think there was a generational message to Vietnam vets...?

[mandolabar]

I hadn't seen Magnum since it aired, and just recently started watching through the series with my family--my kids are loving it. We're in Season 5.

I had a thought--I have heard that this show was praised for its treatment of Vietnam vets--the reality that they existed, they had memories and sometimes issues that they lived with day-to-day, etc. I wondered if the Magnum-Higgins relationship fed into that. Higgins represents the older generation, the "established" and recognized wars, the wars from whom soldiers were welcomed home as heroes; Magnum represents Vietnam, the war we felt guilty about, from whom soldiers slunk home and were often berated.

I think that the evolution of the relationship between Higgins and Magnum was somewhat allegorical, and was also each generation coming to appreciate and respect the other--finding points of agreement, recognizing common values (even if the forms of expression differed), etc. I think that might be one aspect of why it was so popular--it wasn't just that Vietnam and the complexity of its vets was recognized, it was also that they were accepted, in respect and friendship, by the "older generation" in the form of Higgins.

Thoughts? I highly doubt this is an original thought, but it's new to me, so I thought I'd throw it out for discussion...

[J.J. Walters]

That was certainly one of the more interesting aspects of their relationship, mandolabar. They definitely grew to respect and understand each other as only vets can.

I also really enjoy the more subtle father-son relationship that develops between the two. Neither really had one growing up. It's great to see that bond develop as the series progressed.

[Danno]

mandolabar and James, I also very much enjoy those moments when Mags and Higs find they have more in common than either had imagined.

I'd always seen it as old soldiers bonding over the common experience of the horror and trials of war and left it at that. I hadn't seen it in a broader context as a metaphor for acceptance of Vietnam vets though.
I like this reading of the series.

[Visiting Stewardess]

Interesting! I had never seen the "father-son relationship" before, just ex-soldiers bonding. But now that you mention it...

I love reading the posts in this forum. They give so much insight into the series. Things that one had never considered before suddenly become obvious!

[mandolabar]

Danno, thank you for correcting my terminology! Metaphor, metaphor. Not allegory. My English teachers would disown me.

I think some of the bonding, and the metaphor, is enabled by Higgins' propensity for storytelling. As someone who finds it much easier to make points by analogy and example, I can totally relate to the way he communicates...but the point here is that he talks a lot about his experiences. I'm sure it's not universally true, but the majority of the WWII generation seems to have preferred to leave their experiences "over there" and did not speak at length or in detail--which doubtless made it hard for their Vietnam-era sons to comprehend that their fathers understood at all. Higgins' storytelling enables the metaphor, because he does talk about it, Magnum does hear and understand.

[Danno]

A very insightful view of their relationship, mandolabar. Thumbs up.

It seems there's a war for every generation.