Discuss here whats your favorite movies about the vietnam war.
Mines are
We Were Soldiers
Full Metal Jacket
Hamburger Hill.
Not a movie but a series that was pretty good (bit cheesy as times) was “Tour of Duty” Have a couple seasons.
I think the greatest of all is Platoon, hands down. Very controversial when released, but the film has stood up well and is frequently on TV in the states…
[seeing body bags] Pvt. Gardner: Aw, man, is that what I think it is? Sergeant: All right, you cheese-dicks, welcome to the 'nam! Follow me.
–Platoon: 20th Annversy Ed.
In addition to the above films, Hamburger Hill is a worthy view.
Platoon was a good movie but not one I can watch very often. Oliver Stone has tendency to try to beat you over the head with the point he is trying to make instead of letting you see it for yourself. Decent movie though.
My favorite of all time would have to Deer Hunter. It may not deal with the war directly as much as Platoon or Full Metal Jacket but it is an incredible movie dealing on a more personal level with the effects of the war on those that fought it and those at home waiting them.
Full Metal Jacket was great for the first half but I was dissapointed in Stanley Kubrick after the movie went to Vietnam. It was good but I expected more from someone like Kubrick then a run of the mill war movie.
Strangely enough Full Metal Jacket was shot on location in London!
WHat about Apocalype Now, still a fantasticly strange movie.
‘The Horror’ and that ‘Small of Napalm in the Morning’, unforgetable.
I bought “AN: Redux” with the extra footage (about three months ago) and I still haven’t watched it all, though I’ve seen most of the edited version on TV…
It was interesting how Martin Sheen’s character, CPT Willard, becomes more well rounded and likable in the extended version. He even gets laid!
Might be a worthy view tonight.
i think the most dramatic was the platoon and the full metal jacket . the movie we were soldiers once it was very nice and shows one of the fiercest battles that had fought in vietnamese jungles . the two first movies were excellent for the time they where produced . but my personal favorite is we were soldiers once
ill go with full metal jacket. it went from boot to the battlefield. and emery so much reminded me of my boot co.
“The Odd Angry Shot” about the Australian SAS ?
Long periods of boredom - a bit of action - long periods of boredom etc.
Slightly different to all the US films - FMJ is the best IMHO and not just because it was filmed in London.
Richie
Apocalypse Now, with all the different versions, is my personal favourite.
_
Man, there are so many good movies about this war. Even as a german -born when the war was nearly over and with no other obvious relations to this conflict- the fate of the single soldier over there, effects me over and over again. My favourite movies (actual war-, anti-war and vietnam war-related movies):
- Platoon
- Born on the 4th of July
- The deer hunter
- Apocalypse now
- Full metal jacket
I just interesting- is the movie about Soviet units in Vietnam existed (well except Rembo2 of course)
we have send there a whole AA regiment with bunch S-125 and 20-mm AA-gun Shilka, that shoted down about 270 aenemy aircrafts.
Once i saw a documantary about it , with fragments of recollections of veterans, very interesting.
Coming Home was one of the best, and nowadays consistently overlooked, Hollywood movies about Vietnam.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D4KhXoWhjFI
Vietnam was a hot topic for movies in 1978, the same year that would see the release of the Best Picture winner, The Deer Hunter. Unlike that movie, Coming Home deals almost exclusively with he plight of wounded soldiers trying to adjust with life back in the US, many unable to walk or take care of themselves, and more troubling, their mental problems often exceed their physical ailments in keeping them from functioning in society again. Given Jane Fonda’s (Nine to Five, Agnes of God) oft-reported anti-war (and some say anti-soldier) activities during the Vietnam War, she probably wouldn’t be the #1 choice from actual vets to star in a film about the experience of coming home again. Still, taking the film for what it is, she does a terrific job in the role as a woman that has profoundly changed by witnessing the troubles of veterans, especially in the way the government and media tried to sweep them under the rug and forget about them.
Fonda plays housewife Sally Bender, whose husband (Dern, The 'burbs) is an Army Captain that has left to join the forces fighting in the Vietnam conflict. Lonely and feeling useless, she ends up volunteering in a local hospital for former US soldiers that have come back physically or mentally incapacitated, where they experience overcrowding, lack of adequate supervision, and little funding for the things like wheelchairs and other necessities. One of the patients in particular catches her eye, Luke Martin (Voight, Runaway Train), an old schoolmate of hers from high school. Paralyzed from the waist down, Luke and Sally soon become friends, and in their minds, they are even closer, although they both know that Sallys husband may return one day and end their intimate relationship. Through Luke’s eyes, Sally’s entire outlook on life begins to transform, as the sees firsthand the government’s sending of young men to die or suffer permanent injury, while they do little to help them out when they can no longer fight.
Academy Awards would rightfully go to Voight and Fonda for their very sensitive and troubles portrayals of two lonely people in need of each other, especially in their fight to educate the world around them about things they’d rather not know. The subject matter is very interesting as a depiction of things most media outlets refused to cover in their daily news, possibly prolonging the war by keeping public outrage at bay. The Oscar winning screenplay is character rich, although many of the best insights are ad-libbed by actual veterans in a very poignant opening scene.
Coming Home is a far more intimate portrayal of veterans than many other films that would later be made. The graphic depictions of the maddening effects of the war are never shown, leaving us to rely on our own imaginations as to what the actual experience may have been like. It’s really the story of two people learning to cope with the realities of the community, country, and world they live in, as they realize that love of country and criticism of it aren’t mutually exclusive things. It is also a touching love story in its own right.
Coming Home will be most welcome for those looking for an interesting and thought-provoking story about Vietnam veterans, and those that fought in the war that can overlook Fonda’s involvement should find that much of the film rings true about their own experiences. The film only lapses during the occasional moment where things seem to go too over the top to believe outright, but given the emotional turbulence of the time it was made in, such indulgences seem forgivable. Voight is in absolute tip-top form here, and if there were no other reason, Coming Home merits viewing just to see him act. A sensitive movie for a sensitive subject.
http://www.qwipster.net/cominghome.htm
And for something that isn’t Hollywood’s interpretation of Vietnam with big name stars designed to suck in the box office dollars with sixties music tracks that weren’t playing over the real battles in Vietnam, but which still got nominated for an Academy Award even though it didn’t focus on the Western forces fighting in Vietnam, try Frontline.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAXSSq6sxxg
FRONTLINE is an account of the Vietnam war as seen through the camera of Australian journalist Neil Davis. His footage of the conflict was seen nightly by millions.
Vietnam was a television war, a war said to have been lost in the lounge rooms of middle America. and not on the battlefield.
A multi-award winner (including an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary) the film examines the ethical issues facing a man in the frontline who is not an active combatant (more than eighty newsmen were killed covering the war).
Neil Davis discusses his experiences in the film and this, combined with extensive footage taken by him and others, makes for a compelling account of an Australian war correspondent.
This shattering documentary on the Vietnam War has stirred audiences all over the world. Its focus is Neil Davis, a courageous, humane news-cameraman who spent eleven years in the combat zone. His close-up footage combined with his recollections are a testimony to the horrors of war.
As an Australian, Davis viewed the conflict from a different perspective than an American. He spent much time with the Vietnamese troops, forming a deep attach ment to the brave soldiers he lived among. Thus, Front Line shows a story, little known in this country, of Asians suffering at the hands of other Asians.
Davis was even permitted to cross enemy lines and film the other side of war, going with the Viet Cong. And he was the only Western journalist to film the fall of Saigon. It was Neil’s historic footage of the first North Vietnamese communist tank crashing through the Presidential palace in Saigon that told the world the war was finally over. The film points up the myriad ironies of the war: President Nixon announcing the war is finished, while Davis is being bombarded in a rice paddy; young American soldiers revealing their confusion when asked why they are fighting in Asia; Cambodian boy-soldiers going fishing whenever there is a lull in the deadly fighting.
When Frontline was telecasted nationally on PBS, the public interest was over whelming. Americans who remembered those times gained new insight on the war. Younger audiences could see why Vietnam was such a divisive part of American history.
http://www.frontlinefilms.com.au/videos/frontline.htm
And, just for a little quiz, anyone know what the soldiers in the clip have in their mouths, and why?
.
.
Although not purely a Vietnam film I think the sequence in Forrest Gump takes some beating. It’s loud, scary, pointless and no one knows WTF is going on. This has to be a good assessment of the Vietnam war and wars in general.
Slightly off topic as it is a documentary but has anybody seen
Dear America: Letters Home from Vietnam (1988)
Contains news reel film, contemporary music and actors such as De Niro, Dafoe and Berenger reading extracts of letters written home by US troops serving in Vietnam.
Richie
Yes, that was the best part of this very good movie. I liked the “starting huey”-sequence most. it blew my ears back then in cinema!
Im surprised no one has gone for The Boys In Company C.Many of the themes in Full Metal Jacket were explored here first.A first rate war movie.
It`s a nice film about the Advirsory time (1964), before the history we now know.
For a 1978 movie, is pretty good.
I liked all of the above and would like to add “Boys from Company C”.
“Ever spend a million dollars?”
orders an air strike