cherokeecfg

I saw this movie in 1970 when it was on TV. Eleven years later at the tender age of 29 I joined the Utah National Guard and went to basic training at Ft. Jackson, SC. The memory of this movie helped me to survive basic training. I remembered that the drill sergeants really wanted to yell at the hippie all the time, but as long as he did what he was told the drill sergeants had a hard time finding something to yell at him about. So when I was in basic training I tried hard to do everything I was told so that the drill sergeants wouldn't find a reason to yell at me. It helped a lot. Now I have a son who just went through basic training and I told him about the movie before he left and how it helped me. I consider the movie "Tribes" my key to getting through basic training.

Marlon Brando was amazing in this film. I saw the comments made on TCM before they started the film and they said he saw the stage play and begged Paramount (?) to let him have a part in it when they made the film. They said he could have any part he wanted and he picked Sakini, the translator. As a Japanese teacher I want to tell you that I was stunned at his perfect accent! He spoke English exactly as a native Japanese person would. If I hadn't been told ahead of time that it was Marlon Brando, there is no way you could have convinced me that it wasn't a native Japanese actor doing the part. I could see that an attempt was made to make the natives look uneducated and doltish, but having lived in Japan for a year and a half, I simply couldn't see them that way. All you have to do is take a few minutes to watch any people and see the intelligence in their eyes and in their mannerisms and you can see how intelligent they really are whether YOU understand their language or not!

I teach Japanese for an online high school and I include cultural activities so that the students can learn about the country as well as the language. And watching "Gung Ho" is one of the requirements. The students can either buy or rent the movie. Stereotypes or not, this helps the students to see that other people view the world and their lives differently than we do. Many of my students have told me that they enjoyed the movie so much, they are going to get a copy for themselves. It is really interesting to see what we value in this culture and what they value in their culture. I just wish I could get a cleaned-up TV version. I'm not really into the crude language the auto workers use all the time.