Vietnam War Movie Recs

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I probably should have looked at your list before posting : [




More American Graffiti (1979)

I think this one will surprise you. It's not really constructed like a sequel and has little in common with the original American Graffiti other than it has the same actors/characters. That dissimilarity to the original accounts for a lot of the low ratings. It's actually more akin to indie films of the 1970s like Two Lane Blacktop or The Hired Hand than it is to Lucas' original American Graffiti.

More American Graffiti
uses a multi story, multi time frame to cover the events that take place for some of the original characters, their stories are separate. One of the story lines has Toad (Charles Martin Smith) in Vietnam during the mid 60s. The director uses different cameras/cinematography methods to capture the different eras and places of the four stories. Wiki says it better than I can:

The film, set over the course of four consecutive New Year's Eves from 1964 to 1967, depicts scenes from each of these years, intertwined with one another as though events happen simultaneously. The audience is protected from confusion by the use of a distinct cinematic style for each section. For example, the 1966 sequences echo the movie of Woodstock using split screens and multiple angles of the same event simultaneously on screen, the 1965 sequences (set in Vietnam) shot hand-held on grainy super 16 mm film designed to resemble war reporters' footage. The film attempts to memorialize the 1960s with sequences that recreate the sense and style of those days with references to Haight-Ashbury, the campus peace movement, the beginnings of the modern woman's liberation movement and the accompanying social revolt. One character burns his draft card, showing a younger audience what so many Americans had done on the television news ten years before the movie's release. Other characters are shown frantically disposing of their marijuana before a traffic stop as a police officer pulls them over, and another scene shows the police brutality during an anti-Vietnam protest.



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OK, just to add something, here's a couple of biker flicks, both in the "decent but curio" category of drive-in exploitation and interesting in that they both comment on the war while it's still in progress.






A Vietnam vet loses his buddy in battle, and comes home to inherit his buddy's chopper, and runs into his buddy's gang who have plans of their own. Fuller's not too bad in the title role.








A biker version of Dirty Dozen, with Hell's Angels fighting for the CIA in Cambodia.






An interesting one for Pryor fans, this film was a failure largely because Pryor and the studio couldn't agree on the tone. The studio wanted a comedy, but Pryor largely refused and insisted on a committed dramatic performance, playing a returning Vietnam vet. As a result, the film is a mess, trying to create Pryor's comedy through editing and outtakes. But there's a number of scenes where we can see Pryor's potential as a serious actor, which is rare outside of Jo Jo Dancer.





Heroes (1977) is another dramady dealing with a Vietnam Veteran that also suffers from some tone problems. It stars Henry Winkler at the absolute height of his Fonzie TV stardom and Sally Field just as she was digging her way out of the "Gidget"/"Flying Nun" hole the year after "Sybil" and the same year as Smokey and the Bandit. It also features Harrison Ford the same year he became a hot commodity as Han Solo in Star Wars. Winkler's character is suffering from PTSD so severe he has blocked most of the trauma from his conscious memory. He escapes the mental ward and takes off cross country looking for other men from his unit, with a hope they will open a farm with him. Sincere and Winkler is charming, but not a home run. Plays too light.
__________________
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Let the night air cool you off
I’m going to look closely at all these posts and update my list accordingly. That said, just because it’s on my list, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t mention a film anyway. You can still sway how I prioritize some of these films.



Can't believe I forgot this one. Another film that is probably more of a cultural artifact than an enjoyable movie, it was a significant hit at the time. The previous film in the series, 1967's Born Losers, has to make Billy Jack the earliest major Vietnam veteran hero on film.





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Can't believe I forgot this one. Another film that is probably more of a cultural artifact than an enjoyable movie, it was a significant hit at the time. The previous film in the series, 1967's Born Losers, has to make Billy Jack the earliest major Vietnam veteran hero on film.



I loved Billy Jack as a kid. Watched it when I was a kid at a drive-in. Years later, I tried rewatching it, and I got to thinking that maybe the rednecks weren't exactly wrong. Whenever you have some hero who thinks that being bitten by a rattlesnake multiple times so he can get high off the venom, that guy might be what Charlie Murphy described as a high functioning retard.



Wouldn't Forrest Gump be considered a Vietnam war movie of sorts?



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1. Full Metal Jacket
2. The Deer Hunter
3. Apocalypse Now
4. Platoon
5. Good Morning, Vietnam



Can't believe I forgot this one. Another film that is probably more of a cultural artifact than an enjoyable movie, it was a significant hit at the time. The previous film in the series, 1967's Born Losers, has to make Billy Jack the earliest major Vietnam veteran hero on film.


On that note, Russ Meyer's Motor Psycho has the earliest example (I can think of) of a villain that's a Vietnam vet with PTSD.*Also worthwhile for an early Alex Rocco performance and the usual Russ Meyer movie pleasures.*





The Odd Angry Shot (1979). A reasonable film, and quite different. From Wikipedia:

The Odd Angry Shot is an Australian 1979 war and action film with elements of comedy, which was written, directed and produced by Tom Jeffrey (with Sue Millikin). It is based on the book of the same title by William Nagel, and follows the experiences of Australian soldiers during the Vietnam War. The movie, which was shot on location in New South Wales and Canungra, Queensland, traces the tour of duty of an Australian Special Air Service Regiment reconnaissance team from their departure to their return home to Australia. It avoids much of the political comment on Australia’s involvement in Vietnam, unlike Hollywood films which tend to explore the rights and wrongs of the Vietnamese conflict.

The film focuses on the soldiers in their cantonments away from the battlefield, where they spend the bulk of their time playing cards, smoking, drinking beer, nursing their tinea, making jokes and messing about with American forces. The film also contains some small scale battle scenes. When the men return to Australia, they reflect on how both they and the general Australian society have changed.



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No matter how many people think otherwise The Thin Red Line is about WW2.
(edits post)

I know. Don't you just hate that!