The Green Berets

Rating:
Summary: The green berets is a masterpiece
Review: The green berets showed the way that things really were during vietnam. It is a work of art and I recommend it to anyone who enjoys war movies or John Wayne.

Rating:
Summary: Duke Salutes Men in Uniform with "Green Berets"
Review: Liberals hate this movie, which is a great reason to purchase it and view it often. Despite its technical flaws (and military folks are happy to point them out) this movie was John Wayne's salute to the U.S. soldiers fighting in Vietnam. The portrayal of the ruthless Viet Cong is right on the money, and most liberals squirm when it's pointed out how much communist-bloc countries supported the North Vietnamese. It's obvious that John Wayne wanted to make a movie that showed the affection he had for the American soldier (as opposed to people like Leonard Maltin). P.S. This movie cleaned up at the box office.

Rating:
Summary: "If you wanna go where the war is, this is the way!"
Review: The first feature film about American involvement in Viet Nam, "The Green Berets" (based on the book by Robin Moore) follows Colonel Mike Kirby (John Wayne) and his team of Special Forces warriors from Ft Bragg to the firebases and jungles of Viet Nam. Followed by newshound skeptic David Janssen, Kirby shows Janssen and the audience a vicious enemy and the strange world of South East Asia. "The Green Berets" makes no attempt to be neutral -- the Bad Guys are bad guys, the Good Guys are good guys (including Captain Nim, played by George Takei) and the issues are clear. Wayne and Moore made no doubt of their support and admiration for the American troops in Viet Nam, while only briefly touching on the serpentine politics of the war. Author Moore claimed that much of the book was a fictionalized retelling of actual events, and most of the vignettes are familiar to anyone who served there.

Released in 1968, the film is more Disneyesque than later films such as "The Siege of Firebase Gloria," and the Ft Bragg location sets are much cleaner than the real jungles, but the US Army didn't pinch pennies supplying equipment and extras (in exchange, Wayne's Batjac Productions donated the accurately-duplicated Viet Nam village and firebase sets for training the REAL Special Forces soldiers following filming).

"The Green Berets" also introduced the public to the modern military technology now taken for granted, from Claymore mines and the "Mighty Mattel" M-16 rifle to the "Attack Cargo" gunships ("Puff, the Magic Dragon") and the everpresent "Air Cavalry" concept via Huey helicopters.

Production values are very good, and special features include theatrical trailers, multiple languages (including, ironically, French), and letterbox widescreen. END

Rating:
Summary: Wayne Sticks It To The Antiwar Left
Review: The Green Berets offends a lot of movie critics. Leonard Maltin's comments pretty much sum up the "right thinking" attitude toward John Wayne's filmed tribute to the Army's Special Forces. It shows that Wayne got them where it hurt most - he affronted their worldview. This, ultimately, was and is the point Wayne hoped to make.

Inspired by Robin Moore's superlative nonfiction novel about the Green Berets in Vietnam circa 1964, Wayne didn't set out to make an overly realistic portrayal of the fighting in Vietnam - his purpose was to put to the big screen a sympathetic portrayal of American soldiers and the American effort in Vietnam at a time when the term baby-killer was becoming an all-too-familiar libel pasted on those in the service. Wayne had his own misgivings over how the war was handled at the top level of government, but he noted over the years that the US did make a commitment, and the idea for the film came after a USO tour of the country and chats with soldiers.

Wayne wanted the film made in Vietnam itself, but could not get permission and thus had to settle for filming it at Fort Benning, Georgia. Wayne and Ray Kellogg strove hard to make the film as believable looking as they could given the constraints they were working under.

Nitpickers will of course uncover a lot wrong with the film - the overly stylized battle scenes, the stylized and sometimes cliched portrayal of the soldier-characters - notably Jim Hutton's Sgt. Peterson and Also Ray's Sgt. Muldoon. They'll note, as a recent biography of Wayne quite unfairly does, the differences between the events in the film and similar events in Robin Moore's book. But the film has aged much better than the leftist fraudulence of such works as Vietnam: Hearts & Minds and the quasi-surrealism of Apocalypse Now have. This is because Waybe and company made it without any pretense, and because the film's pro-American view of the war is far more accurate an historical gauge given the disasterous events that befell Indochina after the fall of Saigon.

As an action film, The Green Berets is quite entertaining, as Wayne assembled an engaging cast including Hutton, Ray, David Janssen in one of his first projects after the completion of The Fugitive television series, Luke Askew - reportedly Askew was a reallife antiwar activist, so how he signed onto this film is a puzzle - Edward Faulkner, Jason Evers, George Takei, and Jack Soo. The action for two-thirds of the film centers around a Forces basecamp that is in the heart of 'Cong territory, and which the NVA assaults and finally destroys only to be slaughtered by an AC-47 gunship. Following this mini-Khe Sanh seige Wayne signs on to lead a mission to kidnap a well known 'Cong general.

The film ultimately is an action yarn that pops the antiwar left right in the eyes.

Rating:
Summary: from a patriot who was not afraid.
Review: if John Wayne had made something like this today he would be ostracized from all of Hollywood and from about 2% of this nation. he was a man, a patriot and he wanted to show the good of our struggle. vietnam was a war that was not unlike every other war, the only difference was our citizens. the baby boomers grew up spoiled (founding fathers of the modern left). they didnt understand hard work and what a country need's to do for freedom. the left will today say freedom is a slogan, that we will always be free, they will say bush's war is for oil or some uneducated and clichéd response, but freedom is not just about a war or occupation, it's the freedom to not be afraid to get on a airplane, the freedom to not fear going into tall buildings, the freedom not to fear gathering large groups in public. and for the arab world it means to not be afraid to have your wife drive your car, or wear a dress in public, or to question a religious authority. the whole idea of vietnam was to prevent the spread of communism, it was a war that transcended vietnam itself, it was a war to measure our country and our people's resolve. vietnam taught our enemies (and todays modern terrorists) that if they can scare us, horrify us or kill enough of us that we will cower and not fight. Stalin, Khrushchev, khadafi, Usama, and hussein thought this, and we taught them all a lesson through might.

just because liberal's think war is not the answer it does not mean that our enemies do also. we are not europe, if we do not spend money on our military, flex our muscles, set deadlines and take action no one ele will. we do not have anyone to protect us like europe and the world have us. terrorist do not seek peace, they do not hate us because we are us they hate us because of hollywood, because of our freedom from starvation, our comfort in life and from our belief that we can live life any way we want without regard.

John wayne in his portrayal of vietnam was not "propaganda" it was to boost moral for the country, to support our efforts in defeating communism. i read before someone said john wayne was no patriot, what is a patriot if not to support the united states and to keep it's moral up? john wayne did that, ask any soldier from WWII to the present day. i feel bad for the liberal's they hate everyone, stand for everything while believing in nothing and really do not know anything of history or of humanity.

Rating:
Summary: THE DUKE HAS THE LEFT TIED IN KNOTS
Review: In 1969, John Wayne infuriated the Left with "The Green Berets", a film that made no apologies in its all-out support of America's effort in Vietnam. It was lambasted by critics, but in a very interesting sign, sold out at the box office. It plays today and while it is heavy-handed, there is little about it that rings untrue. The soldiers do not swear, complain or bastardize their uniforms like the actual guys did, but their patriotism and military professionalism was the real deal. The Communists they fight in the film are shifty little pissants. This does not deviate from the essential truth.

STEVEN TRAVERS
AUTHOR OF "BARRY BONDS: BASEBALL'S SUPERMAN"
[e-mail]

Rating:
Summary: Patriotic, American and all True
Review: In the 1960s when America was under worldwide attack from
communism and free people everywhere were at risk, liberals
took control of our media for the most part. Only a few brave
men opposed them and one of the bravest was John Wayne.

John Wayne was a real american. He was what every man wanted
to be and what every woman wanted. He loved his country and
hated its enemies. Thats why he made this film.

He made this film because America had to be shown what the
war on communism was about. It was about saving lives on
the frontlines and the frontiers of freedom. And about
supporting our troops who were fighting for our freedom.

The best character in the film is little Ham Chuck who learns
all the lessons of freedom from his green beret friends including
the price of freedom in lives of those who are fighting for it.
You could see that little fellow after an american victory
leading vietnam on the road to development and into the family
of free nations. But we all know that because we sold him
out, he either fortunately ended up in a refugee camp or he
ended up being put in a tiger cage for the rest of his life
if he wasn't lucky. He had learned too much of freedom and
of the american way to ever be allowed to run loose in a
communist country.

Wayne knew that the Vietnam war above everything else was
about human decency. We all know that millions were murdered
by communists after we sold out the side of freedom. Wayne
knew that would happen even years earlier and tried to tell
the world what was going on with this film.

Vietnam was a war worth fighting and worth winning. The mistakes
we made was in fighting with one arm tied behind our back, not
giving the troops what they needed to win, and trying to fight
a war by obsolete rules. We also made the mistake of setting
goals and timetables. A reporter who asked when the war was
going to end should have only been given the response "when
we win".




Rating:
Summary: Patriotic and Propagandistic
Review: When this movie was released in the 60s it received a mixed reaction from a country that was starting to rethink its policies in Southeast Asia. While the movie does capture a flavor of the situation in Viet Nam, it is unabashedly patriotic and glosses over the downsides of the situation in Vietnam. Yet, getting past the politics and the residual feelings that Vietnam has left in the minds of many, this movie is actually a fair action movie.

The movie is really several stories put together. The movie follows a group of Green Berets as they are transferred to Viet Nam. The beginning of the movie explains the enemy in Viet Nam and why we were in Vietnam with the logic of the time. The logic was rooted in the kind of idealism that carried us through World War II, and was not truly applicable to the situation in Vietnam. After laying the groundwork for why we should be in Vietnam, we soon meet a Wayne movie regular, Jim Hutton playing Sgt. Peterson, or Peter-Sahn as Hamchuck (Craig Jue), a Vietnamese orphan, calls him. Soon the team is on their way to Vietnam.

Once in Vietnam the group's mission is to be part of the teams establishing bases in the hills to serve as points of stability for the locals, protecting them from the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese Army (NVA). The movie takes the opportunity to point out how evil and cruel the enemy is toward women and children, and men too, as we see innocents ruthlessly murdered. We also see a firefight where the NVA win and the somewhat stereotypical aftermath scene where the NVA remove anything and everything of value from the dead left in an overrun camp.

Later the group of Green Berets go on a mission to capture a North Vietnamese general, and once again the movie takes the opportunity to point out how morally corrupt the enemy is. Along the way we see a sophisticated booby-trap kill one of the principal characters to set up the poignant ending.

David Janssen plays reporter George Beckworth, who tags along with the Green Berets from the beginning to the end. He represents those with an anti-war sentiment, and the movie shows how his "misconceptions" of the war are overcome by the incidents he encounters. By the end of the war George has become convinced that we are doing the right thing in Vietnam, and through truth, justice and the American way we will prevail.

There are several scenes in this movie that are interesting and contain a combination of accuracy and inaccuracy. The balloon extraction system that was used to remove the Vietnamese general from the jungle was also used in the James Bond movie "Thunderball." There was an actual system and aircraft to pick up an object on the ground, though I have always wondered what that stress would do to a human body. An even better scene was when Puff the Magic Dragon was used. Puff was an AC-47, a modified version of the C-47, the military version of the DC-3, with Gatling guns mounted on the left side of the plane. While the configuration was relatively simple, it concentrated an incredible amount of firepower in a small area. This plane was the precursor of the significantly more powerful and sophisticated AC-130 Spectre Gunship, the most recent version of which goes by the call sign "Spooky." The scenes of the helicopters taking off and returning from missions are also impressive, though helicopter technology has advanced significantly in the decades since this war.

It is easy to pick at this movie with its distortion of the situation in Vietnam and its incredibly stereotypical characters. Add to that the gross inaccuracies, such as the sun setting into the ocean off the Vietnamese coast, which faces east, and the movie can seem like poorly veiled propaganda film. However, without considering the era and the Duke you miss the point. This movie was John Wayne's personal statement regarding Vietnam. He, and many others, felt we should be there because it was the right thing to do; that it was human decency to prevent what would, and did, happen if the North Vietnamese won. Many of us truly believed that the North Vietnamese communists were more evil than the corrupt government of the south.

If you ignore the propaganda, and that this movie is about the Vietnam War, and that later movies covered the topic much better, you end up with a movie in the tradition of World War II movies where it was easy to define who the good guys and the bad guys were, and our principal motivation to be there was good versus evil and right versus wrong. This movie is a sobering end to an era for our country and in film-making. From this point forward we would realize that rarely are situations black and white and would need to be more careful in how we approached situations such as this. If this film did nothing else, perhaps it helped us to realize how complicated the world actually is.


Rating:
Summary: Worthless
Review: This film is about what you would expect from a rabid
anti-communist draft dodger. Wayne avoided even phony
stateside service in WWII first by hiding behind his wife's
skirts and then by getting the government to give him a
deferment in the national interest. He often told lies
about an old football injury, but it was only a yellow streak
that kept him out of uniform.

This movie has nothing to do with the real war in vietnam.
Its a bunch of ideas strung together from what Wayne saw on
TV and what some of his officer groopies who never left Saigon
told him about the war.

The first half of the movie has a traitorous reporter (Cliff
Robertson) learn the real story of vietnam. He goes with Wayne
to vietnam to what is supposed to be a special forces jungle
camp on the vietnamese border. Its fort apache, vietnam after
that. Complete with noble slow-taking indian scouts (the
vietnamese), friendly indian tribes (the mongonards) and the
evil indians (the viet cong).

Being bad people, the viet cong kill, rape and rob everyone in
sight with Cliff Robertson seeing it all and learning to love
the war. Then we get to the big attack on the fort. Wayne
and company get to mow down wave-after-wave of evil vietnamese.
After a whole lot of people are dead, the reporter is convinced
of what a great struggle for freedom this is and promises to
support the war in his newspaper when he gets back to America.

The stupidity of it all is that the obvious question never gets
asked. Why, if we are fighting on the side of good and right,
is the enemy able to get so many people to fight and die?
Wayne would probably say that they were victims of commie
brainwashing.

The truth about vietnam is South Vietnam and its army were
weak, incompentent and not popular. Toward the early 70's,
they were more interested in making money off selling whores
and heroin to the US Army than in fighting for their own
country.

The only way for America to have won the war would have been
to expand it to a point where the Chinese would have entered
the war to save north vietnam which would have put us in the
same meat-grinder that Korea turned into.

What stupid people like Wayne never got was that you don't
send the US Army to save a country that can't and won't
defend itself. You send them weapons, not troops. If they
can't use the weapons and can't defend themselves, they were
never worth anything in the first place. And if the enemy
can inspire five people to die while you can't get even one
to stand and fight, something is really wrong.

The second half of the movie is interesting. Wayne's super
commandos are sent in to raid the Viet Cong's pentagon and
bring out some general. The Viet Cong HQ is a mansion with
silver tea services, servents, electricity and late model
staff cars. The plan is to whore out the sister of one of
their south vietnamese soldier-followers to the general, sneak
in and knock the general out, wake the guards starting a
firefight and then flee to safety in the General's staff car.

There is a great scene afterward where Wayne, American Pimp,
lectures his south vietnamese friend to get over pimping out
his sister for the war effort. American morality at its
finest. All that was missing was Wayne talking about how the
woman now had new career opporunties open to her in Saigon.

Here was a guy, John Wayne, who never had any guts in his whole
life making a flag-waving film about how everyone else should
send their kids off to die in vietnam. People talk lots about
patriotism, but being a patriot means actually doing something
and putting something at risk. Its not about making movies
pretending to be a hero when your a fat drunk sitting around
the pool eating steaks every night. He didn't join up in WWII,
he didn't send any of his kids to fight after. Thats not a patriot, thats a loud-mouth idiot. And he doesn't give a damn
about Vietnam or the people there. You can see in the movie
that all he really cares about is fighting the red menace in
the abstract. Wayne does his fighting across the bar and the
dinner table while less important people are supposed to go
beat the communists.

If you want a true hollywood hero, try Audie Murphy. He was
the real deal rather than the phony image John Wayne lived
off his whole life.

But really, most of America would rather be sold the phony
John Wayne image of solider than to honor, remember or even
care about the sort of real men who defend this country.






Rating:
Summary: Sorry Flower Power, Kill All Stinkin CONG, no offense...
Review: I thought this movie was great, but hell I love the Forces and their worldwide counterparts, OSS, SAS, Sayaret, ETC. I personally think if your going to review this movie review the damn movie, people are giving it reviews based off of their opinions(political opinions) on the vietnam war, if your not gonna wade into the sea of blood and guts with the soldiers just stay at home, shut up, and tend to your flower garden hippies.

I happen to think this movie is awesome, although it is obvious to anyone who is not a retard that, the types of things that happened in the MACV and SOG let alone Phoenix and other Special Forces groups in Vietnam, was not even close to as friendly and nice as shown in this film. I thought the funniest part was when you see the guy who is a captain or something anyway this guy is a Beret, US army special forces and he has his funny pajamas on and his whole tent looks like his highschool bedroom probably did. He, "believes in his comfort"
well I guess that doesn't necessarily make him a sissy.