Les boys de la compagnie C

This is one of my favorite movies. The film has a good storyline. Actor, Stan Shaw did an excellent job in his role as Tyrone Washington. He went on to perform another great acting job in "The Great Santini". The boot camp scenes where spot on authentic with the Drill Instructors. Reminded me of my bootcamp when I entered the Air Force. R Lee Emery does a great job in his first movie but my favorite drill instructor in the film is the Puerto Rican Gunney that rips the new recruits a new one. Amazingly, a lot of people don't know about this film. In my view, it's one of the most entertaining military/Viet Nam movies that have ever been made. Great movie!

This movie would be just a regular by the numbers movie about war, weather the Vietnam War or World War II. You have a bunch of stereotypical screw ups who get thrown into Marine boot camp during the Vietnam War. The film follows them thru boot camp to the hell of 'nam. These boys become men and it doesn't end happily for one of them. The scenes in boot camp are funny and also very realistic. This was the first film appearance of Lee Ermey as their drill instructor. His first words on screen are "I'm Sergeant Loyce I'm your drill instructor for the next two f@&%ing months maggots". He is really funny and theres a good scene where him and Stan Shaw have a blazing argument (although in real life you would be in the brig for talking to your DI like that). Thirty years ago drill instructors were allowed to be a lot rougher with privates then today and my favorite part is where this one DI grabs a daydreaming recruit by the....well watch it and see. Actually the DI Lee plays in this film is almost a nice guy compared to the one that he played in Full Metal Jacket. The scenes in Vietnam are handled as well, especially the ones showing the horrors of combat. They talk about the drug smuggling that went on and the film is unflinching in how it shows the machinations of the politicians who sent our men out into the field with one hand tied behind their backs. No one we suffered such a humiliating defeat. This film is gritty, vulgar and unsentimental but it is a true story we must not forget about a terrible war that ripped our country apart like the Cival War. Like I said though, Lee Ermey makes this film. I love him on Mail Call. I think my favorite part of the show is the one where he talked about the paratroopers at D-Day. Someone wrote him an e-mail and asked if it was true that they really said Geronimo when they jumped. Lee said that wasn't true at all and what they probably said was "OH S#$T!!!!!!!"

As one of the actors in Boys in Company C , I can say the reality of war was not completely there. However, It did touch on some realistic moments.. Truly Full Metal Jacket was more the real thing, especially Boot camp..I went through Parris Island in 1966 and it was even more brutal I think..Example... When Pyle was eating the jelly donut and all the others were paying for it. In the boot camp I went through, every time anyone screwed up , we all paid for it. R Lee Ermey a long ago friend was the real thing.. Bye the way , Pyle would never have had that full metal jacket because all the brass was collected after the firing line to make sure no one would shoot the DI.. LOL Stan Johns ,Boys in Company C.....

I guess if you took this movie literally then you would feel that it is a stupid war movie. However, if you saw that the Generals represented a bureaucracy focused more on statistical body counts than what was actually happening on the ground you would see that this film had a good message to it. This was by no means a great film, but it was a very good film. Basically, the film shows how the men on the ground genuinely wanted to help the people in country and also wanted to get out alive. This film, like Apocalypse Now and Catch 22, show the double edged sword of war in the name of peace.

And as to the "civilians might like this film" comment above, well, I'm a United States Army Veteran and I liked it.

Josiah

Even though the low budget of this film shows through at times, it still manages to be a compelling and intense portrayal of the whole experience of being sent to Vietnam, right from boot camp up to fighting. It really feels like one is there is at times, and it is fascinating to watch the changes that characters undergo in the course of the film. The symbolic soccer themes and ideas do not always work, but they still retain some power. The camera-work and editing suits the project fine, and the film also has an excellent, haunting song, "Here I Am", to go with the material. It is quite similar in many ways to 'Full Metal Jacket', and even though the technical side and acting might be inferior here, this is still one hell of a fine movie depicting the experiences of being involved in war from a recruit's point of view.