# What is the greatest Vietnam War movie? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2010, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183 "2010-09-27T04:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/21 "2010-09-27T13:45:01Z")
I totally disagree with that interpretation of _Full Metal Jacket_. I found it to be really hackneyed - there was nothing surprising, nothing we haven’t seen a million times (and don’t tell me it was fresh when it came out, either) - the Vietnam part of the movie seemed like a loose collection of some good ideas for scenes that never actually developed. In other words, there’d be a great image or the _start_ of a good thought, and then it just dies on the vine. (Like, that shot where we as the viewer watch the camera crew watching the real fighters? Fantastic. But then it devolves into cliche almost immediately and has nothing fresh to show me.) When I watch a Kubrick movie I want to be _surprised._ I wasn’t. ETA - I added in _The Killing Fields_ because I thought maybe somebody would want to talk about it in reference to the other ones, is all. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/22 "2010-09-27T14:08:17Z")
**The Boys In Company C** R. Lee Ermey’s first role, as Sgt. Loyce. “Sergeant, sergeant, “Loyce’s my name” Took the job 'cause he’s insane. “Sergeant stripes they give me class.” He just likes to kick our ass.” eta: **FMJ** sucked, just like every movie Kubrick made after 1980. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/23 "2010-09-27T14:18:11Z")
**The Fog of War** is the best so far. One of the great documentaries, and really says everything the other movies did about the war. For a fiction film, I’d pick **Apocalypse Now** , but metaphor, no matter how good, is no substitute for seeing the war though the eyes of the man who was involved in managing it. ---
**Author:** ![Isamu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/7c8e57/32.png) [@Isamu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isamu)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/24 "2010-09-27T14:48:06Z")
Full disclosure: I was not in the Vietnam war, so I don’t know which is a better depiction of the actual war. 😛 The better film is Platoon. It has no caricatures - every character in that film is someone you might meet in real life. It’s also incredibly well shot, scripted and paced. Apocalypse Now had some of the above, but not all. Apocalypse Now was, for me, a film that could have told the same story, but been set in WW2, or even on a different planet. (Well, it was based on Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, set in Africa, wasn’t it). Caveat - I don’t know much about film or storytelling. ---
**Author:** ![Baal\_Houtham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baal_houtham/32/13604_2.png) [@Baal\_Houtham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baal_Houtham)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/25 "2010-09-27T15:05:27Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > I totally disagree with that interpretation of _Full Metal Jacket_. I found it to be really hackneyed - there was nothing surprising, nothing we haven’t seen a million times… That was my take too. And the infamous drill instructor was the stereotyped rough boot camp Sargent written with R-rated dialog. Tabasco sauce on yesterday’s cold hamburger. ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/26 "2010-09-27T16:01:14Z")
Full Metal Jacket… followed by Apocalypse Now. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/27 "2010-09-27T16:48:40Z")
**Go Tell the Spartans** (1978) may be less famous than several of the other high-profile Vietnam movies of that time, but it’s just as good. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/28 "2010-09-27T16:56:58Z")
> [@Larry\_Borgia](#): > > I picked Platoon, but it hurt my brain that I couldn’t say Apocolypse Now, which meant more to me as a kid, since my friends and I used to dose and see that movie a lot. It was awesome. But platoon is more of a Vietnam movie. I dunno. Its hard to picture Apocalypse Now taking place in an American War that wasn’t Vietnam. It wasn’t set in realisitic depiction of the war, but it was still _about_ the war. If I want to learn factual information about the Vietnam war I’ll watch a documentary. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/29 "2010-09-27T17:04:52Z")
Does \*Aliens \*count? ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/30 "2010-09-27T17:13:29Z")
I picked _Platoon_, because it was the one movie in the list that is most \*about \*being a soldier in Viet Nam – not like I know shit about that, but from the books I’ve read about it, it seemed fairly spot-on. Most of the others were about something else (loss, morality, insanity, violense, jingoism, etc) that used Viet Nam as a back drop. Look at _Apocolypse Now_ a great movie, to be sure, but it’s basically \*Heart of Darkness \*just set in Viet Nam. _Hamburger Hill_ is another in the “about being there” vein, but it’s not half the film that \*Platoon \*is. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/31 "2010-09-27T17:28:03Z")
> [@Baal\_Houtham](#): > > That was my take too. And the infamous drill instructor was the stereotyped rough boot camp Sargent written with R-rated dialog. Tabasco sauce on yesterday’s cold hamburger. Nonsense. R Lee has become the very DEFINITION of the stereotypical hard core drill instructor. The big difference IMHO between Gunnary Sergeant Hartman and every other hard core film drill instructors (including Gunnery Sergeant Foley from An Officer and A Gentleman, and Gunnery Sergeant Highway from Heartbreak Ridge) is that Hartman is not there to dispense “tough love” or “help these men reach deep inside themselves”. He isn’t even portrayed as human. Sergeant Hartman is the institutionalized dehumanizing (a common Kubrick theme) face of the Marine Corps. He is there to grind those maggots into Marines or grind them out if they can’t hack it. A mechanism, part of a larger machine. His death at the hands of Private Pyle is significant in that a) it does nothing to change the operation of the military machine and b) it is indicative of how the stresses of the Vietnam war are slowing wearing away and damaging that machine. One would presume no focus group or JAG investigator would have looked into the incident in any real depth. It would have been noted, a replacement DI issued and a new batch of recruits sent through. Much like reparing the damage caused by a blown piston in an engine. Anyhow, I still go with FMJ as the greatest Nam film, if not one of the greatest war films of all time. I will say though that the assult on the VC village by Lt Col Kilgore and his 1/9th Air Cav squadron in Apocalypse Now is one of the greatest battle sequences ever filmed. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/32 "2010-09-27T17:31:42Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I picked _Platoon_, because it was the one movie in the list that is most \*about \*being a soldier in Viet Nam – not like I know shit about that, but from the books I’ve read about it, it seemed fairly spot-on. Most of the others were about something else (loss, morality, insanity, violense, jingoism, etc) that used Viet Nam as a back drop. > > Look at _Apocolypse Now_ a great movie, to be sure, but it’s basically \*Heart of Darkness \*just set in Viet Nam. > > _Hamburger Hill_ is another in the “about being there” vein, but it’s not half the film that \*Platoon \*is. Hamburger Hill isn’t a bad film, but it’s more about the actors than it is about the war. I didn’t choose a favorite, as I had the actual experience of being there. I like most of the films listed, and some are more accurate than others, but in the end they’re all just entertainment or statements of the filmmakers ideologies. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/33 "2010-09-27T17:55:16Z")
_More American Graffiti_ also got left out. Not exactly a contender, but the Vietnam scenes are actually not too bad. ---
**Author:** ![sitchensis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sitchensis/32/4892_2.png) [@sitchensis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sitchensis)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/34 "2010-09-27T18:10:59Z")
The best movie: The Deer Hunter On accuracy, my Dad did two tours in Nam as a helicopter crew chief in the core. He always told me that the boot camp portion of Full Metal Jacket was a crock and the Vietnam portion of FMJ was the most accurate he has seen in a movie. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/35 "2010-09-27T18:57:54Z")
To me, there are only 2 1/2 really good films of the American experience in Vietnam: _Full Metal Jacket_, _Apocalypse Now_ (the original cut, not the later padded-out version) and (as the 1/2) _The Deer Hunter_. I gave the nod to _FMJ_ for being the more concise of the top two; _The Deer Hunter_ has a flock of great scenes but is a bit too unrealistic for me (yeah, I know Apocaplyse Now ain’t exactly documentary either). _Platoon_ I’ve never cared for much, probably due to the unpleasant sensation of being struck repeatedly over the head by Stone’s thunderingly obvious symbolism. Not sure if any such thing exists, but just as with some of the recent films from the German perspective of WWII, it would be interesting to see a Vietnamese take on their own conflict and the US presence therein. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/36 "2010-09-27T19:37:37Z")
> [@El\_Kabong](#): > > _Platoon_ I’ve never cared for much, probably due to the unpleasant sensation of being struck repeatedly over the head by Stone’s thunderingly obvious symbolism. Amen! I voted for _The Fog Of War_. It’s simply too insightful, too fraught with real meaning and consequences, not to stand out above the others, IMO. But for ficton, _Full Metal Jacket_ is either at or near the top of the list, both for Vietnam films and for war films in general. (Thus far, I find myself in agreement with **msmith537** ’s assessment of the films content and themes.) ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/37 "2010-09-27T19:38:26Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > Hamburger Hill isn’t a bad film, but it’s more about the actors than it is about the war. And this is why I voted for it, with _We Were Soldiers_ a close second. _Hamburger Hill_ to me really struck a chord over the futility of the war, represented by Hill 937, its relative strategic unimportance, the heavy price paid in lives to claim it, only to have it abandoned thereafter. The action and the redundancy of assaults on the hill as portrayed by the actors did a great job slamming home the sense of numbed despair those guys must have felt in real life. ---
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/38 "2010-09-27T20:13:22Z")
I voted for **Apocalypse Now** , second choice **Platoon**. Here’s one that I didn’t see mentioned, haven’t seen it since it came out but remember it as being pretty good. [84 Charlie Mopic](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096744/) ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/39 "2010-09-27T20:43:21Z")
> [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > > [@Chefguy](#): > > > > Hamburger Hill isn’t a bad film, but it’s more about the actors than it is about the war. > > And this is why I voted for it, with _We Were Soldiers_ a close second. _Hamburger Hill_ to me really struck a chord over the futility of the war, represented by Hill 937, its relative strategic unimportance, the heavy price paid in lives to claim it, only to have it abandoned thereafter. The action and the redundancy of assaults on the hill as portrayed by the actors did a great job slamming home the sense of numbed despair those guys must have felt in real life. I loved _Hamburger Hill_ too, but cinematically, I don’t think it can carry \*Platoon’s \*rucksack. I can’t put my finger on it, but it sort of … looks … like a cut-rate version of a movie. I can’t say I was too thrilled with some of the acting of the troops - apart from a few, actors I’d never seen before and haven’t seen since … and with good reason, it seems. Courtney B. Vance, while a very charismatic and compelling actor, seemed especially way over the top for me. And while I’m forcing my opinions on everyone else, I personally hated _We Were Soldiers_. That one seemed to me to be nothing more than an America, Fuck Yeah movie with very little -or at least glossed over- introspection. Your mileage, obviously, varies. ---
**Author:** ![FoieGrasIsEvil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foiegrasisevil/32/16638_2.png) [@FoieGrasIsEvil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FoieGrasIsEvil)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2010, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183/40 "2010-09-28T12:24:13Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > > [@FoieGrasIsEvil](#): > > > > And this is why I voted for it, with _We Were Soldiers_ a close second. _Hamburger Hill_ to me really struck a chord over the futility of the war, represented by Hill 937, its relative strategic unimportance, the heavy price paid in lives to claim it, only to have it abandoned thereafter. The action and the redundancy of assaults on the hill as portrayed by the actors did a great job slamming home the sense of numbed despair those guys must have felt in real life. > > I loved _Hamburger Hill_ too, but cinematically, I don’t think it can carry \*Platoon’s \*rucksack. I can’t put my finger on it, but it sort of … looks … like a cut-rate version of a movie. I can’t say I was too thrilled with some of the acting of the troops - apart from a few, actors I’d never seen before and haven’t seen since … and with good reason, it seems. Courtney B. Vance, while a very charismatic and compelling actor, seemed especially way over the top for me. > > And while I’m forcing my opinions on everyone else, I personally hated _We Were Soldiers_. That one seemed to me to be nothing more than an America, Fuck Yeah movie with very little -or at least glossed over- introspection. > > Your mileage, obviously, varies. The production values of _Platoon_ were certainly glossier and overall better in every way, but somehow the grittiness of HH is enhanced for me by the lower-end production. _Platoon_ is a good movie, but to me its a little too slick, and the whole Elias versus Barnes thing is just too over the top. And Charlie Sheen is a terrible actor. Kinda ruins the whole thing for me when your lead can’t act his way out of a paper (body) bag. As far as _We Were Soldiers_ is concerned, yeah, I can see your point (Gibson’s speech) but I don’t think the whole movie is all “rah-rah”. Talking to a number of vets at the local legion and they pretty much are in consensus that its a pretty accurate portrayal, as far as these Hollywood war depictions go. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-greatest-vietnam-war-movie/555183.md?page=3)