The Siege of Firebase Gloria (1989)

In the thick of the Vietnam war, Sgt. Hafner (Ermey) is told to defend Firebase Gloria against the Viet Cong at all costs. His top man, Di Nardo (Wings) is there to back him up. But due to the dangerous and precarious situation, and the many obstacles the men face, Di Nardo begins to crack. The jaded Di Nardo's faith in humanity seems somewhat restored by his growing love for a young Vietnamese child he rescued, who he nicknamed Peewee, but the enemy is on the move, and even idealistic medics like Flanagan (Gerard) will have to challenge their own assumptions about the world. The men and women at the Firebase are simply Americans forced to deal with extraordinary circumstances. Can they do it? Brian Trenchard-Smith does it again! This amazing director, who gave us sparkling gems such as The Man From Hong Kong (1975) and Stunt Rock (1980), among so many others, here turns in a top-notch Vietnam tale. The 80's was seemingly in the midst of a Vietnam movie boom - films such as Platoon (1986), Full Metal Jacket (1987), Hamburger Hill (1987) and Casualties of War (1989) appeared in the mid-to-late 80's, giving filmmakers, particularly writers and directors of a particular age, an outlet to finally look back and process what happened after the passage of a certain amount of time. Apparently it was all kind of a collective nostalgia of sorts, as all these movies appeared at the same time, and all of the above-mentioned movies went to the movie theater. So naturally it wasn't long before the DTV crowd came to reap the benefits, and more modest, lower-budget ventures began to appear, perhaps best indicated by director Cirio Santiago, who spent a decent chunk of his career making jungle slogs typified by the likes of Firehawk (1993) and Eye of the Eagle III (1989). Thankfully, 'Siege is closer to those theater-ready efforts than the latter DTV ones.With Trenchard-Smith at the helm, and with Wings front and center, backed beautifully by Ermey, Nicholson, Strzalkowski, and the rest of the cast, it can't fail to be a thoughtful, well-made, entertaining movie that is patriotic, but not obnoxiously so. It simply shows the soldiers in Vietnam as real, human men, put in an impossible situation, against insane odds, and attempting to survive and return home to their families. Add to that some firefights and war violence, and what more can you ask of the movie? It shows clearly the hardships the U.S. faced, and with the presence of Ermey, adds that much more authenticity (It's funny how people live up to their name - R. Lee Ermey is very close to "Army" - did his parents decide his future once he was born?). Trenchard-Smith and the gang were clearly going for realism, not Hollywood bravado, and this is, in part, why The Siege of Firebase Gloria, while released in the golden year for video stores, 1989, has withstood the test of time so well.The cast of the movie, especially Wings, were probably happy to be involved with a significant, substantive piece like this, as opposed to a lot of the crud they're probably normally offered. Thus, Wings shines in his role. In a career of great roles, this one stands out as among his best. But he's almost upstaged by someone we just heard of from this movie - an actor named Gary Hershberger, who plays Moran. Hershberger is great in the role, proving you don't have to be a Hollywood big shot - if you're good, you're good and you stand out. We always tout working actors like this - there are so many out there that are good quality actors, but are never talked about in the tabloids or sit and talk to Jay Leno. God bless Hershberger, M.C. Gainey, Jerry Wasserman, Marco Rodriguez, Barry Flatman, Wynn Irwin, and their ilk. They, in large part, are what keep movies and TV shows of the good quality we've come to expect and take for granted.Released by Fries home video, whose track record of what they were able to put on video store shelves was hit-or-miss at best, scored a definite hit by acquiring this one for U.S. video release. The Siege of Firebase Gloria is indeed glorious. A winner.

Spoilers ahead.Changing rules for the draft in the early 70's created a window in time that accommodated some young men to be excluded from war. It turned out that if you were born in 1958 or 1959, you didn't even have to register for the draft. Now, philosophical positions on defending our nation aside, the fortune of being exempt from kill-or-be-killed was not lost on me. Consequently movies of a certain high caliber about Nam such as Firebase Gloria (FB) have a sobering effect on me. The scarier and more horrific a movie is about that war, the more intense I am grateful I didn't have to go. After watching FB I am as grateful as grateful ever gets. The movie did however have it's share of yuks, even if it perhaps took a sometimes morbid sense of humor to "get it." Decapitation, for instance, is not something I find particularly funny. A one-liner that follows from actor R. Lee Ermey playing Hafner, by contrast, added a sense of occasional relief to the otherwise expertly induced horror. I could go on, but suffice it to say if you dig war flicks and want something askew from standard shoot-die fare, this one might find you happier for having watched it. If, that is to say, it's possible at all to be "happy" for watching a movie about Vietnam.

It's the first time I have ever reviewed a film here on IMDb, or anywhere else, for that matter... I don't consider myself a critic, or expert or anything; just like cinema in general and war movies in particular.But this movie made me write here for the first time, out of indignation. I'm writing this as the end credits roll.I'll be concise:Bad acting, worse directing, pathetic soundtrack, clichéd, repetitive and utterly unrealistic.As other reviewer has said here before, this is probably the worst war film ever. I would go further and say is probably the worst FILM ever.Do yourself a favor and just watch any other film.

I have seen this movie many times. There's a first rate presentation of a formula war movie: the stupid officer who in the updated version is so burnt out on drugs he forgets to get dressed, the tough sergeant and his pal, the female medical officer who in the updated version has been promoted from nurse to doctor, the crafty enlisted men and the barbaric enemy.Yet the movie does explain a little bit of the enemy point of view and the snatching of the orphaned Vietnamese child held within the American cantonment expresses poetically the cause slipping away.One could compare this to the French film Diên Biên Phu, sometimes shown as Jump into Hell(1955). Indeed didn't President De Gaulle say "Americans learn nothing from our {French} mistakes!"