The Odd Angry Shot

A really well constructed Australian film, that accurately portrays the Vietnam 'feeling' in this country. Best described as a sad thought provoking work, with some excellent and funny performances by the skilled cast. A low budget film that 'over achieves' its message.

I first saw this film on tv It captures for me the feeling of Vietnam soldiers who dont want to be in a war dont know what the war is even about.

It took me years of seaching till I found a copy on VHS which think is nearly worn out. Thought provoking sad and funny the great line "Bugger all" whilst seaching the temple is totally unforgettable to me.

On recent viewing, I have been surprised by how well the film reflected upon individual Australians' involvement in The Vietnam War. It also, through a couple of monologues from old hand, Graham Kennedy, dispassionately reflected upon the ultimate futility of Australia's involvement. Perhaps its greatest strength was documenting the Australian male character of the times without reverting to a "lovable larrikins" approach. The battle scenes are done without heroics or dramatics. There is a matter of factness about the activities and reactions of the unit that makes them seem all the more realistic.The boredom, routines and irritations of jungle warfare are there as well as the odd angry shot that punctuates guerilla warfare. Loved the low-key ending which resisted taking aim at the unjust treatment of the returning vets but did reflect their estrangement as a presentiment of their future problems in readjusting.

I first saw THE ODD ANGRY SHOT in the early 1980s when my knowledge of the Vietnam war was very little and my knowledge of Australian involvement was zero . It also has the distinction of being - Apart from THE GREEN BERETS so that doesn`t count - the first feature film I saw to be set around the conflict of the Vietnam war which was fortunate because this low budget Aussie film doesn`t hold up very well compared to the big budget Hollywood productions of the 70s and 80s . For example the locations resemble the bush of Northern Australia rather than the jungles of Indo -China , that`s probably because this film was indeed filmed in Northern Australia , and the fact that Australia has such a small pool of actors means some of them are unconvincing as SAS soldiers , namely Graham Kennedy .

I wholeheartedly defend this film for not having massive battle scenes because that wasn`t actually the role of the Aussie SAS in Vietnam . Based in the province of Phouc Tuy about 70 kilometres South East of Saigon the regiment`s role was intelligence gathering , reconnaissance and identifying VC guerrillas in supposedly " friendly territory " , in other words their missions were totally different from the way the American military decided to fight the war ; ie as a conventional conflict . Though it should be pointed out THE ODD ANGRY SHOT goofs that several SAS soldiers died in the conflict , in reality the SAS lost their one and only trooper in a firefight in January 1967 .

Not to be totally negative the film makes the poignant and all too real statement at the end that instead of treating its former servicemen as heroes - Whatever the rights and wrongs of a war - no one will care because " They`re more interested in what`s happening on Coronation Street " . How true . How bitterly unfairly true

This film is rarely shown, but is available on video if you hunt around. It is a minor classic and stars a young Bryan Brown and a Graham Kennedy before his crow imitating newsreader days.

Whether it portrays the SAS realistically is a moot point, but this was the Australian SAS in the late sixties/early seventies and reference to Australian Books such as the "Phantoms of the Jungle", suggest that the Swanbourne troops went through Vietnam in the way portrayed.

The film is worth watching not for the overdone anti-war message but the black humour and jokes. The presentation of the shoebox contraption to the pardre is worth watching in itself.