SwiftVets.com

Cges · Seaman Recruit Joined: 10 Sep 2004 Posts: 2

Hi,

I've been a movie fan for many years, and with the recent talks about Kerry's role in Vietnam and especially in changing the image we have NOW of how the war in Vietnam was THEN, I am really curious if anyone could give me some idea of how this has influenced Hollywood movies.

For instance movies like Platoon, Apocalypse Now and Hamburger Hill, are they all fiction? Maybe overdone? They DO show murder, rape, burning of villages, etc etc. Especially Apocalypse Now comes to mind because it deals with swift boats and their crews.

About the movie Platoon... It was directed by Oliver Stone, in the accompanying documentary on the DVD he claims to have written the story from first hand experience and he showed the movie to Vietnam Veterans who were impressed by the accuracy of it.

Has anybody seen these movies or is able to shed any light on this issue?

Regards,
Christian
(Netherlands)

BuffaloJack · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 2:50 pm Post subject:

I think the most accurate Viet Nam movie I have seen to date was "Good Morning, Viet Nam". It might not have had all the blast and bravado of other VN movies, but it came closest to the everyday life of a typical GI. Not every single day in country involved a firefight, there were locals bars and interacting with the local population on a personal level too.

As far as atrocities, murder, rape and pillage, they were almost always performed by the other side and we got to clean up the results. I was actually on swiftboats, as an advisor to the VN Navy, and I don't think we saw 10 firefights in my entire two years there. Like everything Hollywood, the daily tedium doesn't sell well. Hollywood likes action films and pushing the limits. As for Apocalypse Now, that was not a swiftboat.

carpro · Admin Joined: 10 May 2004 Posts: 1176 Location: Texas

Apocalypse Now was a total piece of crap.
Platoon was a piece of crap. Realistic combat scenes. Ridiculous plot.
Hamburger Hill was just OK.

The best is "We were Soldiers". The Mel Gibson movie. Ironic...takes an Australian to make a good movie about Americans in Vietnam.

Good Morning Vietnam was a good effort from it's limited viewpoint.
_________________
"If he believes his 1971 indictment of his country and his fellow veterans was true, then he couldn't possibly be proud of his Vietnam service."

Navy_Navy_Navy · Admin Joined: 07 May 2004 Posts: 5777

I just watched "Casualties of War" last night, just for the heck of it.

One myth and stereotype after another. Discipline in short supply, the good guys in the minority...

The only thing good it had to say about the military was that military justice prevailed over the wrong-doers in the end.
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~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

Wing Wiper · Posted: Sat Sep 11, 2004 9:01 pm Post subject:

Forrest Gump, in a lot of ways, was the most realistic. The firefight scene in there made me duck the first time I saw it.
There's an old Australian movie called "The Odd, Angry Shot" that was pretty good, too, if you can find it. "Flight of the Intruder" was good, from the Naval air war perspective. I wouldn't recommend any of the movies about the ground war as being "realistic". "We were Soldiers" came the closest, of the ones I've seen.

duhaast · Seaman Recruit Joined: 12 Aug 2004 Posts: 12

Actually, there's a book out from a few years ago that I don't recall the name of, something like "Vietnam on Film", that discussed everything filmed up til that time (late 80's).

Hamburger Hill was recomended, as was 84 Charlie Mopic, Bat 21, and actually to get what is considered a good view of what the every day cadre of the enemy went through, The Iron Triangle.

IMHO, (though I was Tonkin Yacht Club, not a ground pounder), I think "we Were Soldiers" is the best.
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