10 Things You Didn’t Know About Leatherface
1. And He's A Walking Metaphor For The Vietnam War
When somebody asks you what your favourite Vietnam War movie is, chances are you'll answer 'Apocalypse Now'. 'Platoon', or 'Born on the Fourth of July', but 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre' is an equally viable response.
Tobe Hooper intended the movie to be an allegory for the conflict and created Leatherface as a personification of what he perceived to be an overall decline in humanity in the 1970s.
The movie was filmed in the foreboding shadow of events like Vietnam and the Watergate Scandal, and the teens who were slaughtered by Leatherface represent the youngsters who lost their lives in the war, and the visual horrors on show throughout represent the atrocities committed during the conflict.
Leatherface and Texas Chainsaw arrived at a time of social turmoil and institutional instability, and they're as much a response to these things are they are metaphors for them, encapsulating the pent-up rage and discontent in post-Vietnam America.
In many ways, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of the most important Vietnam War movies ever made.