Vietnam War Movies

We are constantly looking for experts and technical advisors in the Vietnam War including battles, methods, uniforms, techniques, equipment, language, and procedures. From spending a few hours at home reviewing a script for accuracy to providing advice regarding uniforms to being on set for the entire filming, this role as technical advisor is essential for producers and directors to create as accurate a film as possible.

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Apocalypse Now

Apocalypse Now is a film by Francis Ford Coppola, inspired by Joseph Conrad's classic novella Heart of Darkness and Homer's The Odyssey. Set in the Vietnam War, a taciturn American soldier is sent to "terminate with extreme prejudice" a rogue colonel in the Green Berets. What ensues is a series of often bizzare events, contemplating on life and war.

The film features performances by Martin Sheen as Captain Benjamin L. Willard (Marlow, in the novel), Marlon Brando as Colonel Walter E. Kurtz, and Dennis Hopper as a fast talking hallucinogenic photojournalist (the harlequin). Several other actors who were, or later became, prominent stars, had minor or supporting roles in the movie, including Robert Duvall, Harrison Ford, and Laurence Fishburne.

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Bat-21

During the Vietnam war, a U.S. observation plane is hit by a V.C. missile. The only survivor of the crew is the Lieutenant Colonel Iceal Hambleton, an expert in missile weaponry. Because of his knowledge, it is crucial to rescue him before the Vietcong get their hands on him. It's a very difficult task because the enemy is listening to Hambleton's radio transmissions. And he knows it...

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Born on the Fourth of July

The biography of Ron Kovic. Paralyzed in the Vietnam war, he becomes an anti-war and pro-human rights political activist after feeling betrayed by the country he fought for.

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Casualties of War

Casualties of War is a 1989 war movie about the Vietnam War, starring Michael J. Fox and Sean Penn. It was directed by Brian De Palma.

An squad of American soldiers has one of its members killed in a village which they believe is helping their Viet Cong enemies. In retaliation, the squad kidnaps a Vietnamese girl to be their sexual slave. During a fire fight, they viciously murder the girl to avoid being discovered by their superiors. After the battle, they cover up the murder. The film is based on a true story.

The film is about how normal moral behavior is discarded during war times and shows it in the extreme when soldiers become savages who can dehumanize innocent by-standers. The film is also about personal responsiblity for maintaining that morality in extreme conditions.

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The Deer Hunter

The Deer Hunter is a 1978 film which tells the story of how the Vietnam War affects the people of a small town in Pennsylvania, although it was actually filmed in Mingo Junction, Ohio. It stars Robert De Niro, John Cazale, John Savage, Christopher Walken, Meryl Streep and George Dzundza.

The movie was written by Michael Cimino, Louis Garfinkle, Quinn K. Redeker and Deric Washburn, and directed by Cimino.

It won Oscars for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Christopher Walken), Best Director (Michael Cimino), Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Sound. In addition, it was nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robert De Niro), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Meryl Streep), Best Cinematography (Vilmos Zsigmond) and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen. It has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry and is consistently on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films.

Some people contend that The Deer Hunter sparked a string of Russian roulette suicides because of its dramatic depiction of captive soldiers forced to play Russian roulette.

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Forrest Gump

The film was directed by Robert Zemeckis and tells the story of a mentally challenged man's epic journey through life, passing historical figures and incidents largely unaware of their significance: in the film, Forrest (played by Tom Hanks) calls the police about the Watergate break-in, invents the smiley without realizing it, and makes millions on Apple Computer stock thinking he has invested in a fruit company.

The film was a huge commercial success, although Paramount claimed it was a failure, and did not pay Groom his share of the profits. Groom therefore denied Paramount the rights to adapt the novel's sequel, Gump & Co.

The film was praised by many critics as a modern fable. The film won several Academy Awards, including the Academy Award for Directing and the Academy Award for Best Picture. The film's special effects included the, at the time, stunning, near-seamless blending of Gump with footage of various historical figures, a process sometimes referred to as "gumping."

Young Forrest Gump was born in fictional Greenbow, Alabama with crippled legs and was forced to walk with the aid of leg braces, his odd walk being imitated famously by a young guitarist named Elvis Presley. Overcoming this handicap, he got into superb physical shape. His running ability brought him success at the University of Alabama in college football (playing for the legendary Paul Bryant), and he carried his wounded platoon to safety during a battle in the Vietnam war.

After coming home from the war, he began a shrimp business drawing on advice from his African American army buddy Bubba. His former commander, Lieutenant Dan (Gary Sinise), joined him in the venture, and they took their boat out during Hurricane Carmen. They returned to port to find that all other fishing boats in the area have been destroyed by the storm, giving them an instant monopoly in shrimp and making Forrest a wealthy man. Forrest then gives Bubba's mother what he felt was Bubba's share of the profits; he also buys and tears down the house where his childhood sweetheart, Jenny (Robin Wright), had been abused.

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Full Metal Jacket

The first part of the film follows the basic training of a group of Marine recruits during the Vietnam War era under the brutal command of drill instructor Gunnery Sergeant Hartman (played by R. Lee Ermey, whose performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination for best supporting actor). The drill is depicted as designed to wash away the recruits' personalities and turn them into killers, but the brutal treatment of Leonard 'Gomer Pyle' Lawrence, played by Vincent D'Onofrio results in his murder of the drill instructor. He then kills himself. He uses a rifle loaded with full metal jacket ammunition, suggesting an interpretation for the film's title.

The second part then takes place in Vietnam, mostly focusing on Marine recruit J.T. 'Joker' Davis (Matthew Modine) now a Sergeant and a Stars and Stripes war correspondent, as he covers the Tet Offensive. The 'Joker' soon becomes familiar with both the horror and the absurdity of war. His helmet decorations – the slogan "Born to Kill" and the Peace symbol – exemplify his moral ambiguity. The film concludes with the soldiers' ironic rendition of the theme song to the Mickey Mouse Club.

Full Metal Jacket has been widely praised for accurately evoking the mood of the Vietnam War from the soldier's point of view. Recurring themes are the contradictions of war, a constant feeling of being out of one's depth, and the idea of combat in Vietnam being part of a different world, with its own rules and customs. The miasma of confusion and angst of the new world begins in boot camp, and spirals down into bloodshed before even landing in Vietnam.

In the aftermath of this film a series of policy changes came about in what was considered acceptable behavior by a drill instructor in the United States Armed Forces. All references to a recruit's family are absolutely forbidden, as is striking a recruit.

The movie was shot mainly on the Isle of Dogs, a peninsula in east London. Palm trees were imported from Spain. The ravaged city scenes were shot in a disused gas works. While this was reasonable for the urban nature of the Tet offensive, it can be attributed to Kubrick's aversion to travel, especially by plane: after receiving death threats during the filming of Barry Lyndon in Ireland, he had decided never again to leave Great Britain.

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Go Tell the Spartans

A unit of American military advisors in Vietnam prior to the major U.S. involvement find similarities between their helpless struggle against the Viet Cong and the doomed actions of a French unit at the same site a decade before in this bitter look at the beginnings of the Vietnam war.

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Good Morning, Vietnam

Good Morning, Vietnam is a 1987 comedy/drama film set in Saigon during the Vietnam War, based on the career of Adrian Cronauer, a disc jockey on Armed Forces Radio Saigon (AFRS), who proves hugely popular with the troops serving in South Vietnam, but infuriates his superiors with what they call his "irreverent tendency".

Cronauer is played by Robin Williams. It also stars Forest Whitaker, Tung Thanh Tran, Chintara Sukapatana, Bruno Kirby, Robert Wuhl, J.T. Walsh and Noble Willingham. The movie was written by Mitch Markowitz and directed by Barry Levinson.

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role (Robin Williams).

Most of Robin Williams' humorous radio broadcasts were improvised. The movie was shot in Bangkok, Thailand.

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The Green Berets

The Green Berets is the title of a 1968 film starring John Wayne and featuring George Takei, David Janssen and Jim Hutton. It has a strong pro-Vietnam war message and only pro-Vietnam war movie made during the conflict.

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Hamburger Hill

While the rest of the world wondered why, the Screamin' Eagles fought and died in the fiercest battle of America's bloodiest war. A brutal and realistic war film focuses on the lives of a squad of 14 U.S. Army soldiers of B Company, 3rd Battalion, 187th Infanty Regiment, 101st Airborne Division during the brutal 10 day (May 11-20, 1969) battle for Hill 937 in the A Shau Valley of Vietnam as they try again and again to take the fortified hill held by the North Vietnamese, and the faults and casualties they take every time in which the battle was later dubbed "Hamburger Hill" because enemy fire was so fierce that the fusillade of bullets turned assaulting troops into shreded hamburger meat.

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Platoon

Platoon is a 1986 war film which tells the story of a young infantryman in Vietnam who is torn between two sergeants, one cynical, one idealistic. It stars Tom Berenger, Willem Dafoe, Charlie Sheen and Forest Whitaker. The story starts with a raw recruit Chris Taylor (Charlie Sheen), the narrator, recently being posted to Vietnam. There he joins his infantry unit and begins to experience warfare in the jungle. His innocence soon turns to cynicism as he experiences the harshness of the jungle and infantry life, witnessing friendly fire to illegal killings, culminating in himself taking an act of revenge against a superior.

The movie was written and directed by Oliver Stone who himself served in Vietnam. Upon his return, Stone was repulsed by John Wayne's version, The Green Berets, and set about creating the script for Platoon.

It won Academy Awards for Best Director, Best Film Editing, Best Picture and Best Sound. It was nominated for Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Tom Berenger), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Willem Dafoe), Best Cinematography and Best Writing, Screenplay Written Directly for the Screen.

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Uncommon Valor

A group of Vietnam War veterans re-unite to rescue one of their own left behind and taken prisoner by the Vietnamese. Supported his father (a retired military man himself) and a rich businessman whose son was also a POW, the group engages in a dangerous and violent adventure trying to rescue the POWs and at the same time re-direct their lives.

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We Were Soldiers

We Were Soldiers is a 2002 war film that dramatized the Battle of Ia Drang during the Vietnam War. It was directed by Randall Wallace and starred Mel Gibson. It is based on the book, We Were Soldiers Once...And Young by Lieutenant Colonel Hal Moore and reporter Joseph L. Galloway, who were at the battle.

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