Hamburger Hill

I, like most of the other people posting comments, believe it is a very realistic movie. Some have commented that they didn't like the characters. Well, I'm a military helicopter pilot and I have worked with the infantry on many missions. When they are in the field, they are subject to a raw lifestyle that few would understand if they had not lived it. I've seen them and I've carried them. They do not apologize for the way they look, act or even smell when they,ve been out for days and weeks. When you see the complete fatigue in their faces, you would not expect them to. They are who they are and I'm proud to have carried them as a crew chief on a CH47 earlier in my career and now as a UH60 pilot. But the movie does need a "goof" link for some critical errors. The men who assaulted Dong Ap Bia "Hamburger Hill" were never attacked by a UH1. The fratricide events occurred 4 documented times. Once by a Skyraider (fixed-wing) and three separate times by AH1 Cobras. The Skyraider dropped, I believe a 1000 pound bomb and the Cobras shot them up with their machine guns and rockets. Having pointed this out, I do realize that the film industry, putting out a lower budget film, might have a difficult time actually finding a Cobra to use. Hueys are easy to find and cheap to operate. Also, the scenes with who is supposed to be Col. Honeycutt in the Command and Control helicopter (you never really see him)portrays him as completely out of harms way during the battles. The fact is that he was in harms way, with NVA artillery constantly. He and his staff also ended up in a fire fight themselves. The radio traffic also leads you to believe he is uncaring and dogmatic with his people. I could only answer this by pointing out that someone had to be the commander and it was a difficult mission. But, the "ruthless uncaring leader" (almost as a matter of political correctness) is the only way Hollywood will portray a commander in Viet Nam. Too bad though, that episode with his staff would have been interesting to have seen acted out. It doesn't change my opinion of the film though. It's one of my favorites in my DVD library.

In the mid-to-late '80s, America finally came to terms with the Vietnam War, exorcising their demons via popular culture. On TV, we had Vietnam veterans The A-Team coming to the rescue of the needy. On the radio, Paul Hardcastle told us that the average age was 'n-n-n-n-nineteen', while Stan Ridgeway recounted the story of an awfully big marine. In the cinemas, Chuck Norris was Missing In Action, Rambo asked 'Do we get to win this time?', Tom Cruise was Born on the Fourth of July, Robin Williams was screeching 'Good Morning', Michael J. Fox suffered the Casualties of War, and Kubrick's jacket was of the full metal variety. Oliver Stone's Vietnam film Platoon even cleaned up at the Oscars, winning four awards, including Best Picture.

It's understandable that Hamburger Hill, with its cast of relative unknowns and second-tier director, didn't receive quite as much attention as the aforementioned heavy-hitters, but if you're serious about war movies, don't let the lack of any big names put you off: the film is just as worthy of praise as Platoon, if not more-so, the green cast only adding to the film's already palpable authenticity. Shot in the thick jungles and even thicker mud of the Phillipines, the film tells of one of the most costly battles of the Vietnam War, the fight for Hill 937 in the Ashau Valley, known to grunts as Hamburger Hill. Director John Irvin's aim is to capture the horrors of war in all their bloody detail, and the sense of realism he achieves is remarkable: when his characters die, they don't throw their arms up in slow motion to the strains of Adagio for Strings… they do so in a sudden welter of gore, hammering home the notion that war is hell.

By the end of Hamburger Hill, the viewer is left as emotionally drained as its surviving characters are physically exhausted.

I was an infantryman in the field in Vietnam. There are only 2 Vietnam movies that are even close to real - this one and Apocalypse Now, and they are both as close as a movie can get.

Hamburger Hill gets it right in many ways, the banter among the grunts, the fatalism mixed with the desire to survive a vicious war, the emotional stress of seeing your fellow GI's become casualties. The GI jargon used in the writing is the most authentic in any movie about that war. But most of all it depicts the incredible, to me mystical, bravery which drives any man into terrible battle in any war, on any side. This movie is an unpretentious marvel.

As for Apocalypse Now, it gets it right in a very different way. Everything in that movie actually happened in Vietnam, crazy as each scene may be to one who wasn't there. Take it scene by scene. Believe everything you see. (Except, of course, the whole Col. Kurtz - private army - assassination theme, which was out of the book about war in South Africa. It made a great hook for this movie, but no U. S. Army senior officer ever went off the deep end like that.)

This is one of the very best and most realistic movies on the Vietnam War. There is no politicizing angst like "Platoon" and no flights of fantasy and metaphysics like "Full-Metal Jacket" or "Apocalypse Now". Those movies were too full of themselves and their "message" (and Oliver Stone, in particular, sought more to advance his political viewpoints by distortion rather than show realistic combat). These guys in the 101st Airborne were engaged in a brutal, actual battle. From the first ambush scene through each of the assaults on the hill, realism was achieved. The North Vietnamese hiding safe in their bunkers during air-strikes, only to emerge and start shooting and rolling grenades down the hill again on the paratroopers--all real. The conversations among the troops, about what they would do when they got home, what kind of car they would buy, are all typical of what I remember from my year over there in the infantry. There was no pontificating about good and evil as with Oliver Stone's much overrated "Platoon". Most of all, it showed guys trying just to take care of each other, while still carrying on with a meat-grinder of a mission. The actors were all virtually unknown at the time this was made, but acquitted themselves well. This movie was unfortunately underpromoted and slipped virtually unnoticed through the theaters, leaving most of us to catch it in the video stores. I am glad I came across it. If you missed this one, go rent it.

Many excellent Vietnam films, in an attempt to present their own interpretation of America's darkest hour, ask many political questions vital to the war: "What were we fighting for?" "Was this worth it?" "When does morality take over?" "When does the fighting stop?"

On the other hand, "Hamburger Hill" doesn't need to state any such questions. Rather, it presents the viewer with the scenario-- a group of men trying to advance on a hill-- and allows him to come to his own conclusions. It is a wonderful display of characters from all walks of life, and how hard times brought them together. Some want to be there, others don't, but they call all make the same statement: When it comes to their determination to get on top of that hill and advance upon the enemy, all of those political questions "don't mean nothin'."

This is probably the best Vietman film as far as visuals go. The actions sequences are raw and gory, and the locations are incredibly depressing-- setting the perfect stage for a war movie. Combined with excellent performances by everyone involved, this is certainly an underrated film that presents a clear picture of what the war truly might have been like.

***1/2 out of ****