I’ve had several chances to watch parts of this film now, and I’ve seen enough. This movie isn’t just ridiculous, it’s pathetic. To whit:
1 - Wayne is about 15 years too old and 50 pounds too heavy to hold any combat posting in the military, much less one in the Special Forces.
2 - The movie’s politics are simply laughable. Big, easy cheap shots are taken at a reporter named Beckworth, and no effort is spared to make him look like a bleeding heart, ignorant fool. A South Vietnamese commander tells him that his unit is infiltrated with VC, and this is supposed to be some kind of profound revelation to the “ignorant” journalist – in 1968!
3 - Wayne holds his M-16 as if it were a broom or a rake. He never uses a sling, never seems to care which way the barrel is pointing, and half the time is carrying the thing upside down.
4 - At one point Sgt. Muldoon spots a member of the Vietcong who has infiltrated the South Vietnmaes unit pacing off the dimensions in the camp. Of course, it shouldn’t be hard, since the VC was taking nice, big, even steps, then stopping and looking around craftily. All this in broad daylight!
5 - The “jungle” that surround the camp? Pine trees.
I have to admit, I’ve never like John Wayne’s one-note acting or rah-rah flag-waving bullshit, but this movie just about made me want to puke. Did anyone ever take it seriously?
Ah, yes, the pine forests of Southeast Asia (IIRC, it was actually shot in North Carolina). My dad was a Green Beret, and enjoys watching the movie and pointing out all the things they’re doing wrong.
Did your dad ever comment on Wayne’s rifle-carrying technique? I’m not sure why, but this one little thing annoys me almost as much as everything else put together. Maybe because Wayne’s character is supposed to be some knd of big-shot commander, but he can’t even carry his weapon properly.
If I remember correctly, Wayne wanted to make a movie to counter the anti-Vietnam war feeling at the time. It was supposed to be pro-military propoganda. And yes, it’s very silly.
Well, in the latest Lord of The Rings movie a group of undiscliplined, poorly armored cavalry come charging out of control down a steep hill, after riding several days in a forced march, maintaining no battle line whatsoever and sans lances to slam pell-mell into a massive, well rested, and tightly packed formation of discliplined pikemen and, get this, the calvary wins.
While it may rate highly for some, the movie that was so laughable that I left after less than five minutes was Emerald Forest where the Powers Boothe character, Tommy’s father, after the kid had been in the woods a while and had somehow managed to become like a god or something for these natives, when finding out the new god’s name was To May (didn’t wait around to see how they actually spelled it), Boothe’s character has this sudden sensation that this god-boy might be his own son.
Fortunately we were able to get into another theater in the same multiplex before the credits were over and got to see Silverado instead.
In spite of favorable comments by others since that laughable experience I have had no desire to be in the same room with EF since then.
But I could name 20 movies at least as laughable as Green Berets, with maybe five of them being John Wayne movies.
You need to see the movie again. Not all of it, I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy, but you have to see the ending. One of the most famous flubs in cinematic history.
Of course you’re ignoring the timing arranged by Gandalf for the sun to come up right behind the charge and blind the light-sensitive Uruk-Hai and make them lower their pikes.
