Aller simple pour l'enfer

I watched this movie about 30 times when i was a kid, i recently found it after years of hunting as its a very rare film. Watching it as an adult was like dejavu as i rememmbered most parts of the film, but i can now understand the horrors and politics of that war much better, making it more sad to me nowadays. The plot has not been given any spending power, and the English countryside is obvious, but this shows that there wasnt a plot during the Vietnam war, only the deaths of young men at the hands of eachother. It did make more of an impact on me as a kid but its still a powerful film that will have you looking into the window of the souls of those depicted. If you did see this movie as a kid too, nostalgia at its best.

AKA Once apon a time in Vietnam AKA Combat zone

10/10 for me.

I watched How Sleep The Brave as a teenager in the early eighties and was blown away by it. Yes, my friend and I laughed at the English-looking countryside (we had no idea at the time that it actually was made in England!), but we both thought it was a fantastic film about the realities of battle in the Vietnam war. "Worst Vietnam Movie Ever?" - no way! OBVIOUSLY the film was low budget but if you can see past that you will find yourself with an engrossing and moving film experience.

When Platoon came out a few years later I was amazed at the similarities to How Sleep The Brave. Platoon was in the news for weeks with talk about America exposing and coming to terms with the realities of the Vietnam war, and generally blowing sunshine up Oliver Stone's a*se. Well I reckon Olly watched How Sleep The Brave and got the idea for Platoon! I immediately picked up on the use of haunting classical music to accentuate the tragedy, futility and brutality of the war. How Sleep The Brave was way ahead of the rest with it's ideas and techniques on the treatment of the subject.

Generally I see the film as a fantastic finished product of a great idea on a very low budget. It delivers the message and then some. I haven't seen the film since that first time, but I will try to rent it out again and may post more comments with my current thoughts.

When I first saw this movie(12 yrs old in '82), It Impacted me deeply,

now call that sad if you want to, but this movie did have something. For me,it was the only war movie I had seen at that time that did'nt end up with the yanks overcoming great odds to achieve total victory. In fact it showed a desperate struggle to get the F**K out with your life,Yes,it was shot in some woods in England and it was low budget,with few actors,but it blew me away,it was raw and scary ,and memories of it have stayed with me until this day .Kids today would laugh at its cheap, low budget feel,but I can tell you,this film was the groundwork for all Vietnam movies that would follow. My verdict..

If you were there in the early 80's, it's good........If you were born in the late 80's forget it! Stick with Platoon!!!!!!!!!!

Filmed in England with English actors I believe, this film manages to convey the confusion and grim reality of jungle warfare and is well worth tracking down.

Captain Hansen insists on his platoon heading into the jungle every day to take on the VC, even though most days the platoon ends up carrying body bags back to the camp. He's had word that a VC village holds a large arms cache and doubles up the effort in finding the weapons. That's all good for him though, as he gets to sit back in camp, smoking cigars.

It's up to Lt. Johnson and his men to take on the task, but his soldiers are either battle fatigued or fresh meat sent to replace the dead G.Is. What ensues is a running battle through the jungle which takes up most of the film as the remainder of the platoon find themselves up against an entire battalion of VC. And it's grim, depressing stuff.

How Sleep the Brave is also extremely violent. Stomachs are blown out, people are graphically blown up or stabbed and one poor guy gets an arrow through his neck. I didn't have a problem with the acting at all, and although the budget shows, I think the film was pretty close to depicting war in the jungle. Put it this way: I enjoyed this a lot more than I enjoyed the Deer Hunter.

It looked like my copy (by the defunct 23rd Century label) was widescreen too - a bit washed out, but good enough. Recommended.

{how sleep the brave};although cheaply made this film is great ,i enjoyed watching it many time and is nice to see a film without all the effects you get these days.also as for acting it may be poor but not as poor as the stars making millions for scrips that are no more than 8 words long at a time and 3 to 4 camera angles a second that just make you dizzy,the film has lots of funny and sad parts and you can relate to how the men must of felt in the war and what it was like to loose close friends,the plot outlines on a platoon of soldiers being sent out to find a village that is hiding VC soldiers and there weapons, the Americans whom for some only have 8 days till they go home are not happy being sent on this mission but are doing it for there captain who has save there lives in the past ,lots of gore and blood if you like that sort of thing and plenty of fire power,finally not the greatest film i agree but well worth a watch if you can still find it,