Fallen Angels

War movies are a motif in Fallen Angels that sheds light on the characters’ feelings about their experience in Vietnam. Throughout the novel, Perry and his squad mates frequently reference and discuss famous war movies as a method for coping with the harsh and devastating realities of combat and war.

War movies in the novel function as a form of escapism for the soldiers, allowing them to see themselves as heroes in a movie that follow the same clichés and archetypes that they’ve seen in movies. For example, Lobel tells Perry that he is playing “[t]he part where the star of the movie is sitting in the foxhole explaining how he feels about life and stuff like that. You never get killed in the movies when you’re doing that” (72). This emphasizes how movies function as a way for the soldiers to cope with the dangerous situations they’re in. Lobel continues, telling Perry, “I’m a little nervous, too. I’d be real nervous, except I know none of this is real and I’m just playing a part” (72), introducing the way that war movies allow the soldiers to mentally remove themselves from the terrifying positions they are in as a way to cope.