But check the way that fight scene plays out. Walter is just totally calm. He reads the situation and is not in the least bit worried. He’s got situational awareness, he isn’t just raging out.
Sure, his main job in Nam probably involved a lot more mops and ladles than rifles, but Walter has seen some shit.
He is definitely a blowhard, but he’s not a wimp.
To give another dimension, compare his constant talk about Vietnam with his constant talk about Judaism. I DON’T ROLL ON SHABBOS. And he doesn’t. And why is he Jewish? Because he converted to Judaism to marry a Jewish girl, and she dumped him. But he can’t get over it, he can’t tell himself that it was just something he did because his wife wanted him to do it. He has to carry on the charade for the rest of his life.
So of course Walter was in Vietnam and some of the guys he knew didn’t make it back. That doesn’t mean he spent a year hiking through the bush getting ambushed by Charlie. It means he went over there, pushed a mop, and noticed that a bunch of guys were getting killed, and he can’t get over it. Everyone else wants him to get over it, just like they want him to get over being shomer shabbes, but Walter is incapable of getting over things.
Just watched the scene again, and I think this is exactly right. Walter was even able to calmly assuage Donnie’s concern while they were “negotiating” with the nihilists.
He fought the Viet Cong by throwing bowling balls at them.
I don’t think Walter is a phony. He’s just stuck. He defines his life by the experiences of his youth, and he can’t get past them. He’s the equivalent of those guys you see in their 90s who wear WW2 veteran caps all the time (not just on Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day), or the guys in their 70s who wear tie-die while driving a VW bus.
I agree he’s not a phony. It’s just that what he saw and experienced has left an indelible mark. He can’t let go of it, just like he can’t let go of his ex-wife.
I assumed he was indeed in the military during the Vietnam war and stationed in that country, but not a real combat soldier - he’s too reckless and unhinged to have been one, and he tries to justify that element of his personality with his service in Vietnam whereas the truth is, it’s exactly the opposite. He is basically a smart-ass, blowhard, who is also a tough guy and unafraid of physical violence, but capable of directing that violence inappropriately. Essentially he’s an amusing character to watch but would be terrifying to actually have to deal with in real life. Every Dude-like stoner has had experiences with being along for the ride with that kind of character and being simultaneously astonished and terrified by his antics. It’s part of why the movie is so beloved and successful - the Coen brothers definitely knew their real-life character types.
One thing that makes me feel that Walter was in Vietnam in some capacity is that the Dude is actually a decent detective. (Seriously, he susses the situation out once he has all the relevant information.) If Walter had never been in the war, the Dude would have thrown that in his face.
That’s my impression. He served and he took his duties seriously but he never saw real combat. So he romanticizes what he feels he missed (“Just you and the man in the black pajamas…”) but he’s sincere about it and not just putting on a show, lying or being a fragile blow hard.
(disclaimer: everything I know about the Vietnam war I learned from movies)
Possibly Walter was in some kind of support role, where he was in the field, not safe in an office in Saigon, but didn’t actually have a combat role. So maybe a supply clerk at a large base or something. So normally he’d be safe, but his base came under attack during the Tet offensive, at which point he saw actual combat, and saw some of his friends die face down in the muck.
Any blow hard vet I have run into has never been in real combat.
Reading the other replies made me rethink my position. He was in the military, may even have been in Vietnam, but he never saw combat. Like this guy in an old unit of mine that freely admitted he was a clerk typist in Saigon.
My assumptions, too. Part of it is based upon just seeing my father (a combat veteran of Vietnam) and his Vietnam buddies. They may have talked and reminisced about aspects of 'Nam, but never ever once talked about combat itself around us civilians. Also, my father told me that anyone who ever talks about combat casually or frequently is just full of shit. Now, there’s a wide range of human reaction to combat, so I do not at all take my father’s proclamation as a sort of universal, but it does seem to hold true with the Vietnam war veterans I’ve met. Also, my high school typing teacher would not shut up about Vietnam every chance he could get in class, and then I found out he was well out of harm’s way in his deployment. It just seems that those who have seen combat don’t really talk about it much. I know it’s completely anecdotal, but that experience does color the way I view Walter Sobchak’s character in the movie.
So I’m inclined to believe that Walter perhaps served in Vietnam, but well away from the action.
My experience as well. My uncle never spoke to anyone except me about his WWII/Korea experience. I wore the uniform so it was safe to talk to me but not his wife of 50 years.
Yeah, there was exactly one time I remember talking to my father where he mentioned being in combat. I was in my late 20s, and it was only a brief mention about being in a hairy situation, but that was the only time then or since I’ve heard him mention anything combat-related to me. I mean, I was stunned when he started talking about it. When I was a kid, like 7 or 8, I remember being curious about my dad being in the war, and asking, as innocent kids do, “Daddy, did you kill anybody?” And I just remember that frosty stare back: “That’s only for me and God to know.” Even as a kid, I knew to never ask that question or bring that subject up again.
I worked with a guy who was a tunnel rat, clearing those hidden tunnels the Cong used so well. Go down into a hole in the ground with a flashlight and a hand gun and kill people, and snakes. He rarely talked about it but was seriously fucked in the head and my boss eventually got him full disability retirement.
People who “talk the talk”, usually have never “walked the walk” so to speak.
Walter was a wannabe of some sort who did not get out in the shit. Maybe he wanted to but didn’t get the chance, maybe he was in the rear and only heard stories of the front line, hard to tell.
Maybe he spent most of his time bowling in Saigon. But he can get you a toe, by 3 this afternoon if you need one.
