Legacies of War: Vietnam Across the Divides

On the fiftieth anniversary of the fall of Saigon, filmmaker and program curator Tony Bui presents a multiperspective look at the Vietnam War on film, moving beyond conventional narratives to include voices and viewpoints often overlooked in mainstream cinema. While the most famous Vietnam War films—like the cultural touchstones Platoon and Full Metal Jacket—focus on the experience of American soldiers, this selection paints a broader, more complex picture, exploring Vietnamese perspectives, the war’s impact on civilians, and postwar reckoning. Encompassing powerfully human Vietnamese dramas like The Little Girl of Hanoi and When the Tenth Month Comes, wrenching documentaries like Regret to Inform and Hearts and Minds, and Bui’s own poetic reflection on Vietnam past and present, Three Seasons, these stories of loss, resilience, trauma, and reconciliation offer new ways of understanding a conflict that shattered and shaped countless lives.

FEATURING: On the Same River (1959), Ms. Tư Hậu (1963), Hearts and Minds (1974), The Little Girl of Hanoi (1974), When the Tenth Month Comes (1984), Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Casualties of War (1989), In Country (1989), Regret to Inform (1998), Three Seasons (1999)*, The Fog of War (2003)*, Journey from the Fall (2006)

De Palma is also making a film during a period of time when Italian cinema was capitalizing on the concept of Hitchcock thrillers. In general, it is common for exploitation titles to be released that mirror the most popular genre films of any given era. In other cases, an entire new wave of genre films populate specific cultures. Italian literature was inspired by Hitchcock's films and began releasing thriller novels in the same vein. These novels would then inspire the "Giallo" wave in Italy, in which filmmakers were making their own kinds of Hitchcock thrillers. With a more violent approach to thrillers, Giallo films would go on to inspire a lot of '70s and '80s slasher movies in America. Brian De Palma's Dressed to Kill is a Giallo thriller that builds on Hitchcock's Psycho in a more contemporary way. Everything in the film is deliberate, like the depiction of sexuality, violence and mental health, which is not bound by the obligatory constraints of Psycho. Dressed to Kill is stylistically one of the most compelling films of the '80s and doubles down on Hitchcock thrillers and giallo cinema in every way. For this reason alone, it might be Brian De Palma's greatest film.

The only thing that might keep Dressed to Kill from being De Palma's overall masterpiece is a misstep in terms of the actual reveal of the killer. There isn't an "aha" moment that audiences are expecting where Liz or Peter actually discover the truth for themselves. The final cross-cutting sequence had an opportunity to capitalize on this by having Liz discover something in Elliot's office that reveals the truth just moments before being attacked. While it makes sense why De Palma would want to mirror Psycho instead (literally having a wig fall from the killer's head), the "aha" moment would have been an effective deviation from the 1960 classic. With that being said, there is no denying the overwhelming style and craft in Dressed to Kill as well as a personal element for Brian De Palma that makes the film his thriller masterpiece. While the performances are worth noting, especially Michael Caine and Nancy Allen, it is Brian De Palma's presence that adds extra depth to the story.

When he was a child, honing his earliest directorial skills with a camera, his mother confided in him about suspecting De Palma's father of cheating on her. At his mother's request, De Palma would follow his father around with his camera and record his movements in order to try and catch him in the act. It is easy to see how this would stick with someone, it just happened to stick with a cinematic artist throughout his formative years. Those experiences not only inspired Dressed to Kill, but they also inspired the inclusion of the Peter character. Peter (played by Keith Gordon) is an unexpected highlight of the film. It's almost a wonder what a child's perspective would be doing in a story like this, but his inclusion is vital to the film's progression. Peter is clearly a conduit for De Palma himself, who uses his unique skills and talents to capture the truth about Elliot (or Elliot's "patient") with a camera. This aspect is also a comment on Hitchcock's use of voyeurism in Rear Window, which is expanded on through De Palma's personal touch. It becomes the essential piece of Dressed to Kill's structure. To top this all off, De Palma's visual craft is on display in a myriad of ways that include split-screen remembrances, intentional reverse shots in a mirror and immersive shot compositions. De Palma's vision, mixed with engaging performances and Pino Donaggio's mesmerizing score, makes Dressed to Kill the quintessential thriller of the 1980s.

Snake Eyes reminds us of Phantom of the Paradise.

Do you think so? In what way?

In both films there’s a physical environment as important as any character, a violent attack in broad daylight, an innocent woman who becomes involved in a fight to the death between two heroes, and videotapes that reveal a secret and whose deletion prefigures the death of the person recorded on them. At the end of Snake Eyes, when Nicolas Cage is bruised and wounded, he looks a bit like the Phantom – as if the evil in him…

…was suddenly painted on his face. That’s exactly right.

It’s Die Hard in a casino!

This week, hosts Phil and Liam are stepping into the swirling, neon-drenched chaos of Brian De Palma’s SNAKE EYES (1998) - joined by none other than Travis Woods, the highly acclaimed film writer who is literally writing the book on De Palma.

During a high-profile boxing match in Atlantic City, corrupt local detective Rick Santoro (Nicolas Cage) witnesses the assassination of the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who was being guarded by his best friend, US Navy Commander Kevin Dunne (Gary Sinise). With thousands of people trapped inside the casino, and a hurricane on the way, the building becomes a deadly pressure cooker, and as Santoro unearths a dark conspiracy, he must decide whether to take a pay off and look the other way…or risk everything to expose the truth.

What follows is a pressure-cooker thriller set almost entirely inside this one building, packed with impossibly complex tracking shots, split diopters galore, and some of the most ostentatious filmmaking flexes of De Palma’s career. We break down how Snake Eyes really is both “Die Hard in a casino” and “Die Hard 2 in a casino”, why it’s a perfect showcase for Cage’s full-throttle charisma, and how De Palma - the king of cinematic maximalism - injects pure operatic style into a film that’s basically one long unraveling conspiracy. Plus, Travis takes us deep into De Palma’s career, his recurring themes of surveillance, voyeurism, and deception, and where Snake Eyes fits amidst the great man’s remarkable legacy. So throw on your loudest suit, place your bets, and join us as we go all-in on this gloriously demented, spectacularly sleazy thriller!

Here comes the pain, baby!