This was a great hidden action movie about the "gritty realities of war" for a teenager in the 80s. But... the 80s gave us movies like Megaforce, Police Academy, Cobra...movies that are broadly nonsense if you aren't a drunken teen.
This in retrospect is definitely one of those. It's got a great premise. Narrow focus, no confusion at all. I think more films need that, can barely watch any biopic as they span 50 years and three continents so you can't focus on anything. A single event, in a single place, over a few days? Great!
But then... it's just Not Good. It's really poorly acted for the most part. The dialogue is 80% hamhanded. Nice they tried to get some overview in there, discuss the overall situation, what it meant to the war as well as the men, etc.
But it's poorly written. And then, they say it again, and again, and again. The opening titles are horrible, then followed by intro text. Which is repeated in voiceover in bits over the next few minutes. Then repeated in the actual dialogue over the next half hour. No one trusts the audience, so we have to be told things in neon signs.
The US uniforms and equipment are generally good, but the VC ones are not. At all. Undisguised US weapons (MGs, mortars...) but for the AKs. The guns mostly are real, and fire! Some good shots of the cast aiming and firing, and bolts move, brass ejects. Unusually nice.
Radios are just silly. From WW2 to consumer CB level, on both sides. Not sure I saw a legit radio, maybe 1 PRC77 in a pack, but likely something older since it was sorta hidden.
Characters are a joke. And, it's not even good comedy. The scene with the naked CO is very, very, very too long. Dinardo's war crimes (a whole other issue) and his obsession with "his boy" who I guess died, is pounded in repeatedly, and there's nothing else there. No one has any other traits or acts like a real person in any situation.
But the action! Is! So! Fake! Like, bad high school stage production bad. People are mostly shot without squib packs, so just fall down. Most of the time, they sit down, more than fall down. Probably a quarter of those shot run over to their mark, Wait For The Gunfire, then fall down. Guns are shown to fire by being shaken, and pointed only very vaguely at the bad guys. Often, pointed over the heads of the people being shot.
I'll continue: Bayonet stabbing? You know how this goes, right? You use forced perspective, stab next to the victim who grabs it to both stabilize (you can't wobble the knife, it sticks) and for the classic oof, I've been stabbed movement. Except many times they do this (not once, many times!) with the bayonet or knife on the wrong side! On the camera side, so you can clearly see it missed him, instead!
One character goes kung fu for, way too long. He's never previously expressed any interest or ability, and has none. Now the enemy walks over to be in foot striking range, as he spins around and lightly taps them, then after a pause they fall down. Roll eyes.
And so on. It's a joke. Sadly. Ruined a childhood memory. Someone make it again. Could update the concept to something in Afghanistan or Iraq, do 12 hours of a complex attack, and make it fictional, leave out the politics and beards of 13 hours.
This in retrospect is definitely one of those. It's got a great premise. Narrow focus, no confusion at all. I think more films need that, can barely watch any biopic as they span 50 years and three continents so you can't focus on anything. A single event, in a single place, over a few days? Great!
But then... it's just Not Good. It's really poorly acted for the most part. The dialogue is 80% hamhanded. Nice they tried to get some overview in there, discuss the overall situation, what it meant to the war as well as the men, etc.
But it's poorly written. And then, they say it again, and again, and again. The opening titles are horrible, then followed by intro text. Which is repeated in voiceover in bits over the next few minutes. Then repeated in the actual dialogue over the next half hour. No one trusts the audience, so we have to be told things in neon signs.
The US uniforms and equipment are generally good, but the VC ones are not. At all. Undisguised US weapons (MGs, mortars...) but for the AKs. The guns mostly are real, and fire! Some good shots of the cast aiming and firing, and bolts move, brass ejects. Unusually nice.
Radios are just silly. From WW2 to consumer CB level, on both sides. Not sure I saw a legit radio, maybe 1 PRC77 in a pack, but likely something older since it was sorta hidden.
Characters are a joke. And, it's not even good comedy. The scene with the naked CO is very, very, very too long. Dinardo's war crimes (a whole other issue) and his obsession with "his boy" who I guess died, is pounded in repeatedly, and there's nothing else there. No one has any other traits or acts like a real person in any situation.
But the action! Is! So! Fake! Like, bad high school stage production bad. People are mostly shot without squib packs, so just fall down. Most of the time, they sit down, more than fall down. Probably a quarter of those shot run over to their mark, Wait For The Gunfire, then fall down. Guns are shown to fire by being shaken, and pointed only very vaguely at the bad guys. Often, pointed over the heads of the people being shot.
I'll continue: Bayonet stabbing? You know how this goes, right? You use forced perspective, stab next to the victim who grabs it to both stabilize (you can't wobble the knife, it sticks) and for the classic oof, I've been stabbed movement. Except many times they do this (not once, many times!) with the bayonet or knife on the wrong side! On the camera side, so you can clearly see it missed him, instead!
One character goes kung fu for, way too long. He's never previously expressed any interest or ability, and has none. Now the enemy walks over to be in foot striking range, as he spins around and lightly taps them, then after a pause they fall down. Roll eyes.
And so on. It's a joke. Sadly. Ruined a childhood memory. Someone make it again. Could update the concept to something in Afghanistan or Iraq, do 12 hours of a complex attack, and make it fictional, leave out the politics and beards of 13 hours.