RogerBW's Blog

1987 war, dir. John Irvin, Dylan McDermott, Courtney B. Vance: IMDb / allmovie. Even the breaks between war are fairly hellish.

Of all the Vietnam films I've seen in this batch made in the late 1980s as the influence of Apocalypse Now gradually faded, this is the one that's most about the fighting; the introductory scenes, while they give us some idea of what's going on, are mostly there to point out that, yeah, these are people as well as soldiers. And it's not much of a spoiler to say that most of them will be dead by the end.

I think this film finally hits the right compromise between confusion and representation in the battle scenes: it zooms in close on this guy so that you get the correct impression that he's focussed in on himself, the noise, the foliage he's hiding behind, and really not looking out there where the enemy might be, and thereby also points out just how confusing and scary the situation is. This and Platoon are the films that had screenwriters who had personally been there, rather than Full Metal Jacket which adapted a novel by someone who'd been there and has that extra layer of removal from reality. Cinematically there is never any sense of progress: sometimes the advance up the hill is right to left, sometimes left to right, but it all looks basically the same, just as it should. You go up, you shoot, some of them die, some of you die, you fall back again. And again. And again.

One doesn't get a sense of the size of the historical battle, but while it's clearly inspired by reality this isn't trying to be a history: it's much more a personal story of how these guys fought and died and ultimately won a worthless prize. (The film doesn't even mention that the titular hill was abandoned two weeks later. It doesn't have to.)

The soundtrack is noticeable, but in a good way – rather than just plaster the film with Hits Of 1969, there's been some effort put into making the song fit the mood.

The other point being made very effectively here is one that I've cared about for a while: the difference between supporting the troops and supporting the war. What's the point of spitting on the soldiers, when most of them didn't have a choice about being soldiers in the first place?

As usual if you want more of my witterings you should listen to Ribbon of Memes, though we only mentioned this film relatively briefly in the episode.