Australian
Screen

Teacher’s notes

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This clip shows three off-duty Australian soldiers at their camp, during their service in Vietnam. While hanging out his washing, 'Bung’ (John Hargreaves) asks the others if they think they’re doing any good by being there. An older soldier, the cynical Harry (Graham Kennedy), predicts that the 'commos’ will win. He criticises the politicians who sent them, and questions the strength of public support. This challenges young Bill’s (John Jarratt) perception of public support for the War. Another soldier, Dawson (Graeme Blundell), arrives with the news that the 'wharfies’ (waterside workers) in Australia are refusing to load the supply ships to Vietnam. Harry suggests that it is the poor who always line up to fight wars, not the rich. The lunch bell sounds and the soldiers go off to the mess hall.

Educational value points

• Director Tom Jeffrey juxtaposes the younger soldiers’ youth and naivety against the scepticism of Harry, an older soldier who is on his second tour of duty. Harry’s bitingly cynical views of Australia’s involvement and his belief in the futility of the War challenge the younger soldiers’ understanding of their role and of war in general. The power of Jeffrey’s approach is revealed when Bung expresses confusion and doubt, saying, 'Well what are we doing here then?’

• The clip depicts men from the Australian Special Air Service (SAS), a highly trained regiment of professional soldiers, not conscripts. In Vietnam, SAS teams of four to six men were covertly inserted into jungle areas to conduct reconnaissance and ambush patrols. They became a feared organisation, with the Viet Cong referring to them as 'ma rung’, meaning 'phantoms of the jungle’.

• The Vietnam War did not have distinct 'front lines’. The Viet Cong primarily used guerrilla tactics, and so action was sporadic; potentially deadly engagements could happen at any time. As reflected in the film’s title, The Odd Angry Shot, the soldiers experienced the War as bouts of monotony punctuated by intense, frantic bursts of action. The scene shows the mundane daily existence of men living together in an isolated environment while they await the next jungle patrol.

• Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War (1962–72) was as part of an allied force led by the USA to assist South Vietnam in its fight against the communist North Vietnam. Over time, the public began to increasingly question Australia’s involvement in a 'foreign civil war’ and Australia’s relationship with the USA. The use of conscripts was also a hugely controversial and divisive issue, with conscription accounting for 15,542 of the 59,000 servicemen and women. Conscription was limited to men and was based on a lottery of birthdates drawn from a barrel every March and September between 1965 and 1972.

• Australian waterside workers or 'wharfies’ had a history of opposition to the Vietnam War. As early as 1954 they had refused to load munitions for the French forces in Indo-China. In 1969, in response to growing public concern over the War, in particular the My Lai massacre, the Waterside Workers’ Federation refused to unload the merchant ship Jeparit. Federal Cabinet responded in December by deciding to commission the ship into the navy. A similar action had been taken in March 1967 when the Boonaroo was commissioned after another union, the Seamen’s Union, had refused to crew it.

• What is widely considered to be typical Australian humour – laconic, cynical, self-deprecating and anti-authoritarian – is used in the clip to undermine both the seriousness of the War and the soldiers’ sense of powerlessness in the decision-making process. This is a recurring theme in other Australian war films, including Bruce Beresford’s Breaker Morant and Peter Weir’s Gallipoli.

• The Australian public’s ambivalent attitude towards those serving in Vietnam is clearly suggested. Morgan Gallup polls assessing public opinion indicated public support for the War and for conscription in the early days of Australia’s involvement. However, as the War became entrenched, antiwar sentiment grew and, by 1970, large moratorium demonstrations swept Australian cities calling for an end to Australia’s involvement. In this climate of opposition, returning servicemen and women were often shunned. By the 1980s, recognition of the widespread physical and mental suffering of Vietnam War veterans (including illnesses related to chemical exposure) led to the 1987 Welcome Home Parade, an official public acknowledgement of their service.

• The Odd Angry Shot is a film adaptation of an autobiographical novel by US author William Nagle, a member of the US Army Special Forces in 1965–68. Nagle was 18 when he went to serve in Vietnam.

Harry and Bung are spending leisure time at the army camp. Harry is writing in a book and Bung is hanging out laundry. He sighs.
Bung Reckon we’re doing any good by being here?
Harry Not much.
Bung Why not?
Harry Because when we get home we’ll be an embarrassment to our great nation. The only bastards who’ll want to know about us are the silly buggers in this man’s army. Let’s face it we got no-one else.
Bill joins the conversation.
Bill You mean the whole attitude has changed? About the war?
Harry Yeah. And the fact that we won’t win it. We may have held the fort for a while but the commos will eventually get hold of this place, it just stands to reason.
Bung What about the people back home?
Harry Well, I suppose it’ll be just like it’s been after every other war.
Bung And how’s that?
Harry Well, a few bods will come up and pat you on the back and tell you what a great bloke you were – that’ll last about a week and then nobody’ll want to hear about it.
Bung You really think they’ll treat us like that?
Harry Five will get you ten. Oh, they’ll make a big deal out of it, probably even make it an election issue and you can bet that within five years every one of us wearing a uniform, from the chief of the general staff downwards, will have been sold out by some bloody, sticky-fingered politician.
Bung Well, what are we doing here then?
Harry You’re a soldier, the same as every other silly prick in this tossed-up, fucked-up, never-come-down land. And that’s why you’re here, because there’s no-one else. And everyone’s got to be somewhere and you’re here. So get used to it.
Harry pats Bung on the stomach. He grabs a beer and sets down to drink it. Bung walks off.

Another soldier approaches, picking his way through clotheslines.
Dawson Hey, just thought you blokes might like to know the wharfies back home are refusing to load our supply ships.
Harry That’s nice of them, isn’t it?
Dawson Yeah well, I ‘spose they reckon they’re doing the right thing. Well, after all, it is a democracy.
Bill What is?
Dawson Australia.
Dawson picks up Harry’s beer to drink from it but Harry pulls it off and points to the esky.
Harry I guess if you’ve got enough money it is.
Bill Well, what’s money got to do with it?
Dawson takes the last beer from the esky. Bill reaches in a fraction later but there are no more beers.
Harry What’s money got -? OK, stupid, just take a look around the unit, or better still, the taskforce. How many silver-spoon types do you see here?
Bill None that I know of. Even the officers are pretty poor.
Harry Right! And you won’t see too many either. It’s the poor man, the shit shoveller with the arse out of his pants and two bob in his pocket, that makes Australia. Every time trouble starts there he is, standing like a fool at the recruiting office with his hand out for a rifle, while the rich boys are at home, hanging on, waiting for a commission or their fathers to get them into a safe job. And while you’re stuck overseas, with some poor bastards from the other side who are just as scared as you are shooting at you, the rich boys are at home, probably down having a bit of a slum and a chop at your bird.
Harry looks down, remembering something.
Harry Sorry.
Bill What? Oh, forget it.
Someone clangs the lunch bell.
Bell clanger Mess time, you blokes. You gonna eat?
Dawson May as well. Nothing else to do.
Dawson gets up. Harry and Bill remain seated.
Bill You might have something there.
Bill gets up to go to lunch. Harry remains seated, looking thoughtful for a couple of seconds, and then he too gets up.