----------------------------Original message---------------------------- I don't have a copy at hand to check my memory, but I think Michael Herr has a vivid passage on John Wayne's inspiring fatal heroics in Viet Nam (see *Dispatches*). Peter Davis uses WWII combat films to explain the ideology of racism and nationalism that (he argues) convinced some Americans to bear arms against an Asian Communist menace. Jim Belton's companion text, *American Cinema/American Culture*, has a brief, but provocative chapter on "The War Film"; in a quick discussion of the structuring of masculinity in these films, he includes analyis (and a still) of the drill instructor in *Full Metal Jacket.* This is stuff to this side of your comment--but leads to my question. Has anyone commented on Belton's text? Is it a contender for introductory American film classes? Grady Ballenger, Northwestern State (Louisiana)