Heroin Use by U.S.

Troops Abroad 1
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Running head: GENRE ANALYSIS

Heroin Use by U.S. Troops Abroad: Genre Analysis of Painting and Movie
Vanessa Chaffee
University of Texas at El Paso
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War is the way of the world, from the ancient times to modern days. War is discussed

every day, whether it’s in a history class or during a family discussion, war seems to be on every

person’s lips these days and opinions are often times strong. It is debated as to why previous

wars were even fought and whether they should have been fought at all and the same holds true

for the current war. Tactics are strategized, ethics are evaluated and parallels are drawn; however

one of the most devastating commonalities of the wars of the past fifty years is often overlooked,

heroin usage by U.S troops. In the late 1960s Southeast Asia ruled the opium trade, the North

Vietnam mountains were the location for large crops of opium and during the Vietnam War high-

grade heroin became readily available to American troops; now in the 21st century, American

troops in Afghanistan are stationed where over 90% of the world’s opiate supply hails from.

Troops are stationed far from home, in stressful, life threatening situations, they are lonely, they

are traumatized and they are bored. While overlooked, the heroin addictions are not unknown

and information has become more and more public. Two examples of how this epidemic has

been portrayed are a simple painting and a satirical movie.

Rhetorical Issues: Purpose and Audience

A painting can be a powerful image, the chosen painting (see page 7) is an unnamed,

uncredited painting of an American troop entwined with opium plants. The plants are coming up

from out of frame and wrapping around the troop’s hand and arm, reaching up higher along his

torso. This is to show the viewer of the painting that not only are opiates easily available to

troops; the opium plants are unavoidable and trapping. The painting is mostly a side view of the

soldier’s torso, the top of the painting ends at the soldier’s shoulders, this gives the soldier

anonymity; he could be anyone, this reminds the viewer that drugs and addiction do not
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discriminate. This painting can be seen as geared toward those that do not often, or ever, read

about the subject. Also, by being completely visual the painting transcends language barriers.

The chosen movie is titled, Buffalo Soldiers, a satirical independent film first released in

2001, this movie was initially geared toward the independent film crowd, as well as those that

are not opposed to caustic or sardonic views of the military and politics. The movie, based on a

novel by Robert O’Connor, is centered around the activities of troops stationed on a U.S. military

base in West Germany in 1989, just prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall. The troops are stationed

but there is no war for them to fight. The movie’s protagonist, Elwood, is bored soldier that

steals, sells weapons on the German black market and cooks up heroin for other bored soldiers

on base. The movie ends with Elwood exchanging weapons for heroin with a German dealer. His

superior, Sgt. Lee, makes an attempt to murder Elwood; however at the same time the large batch

of heroin Elwood is cooking up boils over and ignites, causing the building to blow up. Sgt.

Elwood is the only fatality. The purpose of the movie was to show that sometimes the most

dangerous thing for troops is the boredom peace brings.

Content Within the Genres

The painting additionally utilizes subtle artistic techniques to draw forth the intended

reaction. The soldier is in full camouflage and is fully armed, potentially prepared for battle.

Without the opium plants, the figure is the epitome of what the public thinks of when the image

of a soldier is conjured. The opium looks to be consciously holding onto the soldier, twisting

around his hand, up his arm, the plants seem to be reaching for and up to him. Additionally, the

opium plants themselves appear to not just be plants, but to have distinctly a serpentine quality.

This elicits the oft taught idea that snakes are evil or untrustworthy.
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In Buffalo Soldiers the antagonist, Sgt. Lee, is aware of Elwood’s illegal actions, yet does

not do more than restrict his privileges until Elwood begins an affair with Sgt. Lee’s wife. Even

then, Sgt. Lee chooses to not take procedural action against Elwood for his indiscretions, but

instead plants a grenade in the trunk that is Elwood is known to store the cooked heroin in. The

grenade kills Elwood’s best friend, but still no legal repercussions fall on either Elwood or Sgt.

Lee. The movie shows that, though Elwood’s actions are illegal and detestable, his superior

officer more often than not looks the other way, until Elwood’s actions personally affected Sgt.

Lee, thus providing the implication that not only is stopping the drug abuse itself is not

worthydiligent enforcement, but can be used to seek vengeance on personal vendettas. The

movie also nods toward the relationship between drugs and weaponry/violence.

Style and Language

The painting has an almost surreal quality, which highlights the drug aspect; however for

them most part the painting is very real, with the soldier looking even more realistic than the

opium plants. The painting is also done in warm, natural colors; the background is a deep

orange-red which could represent the end of the day and the greens are clean and vibrant, but not

overly bright. The choice to use colors with depth and warmth, as opposed to an overly bright or

flat style gives the piece a definite seriousness.

While the movie deals with serious and heavy subject matter, the film is blatantly

satirical. In the beginning of the film a medical exam of deceased soldier reveals that he had a

profuse amount of drugs in his system, Elwood and another character have the following

exchange:
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Colonel Berman: Heroin, cocaine, marijuana, lysergic acid, deithyl... whatever the hell that is;

amphetamines, traces of barbiturates, estrogen. Estrogen? McCovey was on the pill? How could

this be possible?

Elwood: He might have taken it by mistake, sir.

Colonel Berman: What?

Elwood: Birth control pill. He might've thought it was something else.

Colonel Berman: Well, fine. But he didn't take heroin, speed and cocaine by mistake, did he?

Elwood: It seems unlikely, sir.

This dialogue seems to take a serious matter and turn it into a joke, but in reality, what it

is showing is how much the boredom affects the soldiers that they will turn to anything to

alleviate that inert feeling of extreme boredom. Additionally, Elwood also says, “These were my

guys. Fighting the dull fight. Soldiers with nothing to kill except time. They know that war is

hell; but peace, peace is fucking boring.” This line is a an obvious play on the phrase ‘fighting

the good fight’ and emphasizes how peace time can also negative effect on soldiers; soldiers that

are

separated from their loved ones and their own country, from the comforts of home and the events

of their own real lives.

Conclusion

Wars have been fought from the beginning of history, they are fought in the name of

religion, race, creed and economy, however, very little is done to provide soldiers with support

during the seemingly endless downtime. The growing level of heroin dependency in troops

grows and every story that isn’t told is one that could be used to educate, but sometimes telling a
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story isn’t enough, the way a story is told can sometimes drive the point home with more

strength. The visceral feeling the painting evokes not only exemplifies how gripping addiction

can be, it does so without words, therefore making it something that defies the confinement of

language barriers. Buffalo Soldiers has a similar effect, but uses almost the opposite approach; it

uses language, the twist of dark comedy, to convey its disdain for what American troops have

entangled in. Hopefully, both these genres and others help to educate the masses of this growing

epidemic.

Unnamed painting: