Once upon a screen: explosive paradox

The article discusses a video essay by filmmaker Kevin B Lee titled Once upon a screen: explosive paradox, which explores how watching the 1986 Vietnam War film Platoon affected him deeply as a young viewer.

Lee recalls the intense, visceral experience of seeing the film in a San Francisco cinema with his family, describing it as shocking and harrowing.

The film’s raw violence and emotional weight left a lasting impression on him, stirring personal memories and family trauma.

This experience was not just about the film itself but about how it resonated with his own life, including experiences of racism at school and generational pain.

The video essay is part of a series called Once Upon a Screen, curated by Ariel Avissar and Evelyn Kreutzer for The Cine-Files journal, which examines the relationship between film viewing and childhood trauma.