All first-year students are required to attend one of these events. All events will be held in DNL 127, except for Born on the Fourth of July, which will be held in Dunleavy 407.

Panel Discussion

Tuesday, Sept. 23, 7:30 – 9:00 p.m.

“War Without End: Vietnam in History and Memory.” The panel will be moderated by Dr. Robert Kane, Assistant Professor of History at Niaraga University. This event is open to all members of the campus community. Our panelists are:

Lieutenant Colonel Ivan D. Evans, U.S. Army, is Chair of the Department of Military Science and Professor of Military Science at Niagara University Army ROTC.

Mr. Tom Tran left Vietnam in 1980 at age 13. A graduate of Buffalo’s D'Youville College, he is self-employed with Tran Industries and is active in the local Vietnamese Catholic and Vietnamese communities.

Patrick W. Welch, Sgt. USMC, medically retired due to wounds received in Vietnam, is the recipient of a Purple Heart and is currently the Director of Erie County Veterans Services.

Dr. Wanda Davis, professor in Student Personnel Administration at Buffalo State College, has a variety of research interests, including the civil rights movement and leadership and student movements.

Films

Monday, Sept 22, 7:00 p.m.

Apocalypse Now (1979, 153 min., Rated R)

Producer/director Francis Ford Coppola delivers a visually beautiful, ground-breaking masterpiece with surrealistic and symbolic sequences detailing the confusion, violence, fear, and nightmarish madness of the Vietnam War. Often viewed as a journey into the darkness of the human psyche, the film tells the tale of Army Captain Benjamin Willard who is sent into the jungle to assassinate US Army Special Forces Colonel Walter Kurtz, who has gone AWOL and is believed to be insane.

Wednesday, Sept 24, 7:00 p.m.

Hearts and Minds (1974, 112 min., Rated R)

A courageous and startling film, Peter Davis' landmark documentary Hearts and Minds unflinchingly confronts the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Using a wealth of sources-from interviews to newsreels to documentary footage of the conflict at home and abroad-Davis constructs a powerfully affecting portrait of the disastrous effects of war. Explosive, persuasive, and shocking, Hearts and Minds is an overwhelming emotional experience and the controversial winner of the 1974 Academy Award® for Best Documentary.

Monday, Sept 29, 7:00 p.m.

Full Metal Jacket (1987, 116 min., Rated R)

Full Metal Jacket is a cynical, Reagan-era view of the 1960s' hunger for experience and consciousness that fulfilled itself in violence. Lee Ermey made film history as the Marine drill instructor whose ritualized debasement of men in the name of tribal uniformity creates its darkest angel in a murderous half-wit (Vincent D'Onofrio). Matthew Modine gives a smart and savvy performance as Private Joker, the clowning, military journalist who yearns to get away from the propaganda machine and know firsthand the horrific revelation of the front line.

Wednesday, Oct 1, 7:00 p.m.

Platoon (1986, 120 min., Rated R)

Platoon put writer-turned-director Oliver Stone on the map; it is still his most acclaimed and effective film, probably because it is based on Stone's firsthand experience as an American soldier in Vietnam. Chris is an infantryman whose loyalty is tested by two superior officers: Sergeant Elias, a former hippie humanist who really cares about his men, and Sergeant Barnes, a moody, macho soldier who may have gone over to the dark side. Stone has become known for his sledgehammer visual style, but in this film it seems perfectly appropriate. His violent and disorienting images have a terrifying immediacy, a you-are-there quality that gives you a sense of how things may have felt to an infantryman in the jungles of Vietnam.

Wednesday, October 8, 6:00 p.m. VINI 407.

Born on the Fourth of July (1989, 145 min., Rated R)

A biography of Ron Kovic, who, after being paralyzed in the Vietnam war, becomes an activist.