1980s Vietnam films and the like

BuilderPlumber

I remember being in video rental stores in the early 1990s and every second film in there was a Vietnam war film. Most of them were poor, short and nasty. In usually 90 minutes, the typical film would be set a few years after the Vietnam war and would involve an American one man army rescuing POWs and killing as many Vietnamese and often Russian advisors as possible. Of course, the Americans were as good and pure as possible and the Vietnamese, Russians, etc. demonised. Typical examples of such films would be First Blood Part 2, the Missing In Action series, Strike Commando and Platoon Leader. Chuck Norris made a load of them.

These type of films then were replicated in other settings too. Rambo 3 relocated to Russian occupied Afghanistan with the 90 minute plot focusing on a one man army killing as many Russians as possible. The Delta Force was much the same, this time focusing on Hezbollah.

These films are desperate and when one looks at the sources for them, they are blatant propaganda. Golan Globus/Cannon were the makers of many of them and they were blatant Israeli/American/rightwing propaganda. America today is a mixed up/messed up failure and I wouldn't be too surprised if a certain generation grew up brainwashed on a diet of Chuck Norris films and the like.

Harry Palmr

/unsubscribes

razorblunt

But what do you REALLY think?

I liked the Michael J Fox one, no sugar coating in that at all.

BuilderPlumber

razorblunt wrote: »

But what do you REALLY think?

I liked the Michael J Fox one, no sugar coating in that at all.

I think there were 2 types of Vietnam films: the Chuck Norris type and the intelligent type. The latter would be good films like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter and Casualties of War. They are very far removed from the Norris, etc. junk. The first Rambo was a good film too.

Gatling

Don't recall a lot of movies like the op claimed to have seen in video shops ,
Bar Rambo 2 and the several missing in action movies most were fairly decent considering the Vietnam war was a sore point for most in the 70's and early 80s and the on going cold war which was at its height during the 70s and 80s ,
They were mostly cheap popcorn movies nothing more than didn't take a whole lot to make ,

jh79

Nice piece about Cannon from Callum Waddell below. The Electric Bugaloo documentary is brilliant. If you find Delta Force offensive for your own sake don't delve too deeply into the world of exploitation cinema!

https://www.serifwebresources.com/control.php?uid=fb82211e732f1bdc053f1c64d726359dc5c602e0&post=1169746

"Ok sure, he had his politics and, yes, judging by some of the films, they were only slightly to the right of the Whitehouse of the time - but he didn’t let them dominate his business decisions. In fact he gave jobs to plenty of liberals – signing Jean Luc Godard, giving Christopher Reeve the freedom to spin the ill-fated Superman IV into a big blockbuster blow-job against nuclear arms and allowing Tobe Hooper to turn The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2 (1986) into one of the best anti-Reagan farces of the period."

iHungry

I do agree with the op. I remember one film that I think was called War Bus, the cover really appealed to my 8 year old self.

Edit, actually i read the op wrong. I was thinking mid-late 80s

BuilderPlumber

iHungry wrote: »

I do agree with the op. I remember one film that I think was called War Bus, the cover really appealed to my 8 year old self.

Edit, actually i read the op wrong. I was thinking mid-late 80s

There was one film (it may be Strike Commando) that was a total ripoff of First Blood Part 2 aka Rambo 2. A low budget remake of it.

BuilderPlumber

Gatling wrote: »

Don't recall a lot of movies like the op claimed to have seen in video shops ,
Bar Rambo 2 and the several missing in action movies most were fairly decent considering the Vietnam war was a sore point for most in the 70's and early 80s and the on going cold war which was at its height during the 70s and 80s ,
They were mostly cheap popcorn movies nothing more than didn't take a whole lot to make ,

There were of course a lot of good Vietnam themed films too. Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, The Deer Hunter, Casualties of War, First Blood (the first Rambo), Apocalypse Now, etc. Here's a full list of both the good and the bad:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War_in_film

In the weaker films, I think the Rambo character was copied and the films were essentially variants of Rambo 2. Strike Commando I think it was called was a total remake of that.

I forgot about the third type, the comedy films like Good Morning Vietnam. Then there was Air America, which was about drug dealers during the war in Vietnam.

skankles

New 10 part documentary on The Vietnam War by Ken Burns is fantastic by the way, very comprehensive....Not a sign of Chuck Norris as well so all good!!

MonkieSocks

How Sleep The Brave 1982

The speech by the Captain was epic.
Not a bad little movie

_______________________________________________

Go Tell The Spartans 1978

Burt Lancaster delivers one of his finest performance of his illustrious career as a hardboiled major in command

Definately worth a watch

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aEJB2D2xlg

Maybe the greatest line in the history of film.

Hande hoche!

Quite enjoyed Red Scorpion, Dolph Lungren versus the commies. Production supported by the Apartheid era South African defence forces.

Ralf and Florian

A kind of sub-genre was the Vietnam veteran going on the rampage back in the States. First Blood, the first Rambo movie was one of the better ones but there were a lot thrashy B-movies.

WinnyThePoo

I'm not sure if 1980s but southern comfort was a great flick. Technically not Vietnam.

Ralf and Florian

MonkieSocks wrote: »

How Sleep The Brave 1982

The speech by the Captain was epic.
Not a bad little movie

_______________________________________________

Go Tell The Spartans 1978

Burt Lancaster delivers one of his finest performance of his illustrious career as a hardboiled major in command

Definately worth a watch

How Sleep The Brave was a low budget British movie shot in England, wouldn't think it watching it.

Conall Cernach

Uncommon Valour with Gene Hackman and Patrick Swaze was pretty decent from what I remember. It was also about rescuing American MIAs.

darkdubh

Interesting how there were virtually no Hollywood movies about the Vietnam War made during the war itself apart from John Waynes very dated propaganda piece The Green Berets.

MonkieSocks

Ralf and Florian wrote: »

How Sleep The Brave was a low budget British movie shot in England, wouldn't think it watching it.

Well worth a watch imo.

Just because it was low budget and shot in england is not the way to judge a movie.

It may not have all the bells and whistles of a major studeo behind it but the lack of this, lends to the raw reality of war in all it's graphic ugliness.

One of ny favourites

Mulbert

Hamburger Hill, Full Metal Jacket, Casualties of War, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, The Deerhunter, that's some load of fantastic film there.

Tony EH

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I think there were 2 types of Vietnam films: the Chuck Norris type and the intelligent type. The latter would be good films like Full Metal Jacket, Platoon, Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter and Casualties of War. They are very far removed from the Norris, etc. junk. The first Rambo was a good film too.

The best Vietnam war film, over all, is 'Platoon'. While it does have its share of problems, mostly to do with its story elements, its grunts eye view presents the war pretty close to how things actually were.

'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Apocalypse Now' are probably the more entertaining films, over all. But they lack that straight edge, no nonsense, this is how it really was in the field, feel that Stone's film had. Oliver Stone, unlike Kubrick and Coppola, served in the war, so much of that look and feel comes directly from his personally experiences and it isn't lost on anyone who has a bit of knowledge on the subject.

'Casualties of War' is a straight up atrocity film that's very difficult to look at and is more worthy to watch because of Sean Penn's excelent performance (one of the greatest actors of his generation AFAIC). But, it's overwrought and suffers from an ending that is so bad it has to be seen to be believed. That's mostly to do with De Palma though, who's a director that I've never rated personally.

'The Deer Hunter' is a curious entry. It's depiction of the Vietnamese is a sticking point, its opening is far too long, it gets messy in the last third and it's jump cut to the actual war has always bothered me. It's far more entertaining when it's dealing with the characters back home. In saying that, it's still a must see film (at least once) for cinema fans. But, it's more a comment on post war than the actual war itself.

They all have their merits, but they are still all about America's "tragedy" - a tragedy it dragged itself into - and focused on what the war meant to the US, while reducing the Vietnamese to mere targets or cyphers. In that respect 'We were Soldiers' did a respectable job in humanising the Vietnamese, but suffers unbelievably from some terrible jingoism at the same time, that in the end it cancels out any real worth it may have had.

A final mention should go to 'Hamburger Hill', which is often overlooked when talking about Vietnam war films. Like 'Platoon' is does very well in its depiction of the grunts eye view of life in the field. But, it's a very dry film, absent of heroics and any kind of story other than the taking of Hill 937 in 1969. I've always loved it, precisely because it didn't put the men into any kind of Hollywood "story". It just focused on the operation and what had to be done to achieve it. 'Hamburger Hill' takes the viewer and drops them into the Vitenam war in a way that no other does. But, it might not be enough for a lot of people.

Tony EH

Tony EH wrote: »

The best Vietnam war film, over all, is 'Platoon'. While it does have its share of problems, mostly to do with its story elements, its grunts eye view presents the war pretty close to how things actually were.

'Full Metal Jacket' and 'Apocalypse Now' are probably the more entertaining films, over all. But they lack that straight edge, no nonsense, this is how it really was in the field, feel that Stone's film had. Oliver Stone, unlike Kubrick and Coppola, served in the war, so much of that look and feel comes directly from his personally experiences and it isn't lost on anyone who has a bit of knowledge on the subject.

.

Stone also sent all his actors to live in the jungle for a good few weeks before shooting began. So by the time it began all of them were pissed off, hated each other, and hated Stone. It brought a great authenticity to the performances and the real dislike between Berenger and Defoe that you could see on screen.
The scene in the helicopter when Sheen is flying home and breaks down in tears, Stone actually tells him something to the effect of 'It's over, this is your last scene your going home'. Such was the state Sheen was in after weeks in the jungle with Oliver Stone the tears and relief we very much real!

Tony EH

Aye. If I recall correctly, it was the first film to actually do that boot camp thing, which become a bit of a hollywood cliche now.

I remember all the actors saying they were covered in bites from everything that could crawl or fly.

fryup

in fairness Platoon hasn't aged well, some of the acting is very iffy

MonkieSocks

I agree with the above regarding "Hamburger Hill" Brilliant Movie






and lets not forget this one" We Were Soldiers

Anothe one to look at was "The Boys In Company C"

Sad Professor

I like Platoon but prefer Stone's other two Vietnam films, both of which are far more successful as anti-war films. I think Platoon is hobbled by that mostly terrible platoon sub-genre which its subverting.

Tony EH

'Born on the Fourth of July' is very good alright. But, again, it's more of a post war film and hasn't much to do with the actual war.

I could never get into 'Heaven and Earth' though. Unsure why.

Atoms for Peace

Forrest Gump is the film that the deer hunter could have been.☺️

beauf

BuilderPlumber wrote: »

I....These films are desperate and when one looks at the sources for them, they are blatant propaganda. Golan Globus/Cannon were the makers of many of them and they were blatant Israeli/American/rightwing propaganda. America today is a mixed up/messed up failure and I wouldn't be too surprised if a certain generation grew up brainwashed on a diet of Chuck Norris films and the like.

I think you've been brainwashed into watching bad films and thinking they reflect real life or indeed that there aren't very smart people in the US.

http://www.thejournal.ie/world-university-ranking-2014-1573533-Jul2014/

Agent Coulson

I first saw these on VHS here when they were released over here as films basically double or triple episodes tied together to give you a two hour film.

Both Tour of Duty & China Beach were really good.

beauf

More interesting from an aviation point of view maybe

Flight of the Intruder '91
Bat21 '88
Air America '90

Good Morning, Vietnam '87
84C MoPic '89
acob's Ladder '90

beauf

Agent Coulson wrote: »

I first saw these on VHS here when they were released over here as films basically double or triple episodes tied together to give you a two hour film.

Both Tour of Duty & China Beach were really good.

Tour of Duty was 3 seasons 58 episodes. used to watch, it.
I think the first season is well regarded, the rest no so much.

darkdubh

The Odd Angry Shot from 1979 and the 1987 mini series Vietnam covered the Australian involvement in the war, something that was was omitted from Ken Burns otherwise excellent documentary series.

darkdubh

Not a film but I think Paul Hardcastles 19 tied in with the spate of Vietnam related movies in the 80's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRJFvtvTGEk

Joe_ Public

I remember the guy from Tour of Duty, was a sergeant I think, loved the war so much he kept going back and back, even when his tour was over. Wasn’t even insane and was far too clever to ever get killed. What a true and noble hero he was.

MonkieSocks

Documentray about Soldiers sending letters home

This is part 2 of 8,

Part 1 is AWOL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-5TK7YWqNMQ&list=PL2BBA84FC6F234C4A&index=1

jh79

Platoon is on itv4 tonight

MonkieSocks

jh79 wrote: »

Platoon is on itv4 tonight

Anyone notice Oliver Stone getting killed in the final battle

Hande hoche!

MonkieSocks wrote: »

Anyone notice Oliver Stone getting killed in the final battle

Been years since I've seen it. He is one of the officers in a trench that gets blown up?

beauf

Bunker, yeah.

I watched most of it again. I still think it's a great movie. One of my favourites.

MonkieSocks

Hande hoche! wrote: »

Been years since I've seen it. He is one of the officers in a trench that gets blown up?

beauf wrote: »

Bunker, yeah.

I watched most of it again. I still think it's a great movie. One of my favourites.

Did the same, watched from Night Ambush fight till the end