations in Vietnam and just how it had damaged their lives. First Blood is likewise about a Vietnam veteran that is dealt with horribly for no reason when he has to deal with the anti-war protestors when he returns home to America.

The documentary film (“Hearts and Minds”) as well as First Blood, offers some thorough and graphic pictures of the bloody events that were all too common in Vietnam. Events including the My Lai Massacre were described in the documentary which properly portrays how awful and dreadful the war was. The Massacre also shows why the protestors at home hated the war a lot which in turn induced so many riots during that time period. In both movies, veterans were treated terribly as they were bashed and put down directly after they returned home from the war. Whether they were pro war or against it, they were torn apart by Americans who disliked them just for the fact that they were included in the war.

In “First Blood”, the top character John Rambo comes back to The united states and is resented and utterly omitted from society. In the beginning of the flick he goes in a small town to find something to eat but is instantly kicked out. Since Rambo believed he did nothing wrong, he decides to go back to the community and not leave. When he does this, the police arrest and virtually tortured him, reminding him of the unbearable days in Vietnam. While he is being tortured, he impressively battles back and escapes. From that point on he goes through a huge battle trying to hide and fighting off the police who are trying to catch him. He uses his superb battle skills he learned in Vietnam to fight them off. At no point do the police give up and let him go, they just assume he is the enemy for the reason that he came out of the Vietnam War. For the first period in American history, war veterans were not honored but looked down upon after they returned from a war. The Vietnam War was one of the bloodiest and most questionable war ever and this is confirmed by what the veterans who arrived out of the war had to deal with when they arrived home. Most of the veterans just wanted to come home and enjoy themselves after they worked really hard and risked their life fighting for their nation. Unfortunately, instead of coming home to peace and a warm welcome, they were faced with anti-war protestors who developed yet another war at home…the veterans vs. the protestors. Regretfully many of these veterans also began smoking a great deal. Back then smoking wasn’t yet viewed as a dangerous thing to do. Vaporizers didn’t exist and thus they were unable to know that they could buy volcano vaporizer which could be a significantly healthier way to light up.

Protestors of the Vietnam War try to force peace but fail miserably despite putting their entire hearts and souls into the movement.  I really think that everyone should take a moment to do some reading on the vietnam war, the veterans, and the oppression.  There are so many things I learned, and I now hold a much higher respect for our veterans.