Rating: 
Summary: The Hill
Review: This film is an account of the day-to-day activities and experiences of soldiers in the Vietnam War. From the horror of fighting to the companionship and camaraderie of the men who faced death together, this film is a chilling tale of what really happened.
The film covers many aspects of war, including racial tensions, courage, and trust, without being overly patriotic or resorting to theatrics to create emotional ties with the audience. This story is more truth than many war movies I have seen. The truth can sometimes be brutal and harsh, like when the American airmen shoot their own soldiers.
In the beginning of the film, "the camera speeds rapidly over scenes of the Vietnamese bush, intercut with shots of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial." This shows that the film is intended to be a memorial of sorts to those who died in the war, and in particular, on Hill 937. The film attempts to bring the stories of the dead to life.
The men on the front were abandoned by the people at home and by the media. The only people they had to count on were each other. No one cared about what they were doing except the enemy.
On the last day of battle, there are a couple of times in the film when triumphant music can be heard above the fray, possibly signaling the end of the battle and the victory of the Americans. The fighting continues, however, and when victory does come for the U.S., there is no music, no pomp and circumstance. This lack of music shows that war and victory are not glorious, and that victory is only in abstract terms. Basically, human lives are not worth any amount of ground, and a muddy hill is certainly not worth human sacrifice.
This was a good film. I liked it more than Platoon or Pork Chop Hill. This movie tried to tell the truth, the good and the bad, and I respect that.
Rating: 
Summary: The toughest movie about the Vietnam War
Review: "Full Metal Jacket" and "Platoon" are probably better movies ABOUT the war in Viet Nam - this is one of the only movies IN the War. Other reviewers have referred to a lack of plot; they're right. This is not a tale, it's a chronicle, a portrait of a series of events and of the men who lived them. Every soldier who went to war and survived two or more battles will see Truth in this movie - especially the truth that brotherhood is the only explanation for surviving combat. Those who do not assume responsibility, who do not recognize the job to be done and do it do not survive, let alone prevail. Hill 937 was one of those places where the 101st made their names to shine, and the sergeant's warning to the reporter could be the division's watchword: get out of here - you haven't earned the right to be here. "Hamburger Hill" shows soldiers earning their right, and that's enough.
Rating: 
Summary: "The battle of every war cliche in existence"
Review: This is a sucker's movie. We're supposed to retire our minds and emotionally offer our feelings and hearts on a platter to whatever happens on the screen. Goodness! Combat is SO dirty and muddy. Isn't that just so squalid. Nice that no one gets sick and the guns work, isn't it? My, my! They are having such fun with the always so cute, hot and cold running Vietnamese whores. And unlimited beer available with the brothel, out there in the 'boonies. Oh, dear! Racial tensions, fights (that the Blacks always pick and always win)... but really-we-hang-together-and-value-one-another-when-it-counts. Because after all we're all really victims of the System and the Man. Right, sure! The attack makes no sense and we know it doesn't and they are cutting us to pieces and killing us all, but somehow we are going to keep attacking and we care and we are going to win and get that hill, not for the officers or the Army but for ourselves and as a point of pride to honor our dead....yet remember brothers to chant "it don't mean a thang." No worries. We take no special precautions or security out of the line, have no problems with mines and booby traps, and none of the local Vietnamese seem actually to be VC. Kind of like we're doing grown-ups camping. And we're to believe this works for them?. Yeah, right! Officers, command structure, regs, training, supply, rotations, Army, etc. are all invisible. It's just us EMs messin' around and having a set of peer group interactions. "Realistic." Sure! No interfaces with the ARVNs, civil authorities, US civilian and paramilitry programs. It's us and a shadowly enemy that we sporadically fight. Makes sense? Our medic is a fruitcake, an ideologue, and a whiner; but we all forgive him and actually love him because he's there when it counts. And despite being a self-pitying, racist, Section 8 case does a wonderful, competent, courageous job for us in combat. And somehow we're fighting in the rainy season, to take a hill, trying to climb almost straight up, and without artillery or aircraft fire support being any use (except for the predictible cliche - it kills some of US from time to time). This is not how any infantry works -- and for sure not the casualty-shy, lazy, and keep-the-fight-at-a-distance U. S. Army. I FEEL a lot. But I try to anchor it in realities, not the shoddy schlock that this movie represents. It's trying to emotionally goose the audience. Characters, plot, and anything else that might have made it more than a few good special effects shots were clearly beyound the capacities of the people responsible for this mess.
Rating:
Summary: Best of a short list
Review: As a Marine combat veteran with almost three years in Viet Nam, I know this was the best movie made about the war of the top three movies made in the 80s about Viet Nam (four if you count Apocalypse Now Redux - more of a psychedelic view of the war rather than reality). Hamburger Hill shows Grunts at the various stages of their tour in country, the individuals and their wants and desires, and how they died. By comparison, Platoon was good, but with a typical Stone political bent and philosoiphical ending. Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket was just plain poor, with a typical left-wing view about something Kubrick obviously knew very little. The best part of that movie was the boot camp section and only then because the DI, Lee Ermey, had been a real Marine DI. Hamburger Hill was factual and the various actors played their parts with the guts and truism that many in Hollywood fail to produce (ala Sheen in Platoon). Hamburger Hill is a solid war movie in general, a solid Viet Nam movie in particular and one that deserved much more credit than it received. Two thumbs up...
Rating:
Summary: A simple look at the Vietnam experience.
Review: For what it is, this movie is executed quite well. No fan of war movies (especially 'Nam films) should miss it. It is a great battle movie, but that's really all it is. There is not really a progressive plot or a unique literary purpose. Of all the Vietnam movies I have seen (and I've seen all of them), Hamburger Hill deals the least with internal conflict, symbolism, or resolution. Some would see this as a weakness in the film, but I see it as a good quality. This simplicity is what makes the movie unique. This movie is a sample of "what Vietnam was like." It's just some guys fighting and sitting around. The concept seems boring, yet there is never a dull moment. The battles are very graphic and convincing, as are the naive, young soldiers. Even the chatter between the soldiers is interesting, although it doesn't really mean anything. This is the major statement of the film, which applies to the war, the events in the movie, and the movie itself: "It don't mean nothing."
Rating:
Summary: One of the bloodiest battles in Veitnam and couragious heros
Review: Ten years after the Vietnam war and gaining the intrest
of people and Hollywood , Director's such as Oliver Stone
and Stanley Kubrick decided to take on the huge task of
bringing the reality of Vietnam to the silver screen the
outcome was Full Metal Jacket and the extrodinary best
picture winner of 1986 Platoon.In 1987 a diffrent film a
film that was about an actual battle in Veitnam that was
until write Jim Carabatsos and director John Irvin took
on the task of telling the story of Hill 937, Hambuger
Hill a battle that noone really new anything about until
they did. Dylan Mcdermott and Don Cheadle star in a story about
101st Airborn Division , 3rd Squad of the 1st platoon on
May 10th 1969 thru May 20th 1969 in the A Shau Valley to
along with other divisons take Dong Ap Bia a horrifying
mountian that rose 970 meters high to take a hill on the
mountian that was exactly 937 meters high named Hill 937
or as the soliders call it Hamburger Hill , because the
terrian favored the NVA and VC,The story is told on a
day by day basis new soldiers come in and battle weary
soldiers commanding the almost suicide mission that was
one of the most brutal and graphic battles in Veitnam a
70% casuilty rate as well as racial tensions between
soilders who were short timers who just wanted to get
out. When it was all over it was a victory but at what cost
at what price to the soldiers that were left behind on the
hill , the price was payed with the blood of our young men
who fought and died and had no other choice but to follow
orders as they were told , the other men that survived the
battle were either wounded or so tatterd from the shock on
that day of May 20th 1969, that they would never be the
same as the final scene of the soldier crying in horror to
what he and his men have just been through and hell is the
only description and the patriotic beggining of the camera
moving over the Veitnam wall memorial.This DVD is bare just
a trailer and Dolby Digital but this film is much more of
a somber and patriotic Veitnam film then the others execpt
on the account of We Were Soldiers this is a worth while
film to add to your collection if only to get your intrest
going on the actual battle of Hamburger Hill.
Rating:
Summary: Very good,realistic looking Vietnam film
Review: Hamburger Hill is a very good Vietnam movie.It is very graphic and shows just how pointless the Vietnam War could be.It's based on the true story of the 101st Airborne trying to take Hill 937,which was nothing more than a useless piece of ground.Finally after eleven days of terrible fighting,and countless lives lost,(including by friendly fire)they were able to secure the hill.The cast(including Dylan McDermott,Steven Weber,Tim Quill,Michael Boatman,and Don Cheadle,just to name a few) does a good job,for the most part.This movie was overshadowed by Platoon,(which I think is a better movie),and Full Metal Jacket,which were both made by much higher profile directors,but Hamburger Hill can hold it's own as a brutal,honest look at the war in Vietnam.
Rating:
Summary: Good
Review: Not as flashy or over-the-top as some other war films, 'Hamburger Hill' is still a solid and worth the watch. What keeps the movie together is the character study and racial tension between the American soldiers. The plot is very thin, but the movie is done well.
Rating: 
Summary: Despite all that
Review: Coming out at nearly the same time as 'Platoon' and 'Full Metal Jacket', Hamburger Hill did not win an Academy Award and was not directed by Stanley Kubrick. Thus, it's tempting to give the film the benefit of the doubt, as it is the underdog. Politically 'Hamburger Hill' is sympathetic towards the soldiers and anti-peacenik, which caused reviewers to loathe the film at the time. This is yet another reason to like Hamburger Hill. Which would be a mistake, as Hamburger Hill still isn't very good. It's far superior to John Wayne's 'The Green Berets', but as a piece of film-making, notwithstanding the politics, its inferior to Stone and Kubrick's admittedly flawed films. It's full of good intentions and clearly writer John Carabatsos put a lot of work and passion into it, but at the risk of seeming to kick a puppy in the face this doesn't make Hamburger Hill any better. It must be noted that I am British, born a year after the Vietnam War ended, and thus the war has no particular emotional resonance for me. Indeed my whole view of the Vietnam War is informed more by films such as this than history books. The plot is simple; for the first half of the film we are introduced to a bunch of soldiers and learn about how they function as a group, and for the second half of the film we witness them assault a hill which seems to be of limited strategic importance. As with 'We Were Soldiers' the battle sequences are the key, the one part of the film which works well; although 'Saving Private Ryan' has upped the bar since then, the depiction of combat as a confused mess of people firing great quantities of ammunition at nothing is much more vivid than the fighting in either of the more illustrious films aforementioned. Although critics tend to ignore or bypass the effect of battle action sequences in war films, and film-makers try to minimise their screentime for fear of running over budget, a war without fighting is not a war, and one can more easily understand the pain and terror of war by seeing explosions and gunfire, rather than through sentimental speeches or symbolic shots of rain falling into muddy puddles. There is friendly fire, torrential rain, and the fighting often becomes more reminiscent of WW1 trench warfare than something taking place a month before mankind first stepped on the moon. Also as with 'We Were Soldiers', the non-battle sequences are entirely disposable, with hokey, cliched 'Vietnam War' dialogue delivered none too convincingly by a cast who seem much too well-scrubbed and attractive to be a true microcosm of a certain section of American society. It is the kind of film where people manage a final speech before they die, during which time the noise of battle fades into the background; it is the kind of film where one character turns over a body and - gasp - it's a man we saw earlier, and we are supposed to feel sad although we don't know any of the people or care much about them; it is the kind of film where a shot of a helmet bouncing down a hill is meant to make us feel reflective. In this respect it is rather like one of the bleaker WW2/Korean war films, such as 'Pork Chop Hill', which had a similar premise, or 'Hell is for Heroes'. Or for that matter the earlier, far superior 'All Quiet on the Western Front', albeit at an incline. The message that one should not condemn the fighting man, even when the war he is fighting is a giant political mistake, is an admirable one, and it's a shame that this message could not have been put across by a better film. Because it is impossible to care about the characters - they don't seem real, they don't say real things and the actors don't seem real - the film fails right there. One of the film's points is that the soldiers attacking the hill are meat, cut down like cattle, but I feel nothing when cattle are killed, and thus I feel nothing when the characters in Hamburger Hill bite the mud. There is an attempt at portraying racial tension between the soldiers, something which 'Platoon' and 'Full Metal Jacket' ignored, but it's Hollywood-style racial tension and ultimately has no bearing on the plot. The evil white rednecks abuse the poor, soulful blacks - one of whom is even called 'Motown' - until they eventually see sense and become brothers over the space of a single conversation. The cast are mostly neophytes who went on to careers in television; particularly noteworthy is Courtney Vance as the Doctor, who mugs wildly and has one of the aforementioned Hollywood-style death scenes. In summary, therefore, Hamburger Hill has some excellent battle sequences, but it's too wedded to Hollywood cliche to feel really shocked or saddened by anything that happens, and without any kind of emotional core the end result seems as sterile and meaningless as 'Full Metal Jacket', without the black comedy of Kubrick's film. Outside the generally superb depictions of infantry combat, particularly so during the rainy sequences near the end of the film, there are a couple of poor special effects (a shot of a soldier being blown apart by machinegun fire is terrible, whilst some of the large-scale explosions resemble firecrackers), and the reusing of footage of Phantom jets dropping napalm, but this is no worse than any other film of the period. The music is by Philip Glass, although fans of Glass should be aware that his score, which sounds exactly like any other piece of Philip Glass' music, is played for less than five minutes during the film (which is mostly without music, or as was the tradition with these films, contemporary pop songs such as the Animals' 'We've Gotta Get Out of This Place' - played as the soldiers are helicoptered *into* battle, do you see the symbolism?). It's curious to note that the DVD case now has a prominent American flag, where before the film's poster was a moody silhouette of a man standing in front of some helicopters. The DVD itself has no extra features of any consequence, nada, where for example a documentary about the actual battle would have been a logical addition.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent war film
Review: Hamburger Hill is definately a different and unique Vietnam film, and it remains on my top list of favorite or best war films. It has a gritty appeal to it and has characters you actually care about and get to know on realistic terms (albeit the cliche white-black racist addition, although that is understandable in the scene I refer too). It also touches on some issues rarely touched in other films, especially Vietnam films. The fact soldiers are criticized by civilians and even called "baby killers" is talked about - some thing I am glad for, because my father is in the military, and he himself has been called names or spat upon for the uniform he wears. It also has a great scene where the commander walks up to a reporter and tells him not to take any pictures of the dead or dying or there will be consequences. The reporters who report on nothing but the dead or dying American soldier in Iraq should watch that scene. The film's ending is probably one of the most touching I've seen in a war film, perhaps only second to "Saving Private Ryan" or even "Stalingrad." The voice on the radio in the background adds even more of a haunting affect when you realize just what is going on. The film Platoon ends dedicating itself to the men who fought in Vietnam. That film deserves none of that credit. This film deserves to be dedicated to the men who fought...because its actually about them.
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