Purple Hearts

One of the best and least known post Vietnam War movies. Wahl and Ladd are great, and it has a great supporting cast. I love Cyril O'Reilly in this movie, as the Special Operations, semi-psycho Zuma, and he has some of the best lines. He makes a great juxtaposition to Wahl's character.

It's amazing how good the filming of the battle scenes are. Much better than a lot of really high budget war films. And, again the supporting cast is absolutely golden (I mean, it's got R. Lee Ermey in it, before he was in Full Metal Jacket, and just as good). Stephen Lee is great, too, and I became a fan of his and Cyril O'Reilly's just from watching this movie.

And, the writing, and the story is almost perfect. A war movie that you can watch with your girl and you will both enjoy it.

I have heard that this film got some negative reviews when it came out. I am not surprised. It was not politically correct in a movie about this war to present those who served as other than crazies, drug users, etc. The large majority of us weren't. This is not a great film. But. I think it is a really good one. I served in the Navy, and spent time in Vietnam, including at Da Nang (1972). I will tell you that a lot of what you see in this film is fairly realistic, or at least is far more so than what is seen in most "Vietnam movies." I think Cheryl Ladd played a main role in getting this film made. She, Ken Wahl, and the rest of the cast did a first class job. She and they showed high integrity in this film. Another thing different about this film than 90% of the American movies that were made about this war is that it respects those who served. You will care about these characters. It also happens to be a great love story.

First off, this is a much better movie than you would think by just looking at the cast and production.

Yes, essentially this is a wartime romance with all the tear jerky stuff you would expect. (which I happen to enjoy too) But, and this is where things take a turn toward the interesting, this film properly portrays several elements of the US military during the Vietnam War. Including what I consider an incredibly detailed Navy Seal Ops unit, both in characterization and temperament. It borders on the bizarre that such a nugget of special ops combat would be hidden inside a romantic flick.

Their mission, of course, is based on the real life US Army Special Forces rescue operation/raid on Son Tay Prison. But the effect is amazing. A sort of "what if" had the Navy been tasked with the rescue.

Additionally, the firebase hospital scenes were again surprisingly realistic. As well as the actions of the personnel on the naval hospital ship. I'm not sure who the advisors to the movie were, but their on-hand knowledge were well used by both the director and cinematographer.

This was at the height of star Ken Wahl's career - so it comes as a sad reminder of careers that 'could-have-been'. The acting is well done and the romance with beautiful Cheryl Ladd very tangible.

Finally, kudos to Lane Smith who portrays the by-the-book Navy doctor, Commander Markel - and R. Lee Ermey as the Marine Gunnery Sergeant. Not surprisingly R. Lee wasn't stretching his acting muscles too much since he is in fact a globe-n-anchor combat vet who did multiple tours in Nam. If you enjoy the berating bark of everyone's favorite jarhead, check out History Channel's "Mail Call" which R.Lee hosts.

I saw this so long ago, but was never ever able to find it on DVD or a decent copy on VHS. In 2015 while in nursing school we did a rotation at the state mental hospital (Terrell, TX). They had a thrift store and I found a primo copy, even the sleeve was pristine. Love the movie.

Purple Hearts is both a war movie and a romantic movie. Regarding the latter, this movie really had an impact on me. On the one hand, I don't claim it's an epic like "Dr. Zhivago". On the other hand, 35 years after seeing it, it's one that I remember most clearly and that drew me into the story most completely. For my friends who served in the Vietnam War, the movie was right on target, super realistic. But I don't like war movies that much, so it was the romance that drew me in. Out of curiosity, I looked at the IMDB rating and saw it was rather low, but I stuck with my experience and gave it a 9. Then I read the reviews and almost all gave it very high praise. But many viewers must have given it a low score. If you're a romantic, it's worth taking a chance and if it's a match, it'll really be worth it. I just saw it again and think it's a GREAT movie. I have NOT seen the recent remake, BUT there was no artistic reason to do a remake, one could not improve on the original!