The Green Berets (1968)

This is one of the most unintentionally funny films from Hollywood. Here we have a 60-something John Wayne and Aldo Ray chasing the Viet Cong in the jungles of Vietnam (and maybe Cambodia). At every turn we have John Wayne and company preaching to an increasingly humiliated David Jansen (playing a "liberal" journalist) how horrid and animalistic the enemy is. And, of course, how humane and brave and dedicated to freedom that we (Americans) are. (All that between bombing the natives.) And, yes, one of the Americans adopts a Vietnamese orphan and, if memory serves, the dastardly communist kill the boy!!!! Oh, it makes me want to get a gun and go after those godless commies!!!But all is not funny.Well, this clearly is a pro-war, right-winger's dream come true. Re-fighting and war and winning not only the battles but the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese. It features two Asian-Americans, one of Chinese extraction and another of Japanese extraction, somehow letting us know how noble this war was. But in the end, like the sun setting in the east coast of Vietnam, the whole film becomes an illusion. A lie. A big, horrific lie told to Americans. The lie was known to the Vietnamese, however. Our big bad military, in the end, was battled to a stalemate. The Tet offensive let us know how uninformed (intentionally?) the Americans were about the strength of the enemy. John Wayne went to war and brought us back a sick, horrific war in which communism remained entrenched and the thoughts of freedom, liberty and the American way were shown to be illusions. Except when they came in the form of bombs and bullets and body counts. John Wayne led the charge in the "Green Berets" but it should have been titled "The Red Herring" for its lies and diversions. In reality we lost the war. Americans, since WWII keep hoping to win a war. It's been 60s years since we have won a war. They just don't make wars the way they used to.

. . . to accept its first-ever losing war effort after more than 200 years of military success. Wayne and his family produce, direct, and star in THE GREEN BERETS (and they must have wished that they had written its title song, too, as there is not one mention of Barry Sadler in the opening or closing credits). In the first hour and a half of this flick, Mr. Wayne meticulously documents American War Crimes, such as using journalists and medics as artillery and riflemen. Wayne shows that GREEN BERET training is so pedestrian that any random middle-aged newspaper man can step into the front line and do at least as well as the guys "trained" at Fort Bragg, NC. It's no wonder that GREEN BERET base "#A107" fares little better than did the defenders of THE ALAMO (an earlier Wayne (flick), or that the Pre-teen girls trusting the BERETS with their safety are gang-banged to death by the enemy. In the final hour of BERETS, both of the comic relief squad members are killed, though just one of their bodies is actually recovered (Wayne depicts the BERETS as frequently abandoning their dead and wounded). It's too bad that John did not screen this film for his buddy, President Milhouse Nixon, as that may have stopped this Vietnam debacle five years sooner. Thank goodness we have Navy S.E.A.L.s today!

I suppose you have to give John Wayne credit. By 1968 the Vietnam War was already becoming unpopular, protests against it were erupting, America's allies were publicly opposing it. Making a movie that would be essentially a defence of U.S. involvement in Vietnam took some guts. Of course, Wayne's fan base was likely made up of the more conservative types in American society, but still. Making a pro-Vietnam movie in 1968 would have been cutting increasingly against the grain. And, no doubt owing to Wayne's stature, even anti-Vietnam actors wanted roles in this - notably David Janssen as anti-war reporter George Beckworth, who follows the unit as a war correspondent, and Star Trek's George Takei, who took on the role of Captain Nim, a ruthless South Vietnamese officer.Now, I'm no expert on the Vietnam War or anything military to be honest. But to my amateur eye, this seemed rather well done and the military scenes seemed authentic. Of course, it's the reverse of what we usually associate with movies about Vietnam. In this, the U.S. is noble, and fighting for a just cause against the atrocities of the communist, North Vietnamese enemy. In fact, all that is made so clear that in the end Beckworth becomes a supporter of the U.S. involvement. And, unlike most Vietnam movies, this movie doesn't focus on young draftees but on the special forces, who likely were much more professional and who probably had higher morale.Perhaps in a reflection of one of the basic reasons for the unpopularity of the Vietnam War, the prime weakness of the movie for me was a lack of clear focus or purpose. The movie has a tragic figure - the young Vietnamese boy who has only a dog as a companion and who bonds with one of the U.S. soldier. In the end, it finally settles into a purpose - to capture a senior North Vietnamese general. But for the most part, this just depicts war.It does provide an interesting and alternative perspective that's worth watching - and it shouldn't be dismissed for its bias, it should be evaluated on its merits. On that basis, it isn't great, but it's a worthwhile watch. (6/10)

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure that a Vietnam War movie starring and produced by John Wayne would be hugely pro war. Every time someone had anything to say, they came out in favor of the war. Sure, Charlie was ruthless, and the boogieman (commies) was everywhere, but to produce a war movie that shed not one drop of blood is a real stretch. Everything is so nice and neat. All brutality takes place off camera, and we listen to the stories of Charlie's ruthlessness. The one good thing about the film was seeing the versatility of the C-130.1968 also gave us Lee Marvin and The Dirty Dozen, and much better acting, with back up by John Cassavetes and Jim Brown.