Rating: 
Summary: Special War for Special Forces
Review: MAKE no mistake, the Duke tells his side of the VN war. John Wayne felt it was his patriotic duty to answer "Jane Fonda" pinko liberal anti-VN War protesters and Hanoi Jane herself, the most hated sumbag by US GIs in VN. As a veteran of many covert low intensity wars, dedicated Colonel Mike Kirby of the US Special Forces, John Wayne leads a dedicated "A" team of highly skilled "Professors of Warfare" deep behind enemy lines in VN. Based in part on Capt. Roger Donlon's heroic and harrowing defence of a Green Beret outpost that won him the 1st Congressional Medal of Honour awarded in Vietnam, John Wayne is at his patriotic best in his realistic potrayal of a veteran of many, many wars fighting his country's enemies. The footage of an AC130 gunship "Puff the Magic Dragon" that terminates the VC that have over run the Special Forces camp is chilling in its depiction of quick death from the sky. Fascinating too to military buffs are the techniques of sentry silencing shown including garotting, as well as the use of the STABO extraction rig used to extract the enemy NVA General for interrogation. John Wayne's parting line as the sun sets over Danang, when he puts the Green Beret over the head of the orphan Vietnamese boy "Ham Chunk", "You're what this is all about, Green Beret" brings tears to your eyes. The plight of the boat people after the fall of Saigon showed beyond a shadow of a doubt that what John Wayne said to Ham Chunk in Danang Air Base was in fact TRUE. Refugees are people who vote with their feet. If you have ever seen the booby traps exhibited in the Cu Chi Tunnels exhibit you will realise that the sometimes simple and warm Vietnamese people can turn very nasty. Just see for yourself the many different leg traps made with rusty 6 inch long nails coated with faeces used to slice up unwary ARVN and US GIs and you will see exactly what I mean. As Ken, a good friend of mine always says, "Seeing is believing". If you know people who were in the re-education camps after the fall of Saigon, you won't be so quick to condemn this film. The Communists sytematically starved to death thousand in the re-education camps. my frind had to eat spiders and ants to stay alive. John Wayne had the guts and the money to tell the other side of the story, the side the pinko hippie pressure groups refused to see. There are none so blind as those who refuse to see. Today's Green Berets actually trace their lineage to the OSS of WW2 which set Europe ablaze and helped free a Nazi occupied continent. Today, the intrepid and indomitable Green Berets carry out the same daring mission President JF Kennedy gave them - De Opresso Liber which means to "liberate the opressed". In Afghanistan and Iraq, they fight today to keep freedom alive and I for one wish them every success in all their endeavours. De Opresso Liber!Dr. M The Travelling Gourmet.
Rating:
Summary: A Legacy
Review: Through the muddled and cynical torrent of news and media in this day and age, I can say definitively that there is indeed such a thing as a "hero." Although John Wayne's movie takes liberty to an extreme, a job that was down and dirty in reality, the character of these men is on target. Yes, there are "Petersons" in a Special Forces Soldier. I know a few of them who served with B-55 in Nha Trang (Mike Force). Some of them gave their lives in service to America, for "De Oppresso Liber" or "to free the oppressed." Hard drinking, hard fighting, professionals who gave their all...yes indeed, there is such a thing as a hero. Wayne's movie showed the character and skill of these men, who fight today in some far off land. Some of these guys might stay too long at the club, but when the bell rang, they always showed up on time, true to the cause.
Rating: 
Summary: Outstanding!!!
Review: Best Vietnam War movie ever made!
Based on the book by SGT. Bary Saddler, who was there and did it!
Rating:
Summary: I rather watch TGB and We Were Soldiers than Platoon
Review: I am more concerned with the identification of Platoon as a accurate representation of the Vietanam experience than with TGB's.To start with,people,I dont see how a movie that portrays soldiers in the Vietnam War as war criminals druggies and trash like Platoon could be better than ANY other movie on the subject,Green Berets included.Would you acclaim a movie negatively stereotyping Afro Americans,Latino or any other minority?No.In this aspect,John Wayne's movie has to be seen as an effort to somehow stem the wave of soldier in Vietnam/Vietanm Veteran bashing that corroded this nation to its ever lasting shame at that time.The experiences,type of missions,tactics,use of eqipment,etc shown in the movie corresponds to what is now considered historical fact.The uniforms and weapons are correct.The NVA VC represented were the NVA VC as armed and uniformed up to 1966/67 so they are either black pajamed or uniformed in khaki not with the NVA green and VC khaki of Main Force units of 67 onwards.
The odd thing to some people is that it was filmed in the US at North Carolina but as someone wrote both North and South Vietnam has many diferent types of vegetation and clime and there were pines and cold places.Not everything was jungle or swamps!
Another thing that results odd to some is the positive way and the negative way GIs are portrayed vs the negative way communists are portrayed.Well,if you happen to be prejudiced because of politics or just plain bigotry and believe Vietnam Veterans were all Lt William Calley clones and every action a My Lai...you need to flash forward to the year 2003 and reality because it's a matter of historical fact that vision is not true.
The Green Berets has no special effects or natrural setrtings or comuter enhancing as we are accustomed today.The real value is that it portrays Special Warfare ops as accurately as it was possible and it was until very recently the only movie which did not echoed the foolishness,ignorance,vanality and malaise that spo much hurted a generation of soldiers which sinned only by answering the call of duty.
Rating: 
Summary: John Wayne's Viet Nam.....
Review: There was a line in another John Wayne movie that went," When the legend disagrees with the truth, print the legend." That's what Wayne did in THE ALAMO, and in THE GREEN BERETS, he told us the legend. Maybe it didn't agree with the truth, but it was how he wanted his America to be. He told us his legend. Accept it as that.
Rating: 
Summary: Easily the best of Duke at his worst
Review: I first saw this film shortly after it came out. The Vietnam War was just cranking up and John Wayne was at the peak of his long career. I expected to enjoy the movie. We hadn't yet all formed the opinions we came to have later about the war in Vietnam. America was still pure and clean. The movie was a terrible bust. I've seen it several times since and it hasn't changed.
Rating:
Summary: Great Movie!
Review: You know the whole Vietnam war has many different aspects to it, ranging from good to bad. The good was the efforts American fighting men made in following their orders to do what they thought was right. This movie symbolized this better than most movies have, even from the WWII era. The song The Green Berets is one that still brings tears to my eyes every time I hear it. A friend of mine was a Lt. Col. in the Green Berets, and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the effort that he, and his fellow soldiers, made. Who else but John Wayne could have made this movie and given it the glory it so richly deserved.
Rating:
Summary: Why we were in Vietnam!
Review: Growing up in California I had a lot of ex-hippy teachers. My dad served as a Lurp in Vietnam and won the Bronze Star. This was the movie I always say to watch if you really want to know why we were there. I also like this movie because it shows you can have a war movie, about Vietnam no less, and still make it Rated-G. I don't watch unedited Rated-R movies and this is the only Veitnam movie out there that isn't rated-R. From what I've seen it's also the most accurate. Cheers for John Wayne for producing this wave the flag movie.
Rating:
Summary: if youre a true john wayne fan
Review: If you are a true JOHN WAYNE FAN that is his war movie's
it's a must have.It's one of his tippical alway's the big he bull
of the movie.
Rating:
Summary: If I could find that Vietnam film
Review: It was Vietnam war time when I watched this film. I was a child. The impact was of a real scent of war. This was war. As years passed by whenever I felt a need to watch a war film I recalled that film by John Wayne. The name of the movie was lost from my mind. Many years later , now , with the help of internet I searched for Vietnam films and here it is. Though Amazon doesnt send it to Istanbul I hope I will find it. It is strange that the scenes of a documentary that I recently watched on Discovery depicting the circumstances of the North Vietnamese converge with the ones in this film of John Wayne's. One side was the world of the American's the other belonged to the Vietnamese. Everyone in his or her world ; unaware of the world of the eagle over them which watches the worlds of these both.
|
