Rating: 
Summary: A second look reveals some shortcomings
Review: When I saw this movie back in the late 1980s I remember thinking that it was an outstanding portrayal of the Vietnam War. Nearly 20 years later, after seeing it again on DVD and having a chance to reconsider it, I'm afraid I've had to lower my review of it considerably. For starters, this movie takes a long time to get going. Most of the pre-battle scenes are pointless, as they fail to do much in the way of character development or add anything to the story. Then when we finally do get to the battle for "Hamburger Hill" the action scenes are short and the scenes in between fighting do almost nothing to enrich the story. I bought this thinking it was a movie that I'd watch several more times, but after seeing it again I have to say that I'm ulikely to ever pull this one off the shelf again.
Rating: 
Summary: It's All Here
Review: I served three combat infantry tours in Vietnam, and this is the movie that best captures the realities of the U.S. military field experience there (the other movie that's worth seeing is the more recent "We Were Soldiers"). "Hamburger Hill" has the right music -- the soundtrack is full of songs I never knew the names of, but tunes that I remember hearing in Vietnam and that help to bring back the world as it was then.
You see the ubiquitous helicopters, although no movie, including this one, has ever used anywhere near the number of choppers that were actually used in Vietnam. I've seen as many as 100 around a major operation, but it's rare to see more than a dozen at a time in a movie. I would guess that the cost is prohibitive for movie makers. War is an expensive proposition.
No movie can convey the smells of a place, but "Hamburger Hill" comes close with its images of field conditions, and it catches everything else -- the sights, the sounds, the language, the cliches, the basic training knowledge common to all grunts, the attitudes toward those outside your unit -- including higher command, Vietnamese, media people, and politicians -- and even the social revolution that was rocking America while the troops, who fought for ground that would not be held, knew they would never be allowed to chase the enemy back to his lair, so next week, or next month, or next year you'd be fighting for the same hill again.
For those who were there, this movie takes you back. For those who weren't, this movie, better than any other, tells it like it was. There's a special place in heaven for writers and directors who make truthful art like this.
Rating:
Summary: The Heroes of Vietnam
Review: Im only 22, born long after the vietnam war was ended. I have always held a deep respect for our men and women of the armed forces and it runs deeper after seeing this very well made movie. The acting, pacing, and subtle heroic message of Hamburger Hill make it a standout among idiotic political Nam movies like Platoon and Full Metal Jacket. The sound and picture transfer to dvd are glorious, the only thing missing are some special features in this exceptional dvd release. My only complaint is the Phillip Glass soundtrack. Replace it with Han Zimmer's soundtrack from Black Hawk Down and you would have a great movie made even greater. And I want to send a special thanks to all the men and women who have defended this country in times of conflict.
Rating:
Summary: Too Real
Review: As a combat medic who served in the 101st Airborne Division just three months after the events depicted in this film took place, I can tell you that it is absolutely the most realistic Vietnam war film to date. I cannot address the issue of the absolute truth of the way specific events are depicted in the film because I wasn't involved in this particular action, but I can say with no equivocation that the characters and combat shown in this film are absolutely realistic based on my experience. The fictional soldiers shown in the film talk like we talked, and all aspects of combat shown are much like my own experience. Some aspects of this film may seem cliched to some viewers (see below), but that is just the common reality of war and reveals the simplistic views of the times. Soldiers in combat were young and not especially astute in their views. We really did say "it don't mean nothin'." I cried on the way home after I first saw this film in the theatre, and finally achieved the catharsis I needed to leave Vietnam behind me. I am grateful to the director and producers for providing that. Someone finally got it right. "Doc" Cooper, B company, 2/502, 101st airborne division
Rating:
Summary: Vietnam: "a-day-in-the-life-of": Best 'Nam film! Period!
Review: "Hamburger Hill" is definitely my all-time favorite Vietnam War" movie. Though I liked some others such as "Platoon" and the 2nd half of "Full Metal Jacket"--none compare to "Hamburger Hill."
I grew up in the days of Walter Cronkite, etc. giving us the daily body count at dinnertime. As a child Ilived in a military-base town during the Vietnam War era. Many of the young "men" [boys!] in my community were called to service, then.
Some never came back. They were heroes to me, though. As a child back then; the War seemed very real to me. Most of the parents worked on the base in some fashion--my father was no exception.
Years later I worked as a medic: my ambulance partner was a 'Nam vet. He spoke of the realism of essentially "a-day-in-life-of" military experience when he saw this film.
Though I'd read some Vietnam War books, saw films, talked to vets, etc., I wasn't familiar with the place in Vietnam where my best friend's husband really broke down with severe PTSD.
She told me how he'd survived someintense fighting on a "hill" in the "Ashau Valley." My friend's husband in a real sense lost his life in those days on that Hill; for soon after he returned to the "world" he blew his brains out at home in front of his 2 kids ages: 2 & 4 while, on the phone with his wife.
Saying I felt "goosebumps" when I started watching this film is an understatement, when I'd heard my friend talk many times of her husband and the Ashau.
I really liked the simplistic dynamics of this film. Some have said it is shallow as to character development, racial tension or whatever. This is true; yet in this film--simplicity works.
We don't need to sympathize or empathize or even know who the real or the lavk of portrayed depth of the characters.
To me, the movie seemed as though I was sort of an observer into the day-to-day activities of the platoon--like I'd just arrived in the middle of something.
In other words, it would be like if I had an observer [as often happened] spend a shift with me at the ambulance service I worked at--we wasn't going to go into any detail about getting the rider to really understand our work, conversation, nuances, etc. The rider, like the movie's viewer just happens to step into these few days of the battle.
In "Hamburger Hill" we the viewer are like a temporary observer [i.e. Iraq's "embedded reporter?"] in the goings about of these men at a high impact battle.
Another war film that does this "as if walking in the middle with no heads up approach]-- and is almost equally as excellent at pulling it off is "Stalingrad," which I highly recommend, in addition to "Hamburger Hill."
P.S. The book "Hamburger Hill" is okay but unlike most instances the movie far outweighs the book version.
Rating: 
Summary: Realism - but not truth
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: 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.
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