How Sleep the Brave

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.

I saw How Sleep The Brave on video in about 1982. It had already gained a reputation between my group of video watching school friends as being pretty nasty so it had to be seen. After watching it I was pretty shocked mainly by the excessive use of foul language (as a kid you love swearing but this film set new limits) and the realistic combat footage. I have the original UK VHS release and watched it a few years back and do you know what........I still didn't notice that it wasn't shot in Vietnam! It was only after reading the previous reviews on here that I realised it was shot in Berkshire. (Maybe I watch too many low budget films and am now immune to such subtleties as Berkshire trying to portray Vietnbam). So, with a new interest, I dug out the tape and watched it again last night and yes, some shots (i.e. the base camp) are blatantly non tropical but, as much of the action is shot in close up, you don't notice this as you're more interested in whether the point man is about go 'deep 6' and not the foliage they're walking through. This was a VERY low budget film and if you ignore the forest backgrounds the action is still pretty intense. Also, the sun was out which never happens in th e UK hence I was so easily confused :) As already mentioned the acting is atrocious but I'm sure not every GI was Tom Hanks Acting Academy Trained. As with all low budget / no budget films you often need to look past the technical inadequacies to enjoy the movie. I would compare this film to Last House on the Left, which is now rightly commended as being a classic. However, to the casual viewer all they would see is an old, no budget movie with poor acting and general scenes of ultra distastefulness. To anyone now not in their mid thirties you must remember that this film was released on video at a time when simply watching the next video in the Video Library (remember them??) was a special treat. There were literally thousands of low budget films available and HSTB does not warrant being slated as one of the worst (Trust me - I'v seen loads worse). A commendable attempt, using low budget trickery, to relay the closeness and ultimate waste of the Vietnam War. In this day and age maybe someone should go to Weymouth Beach and remake HSTB on Digital Video but updated for the current Gulf crisis? I'm sure in 20 years time some wise ass would say 'this film is terrible because the sand wasn't the correct colour' - MISSING THE POINT!

Worst Vietnam movie ever made? From what I remember (I saw this in the early 80s) it was the most realistic depiction of the stupidity of war since Paths of Glory and until Saving Private Ryan.

Storyline gave way (to a certain extent) to simply showing it like it must have been - normal guys forced into being unfeeling killers, simply because the likelihood of your colleagues getting killed made it not worthwhile getting to know them well.

See it for yourself, it won't be everyone's cup of tea but it's worth a look.

{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,