Os Rapazes da Companhia C

The Boys in Company C (1978) was a movie that follows the recruits from Company C. Golden Harvest known for their Bruce Lee films and Jackie Chan productions made several films that were targeted for a world wide audience. One of them was this film. A very good film about the war in Viet-Nam that's is sadly over looked by other films such as Apocalypse Now, Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. Shot in the Phillipines and filled with many minor stars (with the exception of the great R. Lee Ermey) this one has an aura of realism (i.e the real Drill Instructors and boot camp scenes).

I liked this movie very much. Too bad it has never been restored to it's original wide screen aspect for maximum entertainment. If this were available on D.V.D. I would call this one a keeper.

Highly recommended.

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.....

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!!!!!!!"

I loved it, and guess having been a soldier, I got the humor of it. Everyone compares it to "Full Metal Jacket" but "Three Kings" reminded me more of it.

I have to have this one in my DVD collection. I was told that it was done and released as a very limited number.

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