Le Dernier Assaut

First off. This is a movie not a documentary. As a former Recon Marine who served in that hell, the movie has many realistic and uncompromising moments. Like a movie it went for the splatter and over the top special effects. However, the story of a Marine Recon patrol plays out properly. Although, the fishing village shootout wouldn't have been the best way to gather intelligence.

The movie greatest asset is it tells the truth about the transition from guerrilla warfare to guerrilla political warfare. Defeat the village supporting the warrior then you can defeat the warrior. The movie attempts to tell the story of both the professional marine and the Viet Minh. The guerrilla forces operating in the South while the North militarizes its forces. The marines aren't all gung-ho over the top, but they are marines. It's our job, lets get it done. However the job is a fight that can't be fought and moral support wasn't forthcoming from home. Marines fought and won every one of their land battles in Vietnam. We weren't trying to win wars, just the current fight and get out alive.

The Amazon special issue tape doesn't contain the subtitles of the Viet Minh. Thereby, removing the essence of the movie's twofold storytelling. The creation of a social awareness on both sides of the fences.

In combat your only motivation is to survive and that means keeping yourself and the guy on your flank covered. The Viet Minh aren't shown as mindless communists, but soldiers fighting foreign invaders and the corruption that they fostered.

This movie has an intelligent story to tell, but Hollywood recognized the need to entertain the dopers in the back rows. They buy more movie tickets. Also this movie is from the 80's. When you judge a movie remember the mental and social climate in which it was made. So there are a lot of oil drums being blown to simulate explosions. And super bullets being fired on both sides. As I said this is a movie.

If you want to be entertained and maybe have your eyes opened a little bit more about that time. This is the movie for you.

Sometimes low budget doesn't have to mean low quality. Hollywood needs to sweep you into the popcorn tub and drench it with butter. But you don't have to swallow all the crap that's put in front of you.

Other movies to check out are Platoon Leader (Vietnam), Bravo Two Zero (SAS in the Gulf). I didn't like Platoon or A Crop of S--T Now (Apocalypse Now). That the essence of our individual freedom, choices.

Semper Fi

If you are tired of all of the Hollywood films that disparage the military in general and dedicated soldiers, sailor and airmen specifically, this is your movie. This also is not a gung-ho armed services recruiting film, because of its very real depiction of the horors of war, it received a well deserved "R" rating.

If you've never heard of this movie before, you're in good company. Apparently, neither have Leonard Maltin, Roger Ebert, or the editors of the "VideoHound Golden Movie Retriever." Fortunately, the editor of VideoHound's book on war movies had heard of it. Based on his favorable review, I taped and viewed the film recently. If you enjoy a good "battle" movie, be sure to catch this one--you won't be disappointed.

"The Siege of Firebase Gloria" is a real film about real people in an unreal hell. Its apparently low budget was a blessing because it forced the creators to focus on plot and character development rather than on bombastic and meaningless special effects. Nevertheless, the battle sequences are believable and well-done.

This film is a sleeper that apparently did not get the exposure that it deserved. Then again, R. Lee Ermey and Wings Hauser, who played the lead roles, are not exactly box-office draws, and the other names in the cast were totally unfamiliar to me. However, Ermey, Hauser, and everyone in the cast do a solid job.

The action takes place during the Vietnamese Tet offensive in 1968, during a supposed holiday cease-fire, when the Viet Cong caught the South Vietnamese and U.S. forces by surprise with an all-out assault throughout South Vietnam. Ermey and his Marines are caught in the trap when they are ordered to help defend a small, meaningless outpost, Firebase Gloria, with virtually no help except, finally, from a small Air Cavalry unit. The Tet offensive was the beginning of the end for South Vietnam.

I never served in Vietnam, but this film has the feeling of being authentic. This is not a simplistic "good guys versus bad guys" film. The atrocities and inhumanities committed by both sides are not overemphasised but they are not glossed over either. They are just there as part of the fabric of the war.

Perhaps more importantly, they are shown in the context of a deadly, virtually unsurvivable siege and final battle. We sympathize with the Marines, of course, and we see them as ordinary, basically decent human beings. We may not condone some of the things that they do, but we understand why they may have seen no other alternative. It reminds me of the film "Zulu," about British troops trapped in a similar situation a century ago.

For many of us, our image of R. Lee Ermey is as the over-the-top drill sergeant in "Full Metal Jacket." His character in "Firebase Gloria" is more human and lower in key, yet you can see his character evolving into the drill sergeant following his tour in Vietnam. When you've walked through hell with your fellow battle-hardened Marines and been one of the few to come out alive, you know that you have to do everything in your power to prepare your green recruits to walk through that same hell.

Is "Firebase Gloria" on the same level of quality as "Platoon" and "Full Metal Jacket"? Not quite. I'd put it on a par with "Go Tell the Spartans," which, despite a strong performance from Burt Lancaster, has also never gotten the exposure that it deserves. These films deserve to be seen, not forgotten.

It's 1968. The Tet holidays is approaching and a ceasefire is expected. Hardnosed Sergeant Major Bill Hafner (R. Lee Ermey) leads a weary squad into a village where almost everyone has been massacred. They guard the remote Firebase Gloria and struggle against a tough guerilla campaign. Their superiors don't expect the coming full scale onslaught.

The production is Australian and filmed in the Philippines for Vietnam. I doubt that there is much involvement from the American military although they probably rented a lot of stuff from the Philippines military. It has lots of guns, men, and explosions. They're not filmed in the most exciting ways. It's a lot Rambo style mass shootings. It's a B-movie, but at least it's a solid B-movie.

I was an 8 yr old wanna be marine in 1968, having grown up on a steady diet of books about the Marine's island-hopping campaign during WWII and shows like "Combat!", "Sands Of Iwo Jima", "To Hell and Back", and "The Longest Day." My hearts desire was to be with the defenders of a place I could barely pronounce [Khe Sanh]and help them break out of that siege. As a result, over the years I have read almost every combat account/Oral History and a few novels about that particular war and the experience of being in it.

SOFG answered one of the abiding questions I'd always had during my many readings: "What was it like when your firebase was overrun?" I could never quite understand or picture it until I saw that movie. The performances were excellent--R. Lee Ermey in particular--and the character development of the NVA/VC added a welcome and needed layer to the movie. There were flaws, for sure, like rifles that shot for ever, and defenders not crouching down but standing tall; but from what I have read, the movie was realistic and right on target. The very 'feel' of it seemed to capture what I had read about that war.

And to the many vets who served there: thank you for your service and sacrifice for this country, and all that you saw and endured. If instead of Vietman, WWII or Korea had been the 'first TV War', people's repulsion for what they saw as real war would have been taken out in a similar way on those who served in these conflicts.