The title
Does anyone know why this is called "In the year of the pig"? It's an awesome title, and it would be nice to understand exactly what it is referring to.
shareGreat question.
After digging around, I found very little except one other poster like yourself who posed the same query on YouTube very recently, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5xdMiKYnCSQ.
1968, the year of the film's release, was the year of the Monkey in the Chinese Zodiac, so I doubt that has any merit.
My hypothesis: For the timeline applicable to the conflicts and politics of the Vietnam timeline, the years of the Pig in that Zodiac (which I'm presuming applies) are 1947, 1959 - and 1971 which post-dates the film, http://www.chinahighlights.com/travelguide/chinese-zodiac/pig.asp.
It's not a stretch to look at the year at which Vietnam was "unified" politically and consider that the launch for the whole "mess" and the crippling chaos that the country and it's people tragically suffered at the hands of multiple vile, self-serving, manipulative external powers: 1947, to wit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Vietnam#Unification_of_Vietnam_. 281947.E2.80.931948.29 .
Then again, it could reference the first loss of American life in country, 1959, the other applicable year of the Pig that falls within the timeline, http://mahargpress.com/wounded/additional-material/timeline-of-vietnam conflict/
Those are two stabs at what might have been the documentarian's thought process in the title.
A definitive answer would be fitting for such a great film.