Tom Hardy, Pete Davidson, Stephan James, Bill Skarsgård, Tye Sheridan, Ashton Sanders, Martin Sensmeier, Moises Arias and Angus Cloud have been cast in the Vietnam War drama “The Things They Carried.”

The project is based on Tim O’Brien’s book about a platoon of young soldiers and their experiences on the front lines during the Vietnam War. Published in 1990, the novel based on O’Brien’s experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division. In the short stories, the young men in a platoon of American soldiers sent to fight on the ground during the Vietnam War find themselves amidst chaos and confusion as they battle for their sanity and each other. The book explores the themes of fear, courage, guilt and loss. Variety. 

*The views and opinions expressed on this website are solely those of the original authors and contributors. These views and opinions do not necessarily represent those of Spotter Up Magazine, the administrative staff, and/or any/all contributors to this site.

The Things They Carried (1990) is a collection of linked short stories by American novelist Tim O’Brien, about a platoon of American soldiers fighting on the ground in the Vietnam War. His third book about the war, it is based upon his experiences as a soldier in the 23rd Infantry Division.

O’Brien generally refrains from political debate and discourse regarding the Vietnam War. He was dismayed that people in his home town seemed to have so little understanding of the war and its world. It was in part a response to what he considered ignorance that he wrote The Things They Carried.^[1] It was published by Houghton Mifflin in 1990.^[2]

Many of the characters are semi-autobiographical, sharing similarities with figures from his memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Ship Me Home (1973/paperback 1999). In The Things They Carried, O’Brien plays with the genre of metafiction; he writes using verisimilitude. His use of real place names and inclusion of himself as the protagonist blurs fiction and non-fiction.^[3] As part of this effect, O’Brien dedicates The Things They Carried to the fictional men of the “Alpha Company,” contributing to the novel appearing to be a war memoir. Wikepedia