"Favourite Vietnam war movie" Topic

I'm sure this has been up AT LEAST ONES! Before. And I'm unsure if there has actually been any new ones since then.

But here goes, so which one?
Platoon was the first one had seen. Not a historic representation more "Vietnam the experience"

Hamburger Hill really captures "futility of war" which I guess is it's own subgenra of war movies.

We were soldiers for the realism of the warfare even tho it has many faults. (Like going totally Hollywood the last 20 minutes)

Full Metal Jacket.

For goid or for bad, it really caught me.

Hamburger Hill.

FMJ.

Apocalypse Now.

LT

Go Tell the Spartans

Tropic Thunder.

Deer Hunter
Indochine
The Green Berets
The Boys of Company C

Platoon

Apocalypse Now is based on the Conrad novel "Heart of Darkness" which takes place in Africa with white business men going a little too deep into the jungle. Apocalypse is a cool movie, but a complete fantasy when it comes to Vietnam.

Platoon Leader is Hollywood garbage; so is the Deer Hunter.

Hamburger Hill is the best of the big budget movies. For a very good low budget movie try "Platoon Leader". I read the book in college, written by an actual platoon leader serving in Vietnam.

The odd angry shot. Well researched and advised film, unfortunately has a touch of late 70s anti war in there.

I should add, "in my opinion" so as not to offend. Also liked Go Tell the Spartans and the Green Berets for good movie making that actually carries on a plot.

FMJ may have the most shockingly realistic basic training depicted on film.

Good Morning Vietnam

Good choices There, I'd add Flight of the Intruder as well

Full Metal Jacket
Go Tell the Spartans
Flight of the Intruder
Good Morning Vietnam
Apocalypse Now
Hamburger Hill.
Bat*21
Uncommon Valor
Platoon
Born on the 4th of July
Casualties of War
The Deer Hunter
The Boys in Company C
We Were Soldiers
Rescue Dawn
Tour Of Duty
Uncommon Valor
A Bright Shinning Lie
Air America
Jacob's Ladder
The Siege Of Firebase Gloria
Tiger Land
Rat Tunnels
Heaven and Earth

I'd go with Full Metal Jacket, We were Soldiers and The Boys in Company C.

Go Tell The Spartans.

Apocalypse Now

Platoon

"The Lost Command" -- first 20 minutes.

Does "Gardens of Stone" count

As it is not the best, but the one you like most: Apocalypse Now Redux.

We Were Solders
Boys in Company C
Tiger Land
Platoon
Full Metal Jacket
Apocolypse Now

My favorite is Path to War. I have great interest in how LBJ faced the decision points that came to him and how he interacted with his staff to formulate a path forward.

Not a Vietnam war movie per se, but the war-related scenes in Forrest Gump were excellent.

Go Tell the Spartans

Full Metal Jacket- one of our most "quotable" movies ever. I could not imagine it with any other cast.

Full Metal Jacket
Platoon
Hamburger Hill
We Were Soldiers (not exactly my fav but good memories watching this with my Dad)

My brothers who were in Vietnam when The Green Berets came out found it utterly laughable.

I admit Tropic Thunder wasn't quite as funny.

Apocalypse Now is based on the Conrad novel "Heart of Darkness" which takes place in Africa with white business men going a little too deep into the jungle. Apocalypse is a cool movie, but a complete fantasy when it comes to Vietnam.

One word: allegory.

Lots of words from Francis Ford Coppola: "My film isn't about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It's what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment and little by little we went insane."

My second favorite Vietnam movie is "Hearts of Darkness", the documentary by Coppola's wife, Eleanor, about making the movie.

FWIW, some of the scenes were based on actual experiences by people who worked on "Apocalypse Now". e.g. Roach and his M79, which was based on an eye-witness account from the siege of Khe Sanh written by Michael Herr, who wrote the voice-overs for the film.

LT

Green Berets? I stood on the beach at Chu Lai at sunset and looked out over the South China Sea any number of times. The sun always went down behind me. 'Nuff said.

LT

One word: allegory.

Lots of words from Francis Ford Coppola: "My film isn't about Vietnam. It is Vietnam. It's what it was really like. It was crazy. And the way we made it was very much like the way the Americans were in Vietnam. We were in the jungle, there were too many of us, we had access to too much money, too much equipment and little by little we went insane."

Hey brass1,
I know what an allegory is; that is the point I was making. Apocalypse is an interesting piece of film making and has really nothing to do with Vietnam, thus it is an allegory. The main character "Kurtz", both in novel and film, is a highly educated civilized man who goes off the deep end when he lives among the natives for too long in the jungle. Coppola is a great director, but never served a day in the military. Apocalypse is well done fantasy story telling.

What, no 84 Charlie Mopic? A great underrated film.

The main character "Kurtz", both in novel and film, is a highly educated civilized man who goes off the deep end when he lives among the natives for too long in the jungle.

And this is where I have to disagree again. Colonel Kurtz is a man trained and educated in the art of war who is sent to do a job which, according to everything he has been taught, he cannot do. He ends up facing a realization that most armed forces still haven't really addressed; his enemy is fighting a war totally unlike the war he has been sent to fight and he has to either force them to fight his war or learn to fight their war better than they can. He chooses the latter. His madness doesn't come from going native, the natives' madness comes from following him.

And so, inevitably, his bosses send someone to kill him who is, in the depths of his soul, just like him.

After watching this movie, one of my friends asked me why the natives let Willard walk away after killing Kurtz and the only answer I could think of was 'What can you do to the man who has killed Death?"

By the bye, I base my opinions on the original release, not the bloated "Redux" version.

LT

brass1, exactly. It's a movie about the very subject you are discussing, the psychology of Kurtz. Both Mr Kurtz from the novel in Africa, or Col Kurtz in Vietnam; it's about Kurtz the man going mad and the corporation/army sends their man in to investigate(kill) him. So it's really not about Vietnam at all. Vietnam is merely the setting Coppola used to tell this story; he could have used other settings.

FMJ Boot Camp scenes barely touched the surface of what it was like. San Diego Recruit Depot Jan/Feb 1966 was essentially semi-organized total madness. In that respect it mirrored war and especially the Vietnam War.

Hoa Binh (1970)