VIETNAM: The Ten Year War
Oct 09 '05 (Updated Oct 31 '05)
The Bottom Line Vietnam is still a sore subject with lots of Americans. Here are some movies that I believe depict the best and worst aspects of the era.
Vietnam movies range from sublimely excellent to bombastic wankfests meant to relay directorial “messages” moreso than any identifiable reality I would associate with a story based on actual history.
A couple of the former are some of the better known, but, in my opinion, lesser lights of the genre Apocalypse Now, and Full Metal Jacket - two self indulgent wet dreams from Francis Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick, respectively. Apocalypse Now is Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness filtered through a hash pipe and served up in Vietnam. Full Metal Jacket is Kubrick’s view of Marine Corps Basic Training and is fine, as long as it stays in the boot camp. The best part of the film is R. Lee Ermey’s drill instructor, the most faithful depiction since Jack Webb showed how it was done in The DI. The remainder of the film is disappointing and reflects Kubrick’s skewed views on America.
Beyond those two disappointments, we have some very insightful Vietnam movies, not always well known, but well worth seeing. Here’s my pick of the better films on the subject, in no particular order.
The Green Berets - call John Wayne a super patriot or a right-wing @$shole, but do it long distance. This 1967 film was a real-time look at some of the issues that guys like Ford Coppola and Stanley Kubrick took 20 years to catch up with. Aldo Ray, Raymond St. Jacques, and Jim Hutton give great support as green berets, while David Janssen starts out as a typically nitwit journalist who had never been in Southeast Asia but had all the answers and wrote reports based on his "expertise." He finally gets to Vietnam, assesses the situation, and sees the light during a night attack on the firebase.
Go Tell the Spartans My personal favorite of the Vietnam flicks, Go Tell the Spartans shows military life just about as realistically as I’ve seen. Burt Lancaster is the crusty old commanding officer with a zany cast of subordinates and one firebase that becomes the focus of everyone’s undivided attention. The mindset and language of the characters is as close to real life as I can imagine. I had the opportunity to see this on the just released DVD recently and it holds up as well as it did when I saw it on the silver screen, 20 or so years ago. Craig Wasson, Marc Singer, Evan Kim, James Hong, and several more familiar faces give a great frame for one of Burt Lancaster’s finest performances in a star studded career.
Hamburger Hill is the subject of the bloodiest battle of the Vietnam War. Just as Korea had its Pork Chop Hill, Vietnam had Hamburger Hill, a worthless piece of real estate, every yard of which was paid for by good men’s lives. After the objective was won, the blamed fool commander gave it back. How stupid is that? If any films show the insanity of war any better than those two, I haven’t seen them. Steven Weber, Dylan McDermott, Courtney B. Vance, Don Cheadle and others make up a particular squad of the storied 101st Airborne Division who made eleven assaults in 10 days on the heavily fortified hill. McDermott’s response to the film crew waiting when they come back after another futile attempt is worth the price of admission alone. One of the best, if lesser known, of the Vietnam War movies.
We Were Soldiers is the story of the first major engagement between US troops and the communist North Vietnamese in the Ia Drang Valley, Vietnam Central Highlands. Mel Gibson brings great restraint and gravity to his portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore, commander of the 1st Battalion of the 7th Cavalry who find themselves pitted against a NVA Divisional Headquarters, at about 10 to 1 odds! Direction by Randall Wallace deserves notice as it brings many complicated elements together for each scene of the fighting. Along with Mel Gibson, Greg Kinnear and Sam Eliott give a lot of color to the speaking parts. We Were Soldiers is one of the best of the Vietnam films.
Siege of Firebase Gloria For sheer adrenaline, this movie has to be the top. Very reminiscent of Zulu with a battalion of Americans versus a regiment of VC regulars - 5 to 1 odds. Firebase Gloria is one of those old static defense strong points favored by the French, and named after a woman. A Marine recon squad is inserted into Gloria and finds the commander is unaware of the impending attack of said Vietnamese so they have a “change of command” ceremony. R. Lee Ermey has his finest hour as the Marine Sergeant Major commanding the firebase and his professionalism, along with his crack squad energize the brain dead battalion to repulse the human waves of communists. Must see.
Platoon is Oliver Stone’s view of his Vietnam experience. Charlie Sheen stands in for Oliver while he is subjected to influences of good and evil in the persons of Willem Dafoe and Tom Berenger. There is a parable in there, as Sheen moves from innocent babe to lost innocence to hardened killer. Well done and probably Oliver Stone’s best movie, in my opinion.
Who’ll Stop the Rain addresses what happened to some veterans who returned but couldn’t leave the battlefield behind. Ray Hicks agrees to carry two keys of uncut heroin back to the USA from Vietnam. This unleashes a chain of events that nobody could have predicted, except for the CIA thugs who were behind it in the first place. Nick Nolte, Michael Moriarty, and Tuesday Weld headline, with able support from Anthony Zerbe, Richard Masur, and Ray Sharkey. Quite a thought provoking look at our loss of innocence as a nation.
Another couple I would recommend would be The Hanoi Hilton and
84 Charlie Mopic.
Thanks for reading!
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.