Format: DVD from NetFlix on various players.
It’s a sad thing to say, but I think the life expectancy of the kick-ass portable DVD player that has been my companion for slightly more than two years is on its last legs. It doesn’t hold a charge for more than about 45 minutes anymore, and now the remote no longer works, even with a fresh battery. It’s sad, but I got a great deal of use out of the little machine, and maybe it’s time to hang it up. Ending it with a film like In the Year of the Pig somehow seems appropriate.
In the Year of the Pig is a war documentary, which puts it into a very specific genre. What it is not by any stretch of the imagination is a a film that depicts war as anything other than something terrible. More than that, Emile de Antonio’s film shows that the conflict in Vietnam was caused as much by American pride and expansionist policies as it was by Ho Chi Minh, the influence of China, and the French presence in Indochina.
