Rain

I expected a low-budget movie that was long on story and short on effects. The story, however, was full of hackneyed elements (the jaded Lt. who won't trust the new guy, the platoon full of chip-on-the-shoulder vets, the new guy who earns the platoon's respect through his grit...and on and on). It was also piled high with errors in detail that just irritated me. It seems as though there were no military advisors at all working on this film. Few or none of the rifles carried by the platoon dated to Vietnam. In one case, a sharpshooter picks off a VC sniper using a rifle developed in the mid-90's that shoots pistol ammo - hardly the high-accuracy piece they were trying to depict.

The romance that appears in the film is also laughable and totally unnecessary. That the lead character places his love in harm's way with little regard for her safety is obnoxious - and probably worth a court martial.

I am an animal lover, and when I heard Animal Planet was going to show the story of military dogs in Vietnam, I was excited. The story, though, is thin and the attention to detail was so poor as to be a distraction.

This movie is a story of dogs in Vietnam. It is about a dog named Rain that must over-come his fears while serving in the war. He is mostly afraid of being in the water. When the team has to cross a deap river, he makes it across with a rope and raps it around the tree. He than helps his platoon cross the river. It is simler to The Green Berets expect for that Rain has a dog. I recommand this movie to all IMDB users. It is a great movie. I saw it on Animal Planet. It is truly great.

I just saw this movie on television and was moved by it. At least men and women have a choice but the dogs have no choice to be in war and they don't give up and will do anything to save people. I am glad that I saw this movie and thought it was well done to show the part these dogs play in saving the lives of many. I recommend it to anyone to open their eyes to more of what really goes on in war. Many different movies about war focus on different aspects and all are important to show us and make us appreciate what people and animals like dogs and horses, have to go through. I don't know anything about the level of acting ability , it was enough to move me and that is good enough for me.

It is a good change to see a war movie which depicts an aspect of the war which is rarely talked or heard about. Rather than show full-blown action sequences with gung-ho soldiers ready to give it to the enemy, we see a side of the war that shows that it is not only humans that face the prospect of sacrificing their lives for a particular cause.

Before this film I had no idea that dogs played such a large role in what was the longest war to have been fought in the 20th century. Of the 4,500 German shepherds that travelled to Vietnam only 1 in 10 survived to return home. A fact which is very duanting I agree.

The delivery of the story was very poor however. As much as the director tried to be original in depicting how he would have seen the war we see many stereotypes brought out in a very cheap sense with your "hard-core" group of soldiers which found it hard to accept Rain's help early in the film which ended up with the "oh I owe my life to that dog" type of relationship.

The production company could have also made a bigger effort in using actual weapons and equipment that were actually used in the time. The rifles used by the soldiers for example was the "M16A2" (first issued to American troops in 1985)is actually an upgraded version of the original "M16A1" used during the Vietnam war. The helicopters used during the Vietnam war were of course the Bell UH-1 helicopter, not the Bell 206- B3 as shown in the movie because it was designed primarily for civilian use not military.

But I guess the movie could have been worst had they not salvaged it by adding that typical "war-time romance" into the story to give the movie some sort of lift (not much of it though).

Overall a 2/5 stars from me.

Being an ex Queensland (Australian) Prison dog handler the piece that stood out for me as a major flaw was that a dog would never be allowed to be "off lead" when in this environment - the chances of loss of control of the dog and in fact loosing him would be too great To take the Nurse into the situation he did was unforgivable and the fact that once the persons who were attempting to take the dog, over powered they did not grab the weapons from them In Vietman there was a bounty on the ears from the dogs and the handlers patches Overall it was entertaining If anybody knows where I can obtain a copy please let me know There was an excellent documentary on Pay Television called "War Dogs" where they interviewed ex handlers,and persons who donated the dogs They re-enacted some situations that handlers and their dogs had been in and highlighted the failure to recognise the job that these dogs did during the war Most of them were handed to the Veitnamese or put down after the war ended How could a handler just walk away from his dog and return home without it after the bond that would have been formed with the dog and the love and devotion that the dog would have given during its working life When I retired from the Dog Squad I took my dog with me and he passed away six years after we retired

"Krammer" passed away at aged 11 and I had him cremated I intend to have his ashes buried with me when it is my time - he will never be forgotten