As others have mentioned, this is perhaps the only pro-war film ever made about our involvement in Vietnam, either at the time of the war or since.
Pretty remarkable these days, nobody espouses a pro-war stance on the Vietnam conflict. It was not a “edifying” war, after all, and the war will always be share and parcel with the agony of America’s social chaos in the leisurely 60’s and early 70’s. However, at the time, the social battle lines were well defined between the peaceniks and the hawks; those against the war, and those all in favor of it. Without the thirty-plus years of hindsight to befriend them set this conflict in perspective, the hawks were stunning gung-ho. Likewise, the the peaceniks, who view that if we impartial “esteem each other” everything would be alright, looks exquisite naive and childish. If only the world were so simple.
Like the war, this film engenders strong feelings in those who peer it. The DUKE was a known hawk, and you can peek it shine through in every line, and in every scene. Like most hawks at the time, I suspect that The DUKE simply notion Vietnam was honest like any other war (most likely, World War II), and it was incomprehensible to them that anyone would be against it. The film, in turn, reflects the hawk viewpoint.
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In other words, you could substitute the Vietnamese with the Japanese in WWII, and the film would be more or less the same (safe, upstanding Americans vs. titanic dreadful empire) . The recall of the enemy general is pure WWII melodrama. The character of Petersen, the “scrounger”, is also a stock character from a WWII movie. The staging of the action, the commando raid, blowing up a bridge, etc., all roar WWII.
DUKE co-directs, and despite being filmed in Georgia (which looks nothing like Southeast Asia!), the results are really elegant estimable. The raid to grasp the enemy general is amusing, but tense and intelligent nevertheless. The characterizations are solid. The film flows nicely, and isn’t too long or too short. The cinematography is workable, and at times, even impressive. There’s plenty of action, too!
When you witness DUKE react to the child running from helicopter to helicopter looking for Petersen, you cannot assist but have respect for this film. Certainly one of the best endings in American film history follows. Politics and anti-war sentiment of today’s PC society aside, this is a ample war film that honors the best of the best; the Green Berets.
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Let me select a moment and say a word or two about David Janssen’s role as George Beckworth, the reporter for a left-wing and anti-war newspaper. The character is a small too certain, and at first, a diminutive too strong on the anti-war sentiment. His conversion was a diminutive too predictable, but the handling of his conversion to pro-war is very well-handled. Ultimately, I believe it was a believable transformation, and this is due entirely to Janssen’s talent. In the hands of another, less skilled actor, the Beckworth character could have been a titanic sore point, but Janssen makes Beckworth a mild force, a wall of anti-war sentiment needing to be erroded away by the reality of the area he finds himself in. In many ways, I believe Janssen’s underplayed advance for Beckworth makes him seem more right, and ultimately sells the character. It helps sell the movie too, despite our new perspective on the war.
Appearing in supporting roles are Jack Soo (Gash Yemana on “Barney Miller”), George Takei (Sulu on “Star Trail”), and Bruce Cabot. Cabot had starred in a astronomical many films, and “The Green Beret” is one of his last. He was a accepted DUKE co-star, appearing with DUKE in “Hellfighters”, “Substantial Jake”, “Chisum”, “The War Wagon”, “In Harm’s Draw”, “McLintock!”, “Hatari!”, and others. Cabot is probably most well-known for rescuing Fay Wray from King Kong. Also on hand is The DUKE’s son, Patrick Wayne. Patrick appears as the commander of a Seabee team, following in his father’s footsteps (DUKE starred in the noted homage to the outfit, “The Fighting Seabees”) .
DUKE fans should try to locate a copy of the video “No Substitute For Victory” (available on this dwelling), in which DUKE hosts a right-wing documentary peruse at our reasons for fighting in Southeast Asia. Watching this documentary after the film will give the viewer recent insights into the thinking of the hawks at the time, and their spot during the Vietnam conflict.
If you ever read Gustav Hasford’s “The Short-Timers” (which “Pudgy Metal Jacket” was based on) you know how he felt about this movie: “Let’s examine the Duke and Mr. Sulu karate-chop Victor Charlie in a Kodicolor fantasy about Vietnam.” In other words, he conception it was bunk. So does everyone else on the left, who have bought into the tale that Vietnam was a purely guerilla war and that the human-wave assaults employed by the NVA/VC on Col. Kirby’s camp in the film would never have happened in loyal life. In point of fact almost 90% of the fighting in Vietnam was of the obsolete type in the Central Highlands or the valleys (”We Were Soldiers”) while only 10% of the troops were employed in the rice paddies you notice in movies like “Platoon.” Whenever the NVA fought out in the inaugurate, a la the Tet Offensive, they were well and truly beaten, but their leadership was ruthless and understood that by trading 5 Vietnamese lives for one American, the U.S. will to fight would eventually smash. They knew the American public had only tepid succor for Vietnam and would not obtain the losses. The result, of course, we all know. Hanoi Jane what she wanted and so did Uncle Ho. Too dreadful Jane didn’t go wait on in say, 1975 and expend some time in a re-education camp. They could have taken pics of her in a tiger cage, eating bugs and rotting from typhus.
If you are reading this you probably know the legend of the movie.
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John Wayne’s Col. Kirby and his elite Special Forces “A” Team (no, not the one with Hannibal and Face and B.A. Barracus) is sent to Vietnam to set imperfect camps which offer protection to the local farmers from the murderous Viet Cong (whose crimes against their fill people are well documented here) . The soldiers roar the locals how to fight while providing basic medical care and 20th century improvements to their primeval arrangement of life. There is the usual substantial John Wayne type battle as the VC try to overrun the camp, followed by a commando raid deep into enemy territory, and a tragic-heroic ending. But the movie is more than the sum of its parts. It is not mere entertainment, it is personal propiganda, designed to note the Duke’s argument for why America was fighting in Vietnam at all. The only failing is its sappiness and jingoism, which build it easy for opponents to ridicule. But making fun of it doesn’t occupy away the fact that the Duke’s argument was based on something he is rarely credited for — human decency. What “proper” did we have in Vietnam? I guess the same “legal” we had to land on the beaches of Normandy. We had no “moral” at all — it was unbiased the “correct thing to do”, to aid a terrible government (South Vietnam) against a great worse government (North Vietnam) that conventional methods like mass killings of teachers, civil servants, nuns, missionaries, and village chiefs to destabilze the South and forcibly unite the country. You can argue about the legitimacy of taking sides in a civil war all day, but any country that uses methods like burying people alive and raping women to death as a matter of military policy probably deserves to be opposed, yes?
Anyway, let me buy a moment to say I Fancy THIS FREAKIN’ MOVIE. Growing up, edifying dilapidated Washington D.C. Channel 20 (remember when you only had ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and your one local channel? Channel 20 was ours) played this movie, (along with “The Battle of the Bulge” and “The Bridge at Remagen” and some other classics) about once every other day. Even the belief of it brings a smile to my face. Here was a guy, John Wayne, who had the guts to earn a film this flag-shakingly correct flee at a time when patriotism was growing unfashionable and millions of people were abandoning and spitting on the ideals that he embodied — which, by the plan, a few of us collected possess honest. As a movie, “The Green Berets” has a hard ideology of anti-communism and shows the newfangled Special Forces as a sort of elite brotherhood consecrated to fight against it. I contemplate a lot of the disapprove directed against this movie comes from the surity of Kirby’s (meaning John Wayne’s) beliefs. They are rock-solid and not up for debate or negotiation. He understands what will (and did) happen to Vietnam if the North wins the war, and fights bitterly to prevent this from happening, while simultaneously trying to collect over a stubborn journalist who has legitimate doubts about our involvement. No seek information from, this movie is jingoistic and predictable, a Vietnam war movie packed in WWII casing, but who cares?
