Too many of you don't give the 2nd half of Jacket it's due.
There are five Vietnam era movies that encapsulate the war for me:
Apocalypse Now (1979)
Platoon (1986)
Full Metal Jacket (1987)
Hamburger Hill (1987)
We Were Soldiers (2002)
All five illustrate different aspects of the war and I think the years of release play a part in how we accept them. Apocalypse Now came out first and other than probably
the Deer Hunter (1978) and the
Green Berets (1968), nobody attempted to show the war for just how crazy it was before AN. Brando's performance is nuts but if you talk to vets, they all heard stories of groups like this during the war. Nobody served with any but there were always rumors of groups of soldiers going off the reservation.
Platoon, after a long break, comes along and is one of those war movies that just pulls you into the story. A lot of folks could identify with Chris and how we see his innocence morph to the hard edged war fighter necessary to survive in the jungles of Vietnam against an enemy you rarely see but continually lose friends to. The drudgery of 365 days of commitment to a war you don't understand against an enemy you can't see really comes through the movie. Then you feather in the battle of Good (Elias) vs Evil (Barnes) and it takes the film to a different level.
Full Metal Jacket takes us to the boot camp to experience R. Lee Ermey's masterful portrayal of Gunnery Sgt. Hartman which we've never seen before. Kind of like a look behind the curtain, this is how we make stone cold killers, "show me your war face!". The first half of the movie shows the systemic tear down and eventual build back up of raw recruits turning into marines ready for battle...except one. The second half of the movie also shows a view of the war not experienced in any of the other movies, fighting in the cities. Everyone identifies the jungle as the main stage for war fighting in Vietnam but there were also battles in the cities (Tet Offensive) so I like that they take a different approach to the war and show a side that is typically ignored.
Hamburger Hill again takes us back to the jungles and the futility of the war. The US spent a week taking Hill 937 only to relinquish it back to the North Vietnamese regulars a month later stating the hill had no strategic value as a permanent position. Because of the terrain, the US technological advantages were limited and this turned into a meat grinder of infantry charges against a well defended and dug in regiment of battle tested North Vietnamese. Again, as the US troops trudge through soul sucking mud, sliding back down the hill farther than they advance some days, you get drawn into the futility of it all.
Finally We Were Soldiers comes along after another long break and depicts one of the greatest victories of the war which ironically happened early on in the war (1965). The movie does a good job depicting the development of the new technology the US employed (helicopters) to bring large numbers of troops to the battlefield quickly. While ultimately successful, the movie illustrates two commanders that haven't come against eithers forces or capabilities in the war and the battle that rages for days. Technology eventually wins out but not without consequences. The movie does a good enough job illustrating the battle but also shows us the side of war rarely addressed, what happens back home. You spend a fair amount of time with the Army wives as they navigate life without their husbands & the eventual casualty notifications from the battle.
I think all of these come at the war from different angles and accomplish what they set out to do pretty well. Some are a little grittier than others but they all show a different side of the war than what I think someone with limited knowledge of the conflict anticipates. Most think it was a war in the jungles and it was, but it was had so many other aspects to it and I think all of these movies together, represent the conflict pretty well.
I would love to see and am desperately hoping that someone undertakes a movie about MACV-SOG while we still have those veterans with us. Incredible stories concerning the secret war in Laos & Cambodia.
hotcake
