I am an infantry veteran (First Infantry Division, 1969-70) of Vietnam and found this low-budget movie more engaging than high-budget ones like Apocalypse Now or Full Metal Jacket. At least in this movie I stayed awake, while in Coppola's film, I fell asleep. This movie does give the Viet Cong some respect as soldiers (though they deserved more) in contrast to Apocalypse.
I know there are things that veterans will point out as erroraneous as well as they ought, but at least they don't have a place lit up like Times Square at Christmas alongside a Vietnam river and concert stands by the river, packed full of hootin' GIs, an aiming target for mortars. In this movie, coming home was deadly, but at least they dealt with it, as most combat vets did. Most of us just got a job and plowed ahead and stayed quiet, and enjoyed getting together with platoon friends, where we could. Talk and laugh and joke and be solemn without fear of shocking others.
When our leaders today do unleash the dogs of war, they do just that. It's hard to control a mad dog once he's free of leash. On the small-unit level, like a platoon, there is no knowable outcome, and guys get killed or wounded, and the effects on the survivors and their families do not end upon coming home, but last a lifetime.
