In James West Davidson’s book, “After the Fact: The Art of Historical Detection,” Chapter 16, “Where Trouble Comes” takes a look at the notion of American exceptionalism’s change over time as reflected in the changing role of the American GI in Vietnam War movies. Davidson begins the chapter explaining what POV is in movies and how different angles of POV affect how the story is told. When he takes a look at how movies about or including the Vietnam War, he discusses that most of them are misconstrued despite being “based on a true story.” However, many times, including The Green Berets (1968) and Apocalypse Now (1979), and that is not the case because filmmakers need additional footage to fill the needs of the film and they often add more that tampers with the actual happenings of the war.…show more content… However, that often is not the case. The earlier movies such as The Green Berets and Apocalypse Now do not have the same historical accuracy as later movies such as Platoon (1986). As time went on, from the first movie about the war to the ones in the later years, American exceptionalism became more and more important. Americans are held to a higher standard of morality and with the early movies misrepresenting the portrayal of events and characteristics of the Vietnam War, things began to change in later movies that better displayed the accuracy of what truly happened. Near the end of the chapter, Davidson says, “Historians must examine the images of the silver screen with the same skepticism they bring to any primary or secondary
