"Best Vietnam Movie" Topic

Top four Vietnam Movies. Here is the list (not in any paticular order)for your consideration. Any others?

A Rumor of War
Platoon
Hamburger Hill
84c MoPic
Casualties of War
Siege of Fire Base Gloria
Born on the Fourth of July
Go Tell the Spartans
Heaven and Earth
The Veteran
The Odd Angry Shot
Rescue Dawn
The Boys in Company C
We Were Soldiers…
The Iron Triangle
Cyclo
Bat*21
A Bright Shinning Lie
In Country
The Hanoi Hilton
Three Seasons
The Deer Hunter
Coming Home
Purple Hearts
Full Metal Jacket
Platoon Leader
Jacobs Ladder
Good Morning Vietnam
Vietnam War Story
Tribes
Vu khuc con co
Tropic Thunder
Apocalypse Now
The 317th Platoon
Green Berets
Flight of the Intruder

Easier to pick the bad ones than the great ones out of that list. I would go conservative.
Apocalypse Now
Platoon
FMJ
Hamburger Hill
And I might stop at 4

My personal faves are Hamburger Hill and We Were Soldiers Once.

We Were Soldiers and Platoon

Tom

Tropic Thunder

We Were Soldiers, Deer Hunter, & FMJ.

I loved Jacob's Ladder, but haven't seen it in so long; was there enough 'Nam in there to qualify it? I can't remember.

Stop at four. James that is a good suggestion so I changed it. There were just so many.

Here are my favorites.

Full Metal Jacket
We Were Soldiers
A Bright Shinning Lie
Hamburger Hill
Good Morning Vietnam

Not to say there are some others I like as well such as Platoon and Go Tell the Spartans. Hard choices.

Can't really see why FMJ is popular. Besides the basic training bit at the beginning half (mostly carried by Ermey), I thought the point where they actually get to Vietnam is degenerated. IMHO it felt like they packed as many Vietnam stereotypes in as they could, and the ending bit where they're staring at the VC sniper was really corny IMHO…

Damon.

We Were Soldiers; FMJ; Bat21; Flight of the Intruder.

Two 'grunt' flicks and two 'ground pounders'…..Platoon and Hamburger Hill were close on the list too……..maybe a composite film from Forrest Gump:Deer Hunter:Apocalypse Now:Born on the Fourth of July with the soundtrack from Gooooood Morning Vietnam…….

Deer Hunter
Platoon
Apocalypse Now
Full metal jacket

Full Metal Jacket
We Were Soldiers
The Boys in Company C
Tribes

Hamburger Hill – best all around
Platoon – got the buttons right.
Platoon Leader – best small firebase.
Siege of Firebase Gloria – good for NVA side planning an attack.
Iron Triangle – also good for NVA side.

Vince

Apocalypse Now is my favourite by far.

Any recommendations for the French part of the war? I liked 'The Quiet American' and 'Indochine', but they were more political films than war movies.

Apocalypse Now for me

Did you mention Tigerland ? My favourite Vietnam film.

Hamburger Hill is far and away the best in my view. I saw that Flight of the Intruder got a vote too. All I can say is if you liked the film (which I thought was really disappointing) you should read the book (which is excellent) if you haven't already.

Go Tell the Spartans is a great movie. Ironically, everyone who dies in the movie actually lives in the book and everyone who lives in the movie dies in the book.

Platoon
Full Metal Jacket (I can make myself look just like Private Pile, probably should not mention that…)
We Were SOldiers (Too bad they blew the ending, fairly realistic till then).
The Thin Red Line. (if that was not really a movie bout vietnam then nothing ever was)
MASH (Ditto)

Platoon
Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers (except for the Big Charge which was Hollywood ridiculousness)

Go Tell The Spartans
Platoon
Apocalypse Now
We Were Soldiers

Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now

Full Metal Jacket
Apocalypse Now
Jacob's Ladder
Good Morning Vietnam

The Anderson Platoon, but that's really more of a documentary.

Go Tell the Spartans
We Were Soldiers
Platoon

The Green Beret. How can you go wrong with The Duke!

We were soldiers because it shows a major deployment etc. Just goes downhill from halfway in.

Platoon
Apocalypse now
GMV

I'll throw some love out for 84 Charlie MoPic. Platoon was good too, but it's one of those good movies I never really want to watch again. Apoc Now was a favourite till I watched it twice in a one week period, I'm still on a time-out from that experience.

Green Berets

Hm. While I enjoyed all three of them (for different reasons, and to different degrees), Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket really weren't so much about Vietnam as about a particular historical narrative concerning Vietnam. As the (very good) RPG 'carry' calls it, 'our collective memory of Vietnam'.* I think by comparison, it's like saying that The English Patient, The Thin Red Line and Pearl Harbor** are the best WW2 movies. It's not necessarily inaccurate, but it's measuring 'best' by some rather non-traditional war film criteria.

*Then there's the problem that these movies create our collective memory of Vietnam…

**I was having trouble coming up with a WW2 film that was ostensibly about the war, but really was about something else – or it was more about how we view the war. This one may have been a poor choice.

What would I pick? Hamburger Hill, and We Were Soldiers.

Full Metal Jacket
Go Tell The Spartans
We Were Soldiers
Platoon

Not sure I can stick with just 4…

Platoon (simply for the "look" of the soldiers)
Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers (ditto what everyone else said about the ending)
Green Berets(a classic in my opinion)

Honorable Mention:
FMJ (I only watch the second half of the movie when the Marines are in Hue)
Platoon Leader
Bright Shining Lie
Siege of Firebase Gloria
BAT 21

I haven't seen Iron Triangle and Platoon Leader in years.

I'm one of the few that doesn't like Apocalypse Now…yes, there were some great lines, but for me that was about it.

Also, you could add the Walking Dead to the list, i didn't like it, but for completeness.
I really liked the Quiet American also, but it's set during the French occupation.

Good topic! Vietnam is a favorite period of mine to study.

Willthepiper,
I recommend the French film Dien Bien Phu and also La 317e Section, both can be viewed in instalments on Youtube with English subtitles.
I'll certainly check out some titles above I haven't heard about.

Thanks, Brian, I will look for those.

What? No 'Missing in Action' and 'Missing in Action 2: The Beginning'? Chuck Norris's Col. Braddock is a one-man army rivaling Rambo. I love the macho movies from Cannon (a good name, no?) in the 80's.

Odd Angry Shot, good view of Aussie SAS in action

My favorite are;

1 Full Metal Jacket
2. We Were Soldiers…
3. Hamburger Hill

Am I right in thinking there was a sequel to Platoon Leader?

Go Tell The Spartans
Apocalypse Now (the theatrical release, not the ridiculously bloated director's cut)*
84 Charlie MoPic
The Anderson Platoon (documentaries are movies – got their own Oscar category and everything – and this is a good one).

*Hearts of Darkness, the "making of" movie, should be mandatory accompanying viewing.

I really wanted to like The Odd Angry Shot, having met some Aussie SAS in-country, but I found the dialog largely incomprehensible except, fortunately, for "This is the nicest ing machine anyone has ever given me".

LT

Haven't seen lots there, but of the ones I've seen "The Odd Angry Shot" is ahead of the pack by a country mile. Brilliant film.

"84 Charlie Mopic" is OK, as I seem to recall were "BAT 21", "The Boys from Company C" and "Hamburger Hill". The first half of "Apocalypse Now" is quite fun as a pretty straight screen adaptation of Herr's "Dispatches"; one wonders what on earth it is doing attached to the second half of the film, a transposition of "Heart of Darkness" that has nothing to do with the first half of the film or the Viet Nam war as a whole, and badly fails to work. I wish I'd left at the interval.

"The Deer Hunter" and "Platoon" are in my opinion unadulterated tripe throughout -- sententious, self-indulgent author's message pabulum. "Full Metal Jacket" is tripe of a similar stripe, relieved at the beginning by the representation of basic training.

"The Green Berets", while clearly piffle, at least has a nice song, and the booby-trap scenes had the ability to shock me when I was eight years old.

The most exciting film of the Viet Nam era I've ever seen was a few short clips of 16mm shot during the Ia Drang battles, mostly showing door gunners doing their stuff, which I was shown at the School of Infantry a very, very long time ago.

All the best,

John.

Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers
Apocalypse Now only for the 1/9th scenes
Platoon Leader

Platoon would be there for sure, except for its strongly anti-U.S. Army message.

Tom

Full Metal Jacket
We Were Soldiers
Hamburger Hill

Apart from We Were Soliders I haven't watched these since I was a teenager…and well my tastes have radically changed…I don't watch TV unless its with my wife or kids so not many Vietnam War movies for me…

After what John D Salt has previously said I'd be interested in watching "The Odd Angry Shot" ….maybe for some late night

John

My favorite are Missing in Action and Uncommon Valor, kidding about MIA though Uncommon Valor was good. My favorites would be Platoon, FMJ, Flight of the Intruder, Hamburger Hill and We were Soldiers. Vietnam War Story was good But I ony saw the first episodes, there are like 3 volumes. Another that could be considered is Dear America: Letters home from Vietnam.

Hamburger Hill is about the most accurate of the Hollywood Vietnam movies, but as entertainment is lacks that spark.

I got bored watching We Were Soldiers. About one of the few times when battle scenes seemed dull to watch.

Entertainment wise I'll opt for Apocalypse Now. The Deer Hunter is really a movie about community with a bit in Vietnam stuck in the middle. I also enjoyed watching Tour of Duty.

I'll second 317e Section as an excellent French movie about their war. Do check it out.

No one ever mentions Gardens of Stone. I always thought it was excellent, albeit about the war rather than a war film

Hamburger Hill
Full Metal Jacket
We Were Soldiers

Aliens

Platoon has got to be it; despite all the crap thrown in, the firefights are pretty intense. I always throw The Green Berets in here for the fire-base overrun scene, just like Apocalypse Now for the air assault scene. And Forrest Gum's ambush scene, for me, is still the best representation what it's like to be in a fight for the first time.

Anyone seen Purple Hearts? It was about an s-bird Navy Doctor (Ken Wahl) that kept aggravating his CO, who then decided to farm him out units likely to get him killed, such as a Spec Ops unit performing a POW rescue mission (sort of Son Tay-like) and to a Marine fire-base. They spend a lot of time on the romance angle (with Cheryl Teague), but still worth a watch.

V/R,
Jack

Just Jack I was stuck on a missile site in W. Germany for 21 days with very few movies. One of those was Purple Hearts. I can still quote lines from that movie. I still love the line " I fly over this , I don't walk through it!"