Wayne might have been nominated for Iwo Jima, but he won his one and only oscar 20 years later for True Grit (kind of a career achievement award). Not that this makes his portrayal of Sgt. Stryker any less memorable.
It's interesting that even though this film is generally panned as propaganda, I've heard several Vietnam vets call it the most accurate film on the war.
It's interesting that even though this film is generally panned as propaganda, I've heard several Vietnam vets call it the most accurate film on the war.
. . . Which is interesting, since the movie isn't even a good representation of the book it was based on.
Compared to many of the anti-Vietnam War films that have been produced, the sentiment in The Green Berets may reflect what those Vietnam vets feel, but the film itself is badly made --- even the Viet Cong assault on the Special Forces outpost is filmed like a Japanese banzai charge overrunning Fort Apache.
It certainly has its share of rhetorical propaganda --- which many find fault with --- but that is the least of its problems. It is no more propaganda than the Hollywood war films of the 1940s.
I suppose the fact that the film was made during the 60's while the war was still raging was part of it. It can't help but look authentic in the sense that it would have been impossible to have anachronistic props or political views. So a Vietnam vet might have more "oh yeah" moments (in a scrapbook sense) while watching The Green Berets as opposed to watching something like Platoon with its 20/20 hindsight take on the war.
Posted On: 2006-01-21 18:30:00
still one of my fav's