Shot in 1968, this is a critical yet sympathetic examination of the anti-war…
Time of the Locust
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- Citation
- Cataloging
- Transcript
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Compiled from American news film, Vietnamese National Liberation Front combat footage, and unreleased material filmed by Japanese Television camera units, this now classic film by Peter Gessner provides one of the strongest treatises against the war in Vietnam.
"Gessner's Time of the Locust is one of the best anti-Vietnam films made by underground filmmakers." —Susan Braudy, New York Magazine
"This motion picture is more powerful than collections of statistics, political rhetoric, and even the cleverest written argument. Its point is simple and dramatic: it exposes the cruel agony of Vietnam." —Bertrand Russell Peace Foundation
"Brutal, truthful, terse, and extremely memorable" —New York Post
"Readers Poll: One of the best films of 1966." —The Village Voice
Citation
Main credits
Gessner, Peter (film producer)
Gessner, Peter (editor of moving image work)
Other credits
Music composed by Morton Feldman.
Distributor subjects
American Studies; Asia; History (U.S.); History (World); Vietnam EraKeywords
WEBVTT
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[percussion]
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There are special pleaders
who counsel retreat in Vietnam.
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They belong to a group
that has always been blind to experience
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and has been deaf to hope.
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Were we to follow their course,
how many nations might fall
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before the aggressor?
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Where would our treaties be respected,
and our word honored?
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00:02:04.573 --> 00:02:06.893
Tomorrow,
we are going on Operation Majestic,
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00:02:07.060 --> 00:02:09.126
which is an operation up in the area
10
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we call the O.K. Corral area
for reason of the fact
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the aimless gunfight in the O.K. Corral.
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The operation should be most productive
today here at Bến Cát
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and is aimed at trying to get Charlie off
our back here at Bến Cát,
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pushing back farther by running around
his own backyard instead of having him
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hitting us down here.
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The end of the long road back to Bến Cát,
[?] one Viet Cong dead, two prisoners,
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44 draft dodgers, one duck,
and three flags.
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Well, I think that part of all of us
put together
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is try to establish peace of this country
and kick the communist out of here,
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out of the South Vietnam.
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00:03:02.633 --> 00:03:06.166
That\'s all I could say,
and try to make the people over here
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to see the American people
or the American soldier how they are,
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things like that.
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These men are,
as usual, outstanding, John.
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They\'re damn fine men.
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They\'ve done a grand job in here.
They\'ve killed a lot of VC.
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Pretty soon, we\'re going to kick off again
in the attack.
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We\'re going to kill some more.
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We fight because we must fight
if we are to live in a world
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where every country can shape
its own destiny, and only in such a world
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will our own freedom be finally secure.
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Don\'t think that because I\'m military
and, what you said,
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flamboyant fighter pilots that I like war.
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I love peace more than you love peace.
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[firearm sounds]
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[percussion] [music]
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These boots are made for walking
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And that\'s just what they\'ll do
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One of these days these boots
are gonna walk all over you
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Are you ready, boots? Start walking
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We may well be living
in the time foretold many years ago
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when it was said,
\"I call heaven and earth to record
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this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death,
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blessing and cursing:
therefore choose life,
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that both thou and thy seed may live.\"
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Every night before I turn out the lights
to sleep, I ask myself this question,
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\"Have I done everything
that I can do to unite this country?
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Have I done everything I can to help
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unite the world, to try to bring peace
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and hope to all the peoples of the world?
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Have I done enough?\"
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Have we, each of us,
all done all we could?
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Have we done enough?