Rating: 
Summary: The Duke socks Communism on the jaw
Review: While the overall tone and style of The Green Berets make it somewhat anachronistic - especially the ghastly, but mercifully brief "chorale" at the end - it still contains some elements that make it a watchable VietNam movie.All politics aside, this was The Duke's from-the-heart tribute to the men and women serving in Nam, who were quite unjustly being blamed for the machinations of the military-industrial complex. No, the situation was not as straightforward as TGB suggests, but the movie does give you something of a feel for the nature of jungle warfare, such as the cover and point methods of moving through areas that were often laced with booby traps and snipers. Having had a lecture on VC booby traps from a field engineer from 1 ATF (Phuoc Tuy province) in 1971, (I was not with the military) I couldn't understand how anybody ever survived a month, let alone a tour. This movie goes some way towards showing how effective these devices could be, and how they could even account for 40% of casualties in some units. TGB wasn't just a piece of shameless flag waving by The Duke, it was an attempt to humanize the War and make people care about the individual soldiers above all, at a time when the Communist hijack of the Peace Movement had made many people shun the returning troops and label them "baby killers". Even though it was the VC who were sometimes booby trapping live babies in order to kill American soldiers. If America feels guilt about VietNam, it should primarily be for the way it abandoned its young men to the Communist-led jackals of the "don't think, just chant something" sixties. The returning troops, whose average age was nineteen (just think of all the eighteen and nineteen year olds you know) heard all manner of hateful derision and ridicule back in the World. The one thing they didn't hear was the one thing they SHOULD have heard... Welcome home, brothers and sisters. That is why The Duke made this movie, and for that reason alone, it has value.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Movies make great DVDs
Review: John Wayne wanted to make a Vietnam movie that spoke about just how bad the communist were adn he succeded! The movie seperates the good from the bad and shows the evils of the North. The Duke is the American Fighting man!
Rating:
Summary: A war film classic
Review: I know all the hippies out there hate this film. It is a great war film from a great man, John Wayne. You may complain about the war in Vietnam, but that is not what this is about. This film was trying to bring Americans together to support our troops, not the war. It was a film intended to spark patriotism, just like "Bataan" was for WWII. If you didn't support the war, that is your god given right. You should still show some pride for our troops, and what they sacrificed.
Rating: 
Summary: A Classic of American Jingoism
Review: Words cannot adequately convey the depths of moral and political depravity to which this film goes in its attempt to re-write the shameful history of our entanglement in Vietnam. Its simplisitic right-wing preaching, cowboy dialog and racist portrayals of Vietnamese characters could almost be regarded as camp if this piece of celluloid trash did not also have a darker purpose--the glorification and promotion of an unjust war in which America had no business being inolved. If you want the real story of what happened in Vietnam, read "The Winter Soldier Investigation", published in 1971 by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In it you'll read true accounts, by soldiers who were there, of atrocities committed by American troops in the name of "freedom". They set the record straight. This film deserves to be soundly condemned for its defense of our role in the Vietman War, the likes of which we had better pray will never be repeated.
Rating:
Summary: The Green Beret
Review: This film is a story told from the American viewpoint at a time when Americans in Southeast Asia deserved the prospective. It may not be text book accurate but it gave a brief, nearly shocking look into the conflict in Vietnam. Its a great film with a great star.
Rating:
Summary: War is Hell
Review: John Wayne's answer to the "Jane Fonda" pinko liberal anti-VN War protesters. As Colonel Mike Kirby of the US Special Forces, he 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 defence of a Green Beret outpost that won him the Congressional Medal of Honour, John Wayne is at his patriotic best in his realistic potrayal of a veteran of 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 death from the sky. Fascinating too to military buffs are the techniques of sentry silencing shown, 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. Today, the intrepid Green Berets carry out the same mission President JF Kennedy gave them - De Opresso Liber which means to "liberate the opressed".
Rating:
Summary: still great after all these years
Review: I can't begin to say how many times I've seen this movie or how many more times I'll see it. That's beside the point. This movie while not completely accurate is still very good, every time I see it I remember why there was a Viet Nam to begin with. I remember why my husband was on the Turner Joy, before it even became a "conflict", much less a war. They were in warlike situations and not allowed to protect themselves, because of "diplomatic proceedures". John Wayne did what he has always done, make the right RIGHT and wrong the wrong side to be on. Acting could have been better in some cases, but they stepped on a lot of toes just fine. And I admire them for it. I knew Barry Sadler, long ago. My heart still cries for him and the very special song he wrote for the brave men in a war nobody wanted.
Rating:
Summary: The Duke Doesn't Get It
Review: Although no expenses were spared in this spaghetti Western posing as a modern war movie, its politics make it hard for remotely intelligent people to stomach. THE GREEN BERETS (which takes many liberties with the superior novel) is Vietnam as it should have been (in the eyes of the pro-war hawks) but in retrospect, it appears to depict some alternate dimension. The conflict is broken down into simple black and white terms. Godly Americans helping their Godly Freedom Loving South Vietnamese defend their freedom against the Evil Atheistic Communist North Vietnamese. Unfortunately, the anti-war films that followed it also seemed to take place in some alternate dimension. Evil Imperialist Americans deliberately napalm-bombing the Poor Vietnamese Peasants while American Boys got Killed in Large Quantities For Nothing. Fellow Americans, lets encourage Hollywood to at least once, try and depict the conflict in Indo-China as it really was.
Rating:
Summary: Odd, but memorable...
Review: 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 much these days, nobody espouses a pro-war stance on the Vietnam conflict. It was not a "good" war, after all, and the war will always be part and parcel with the agony of America's social chaos in the late 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 help them put this conflict in perspective, the hawks were pretty gung-ho. Likewise, the the peaceniks, who thought that if we just "love each other" everything would be alright, looks pretty naive and childish. If only the world were so simple. Like the war, this film engenders strong feelings in those who see it. The DUKE was a known hawk, and you can see it shine through in every line, and in every scene. Like most hawks at the time, I suspect that The DUKE simply thought Vietnam was just 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. In other words, you could substitute the Vietnamese with the Japanese in WWII, and the film would be more or less the same (good, upstanding Americans vs. big bad empire). The capture 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 scream WWII. DUKE co-directs, and despite being filmed in Georgia (which looks nothing like Southeast Asia!), the results are really pretty good. The raid to capture the enemy general is laughable, but tense and exciting 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 see DUKE react to the child running from helicopter to helicopter looking for Petersen, you cannot help 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 great war film that honors the best of the best; the Green Berets. Let me take 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 little too obvious, and at first, a little too strong on the anti-war sentiment. His conversion was a little too predictable, but the handling of his conversion to pro-war is very well-handled. Ultimately, I think 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 big sore point, but Janssen makes Beckworth a quiet force, a wall of anti-war sentiment needing to be erroded away by the reality of the situation he finds himself in. In many ways, I think Janssen's underplayed approach for Beckworth makes him seem more real, and ultimately sells the character. It helps sell the movie too, despite our modern perspective on the war. Appearing in supporting roles are Jack Soo (Nick Yemana on "Barney Miller"), George Takei (Sulu on "Star Trek"), and Bruce Cabot. Cabot had starred in a great many films, and "The Green Beret" is one of his last. He was a favorite DUKE co-star, appearing with DUKE in "Hellfighters", "Big Jake", "Chisum", "The War Wagon", "In Harm's Way", "McLintock!", "Hatari!", and others. Cabot is probably most famous 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 famous 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 site), in which DUKE hosts a right-wing documentary look at our reasons for fighting in Southeast Asia. Watching this documentary after the film will give the viewer new insights into the thinking of the hawks at the time, and their position during the Vietnam conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Great Special Forces movie
Review: I found this to be a great movie about the Green Berets and the Special Forces. I find it disturbing that it gets so much bad press cause it didn't have an anti war message or that it didn't portray acurately the war in Viet Nam. First on the anti war message. I think that the scene where they tell David Jansen, the reporter, about how the communist went in and killed all the politicians, the school teachers, women, and children ( which proved to be accurate after what we saw and found out in Cambodia under the communist) and when he found the little girl dead and mutilated is one hell of an anti war message. It also sends a message that even though a soldier despises war that somebody has to stand up and fight for what is right.
I think that people saying that it did not portray the Viet Nam war accurately are misguided. The war that covert ops and the Green Berets fought was much different than an 18 year old green draftee. Most Green Berets were seasoned veterans and non com's. And depending on the time of the war you are portraying (in this film it is very early in Americas part of the conflict) the war was a different war. Not large scale with those same green troups.
Anyway I thought that this movie showed both sides of the conflict and the men stuck in the middle. I thought Jim Huttons performance was very good, as well as Aldo Rays. John Wayne and David Jansen were brilliantly matched as to opposite extremes of a question. This movie is the bridge between the old gung ho type war movie and the anti war movies of the 70's. But no less compelling.
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