Best Vietnam War film (cinema, best film, document, watch)

[skins_fan82]

no Hamburger Hill?

[Taiko]

Originally Posted by Mark S.

FMJ had nothing to do with Vietnam. Nothing to do with the U.S. Army. Nothing to do with boot camp. It was a completely unrealistic fiction from start to finish, and is by far Kubrick's worst movie. I would rather watch 2001 with the sound turned off in a crowded airplane than have to sit through FMJ again.

From what I remember from the novel it was based on the Boot camp experience of Joker matches what he claims happened.

Of the four, Platoon. Of all Vietnam films. Were Soldiers, Casualties Of War, the TV miniseries Rumors of War..Maybe some of the smaller films The Boys in Company C, Go Tell The Spartans and the Tour of Duty TV series.

[CA4Now]

Probably "The Deer Hunter," although for some reason, "Platoon" stays with me. Possibly because the protagonist was so unaware, going in, of what he was about to face in Vietnam. I've heard that "Apocalypse Now" was also one of the better depictions of this war, but I've never seen it.

An older thread on "The Deer Hunter": The Deerhunter

[oeccscclhjhn]

In my top 3:

The Fog of War: Eleven Lessons from the Life of Robert S. McNamara (2003)


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[JayJayCB]

I'm watching The Deer Hunter right now, and it's moving really slow. I like it alright, but Apocalypse Now blows it out of the water. The Deer Hunter also feels much older, although it's only a year older than Apocalypse Now. Platoon is a great movie, and Full Metal Jacket is probably even better despite any historical inaccuracies, but I think Apocalypse Now might be the greatest war film of all time. However, I do realize that the last 1/3rd of Apocalypse Now doesn't really deal with the Vietnam War at all.

[oeccscclhjhn]

Little Dieter Needs to Fly (1997)



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[david0966]

Originally Posted by oeccscclhjhn

Last Days in Vietnam (2014)

I agree, this was fantastic. In any regular year, this would have won best documentary at the Oscars. Unfortunately, it was competing against Citizen 4.

[oeccscclhjhn]

Originally Posted by david0966

I agree, this was fantastic. In any regular year, this would have won best documentary at the Oscars. Unfortunately, it was competing against Citizen 4.

Spoiler

Kind of like Argo only with file footage. I especially like the story about the CH-47 pilot staying on board and stepping out of the helo as he lay it down in the water - and surviving. So many stories like that.

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[oeccscclhjhn]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eO-V7aM3glw

[travric]

Re: 'FMJ had nothing to do with Vietnam'....unrealistic fiction'


I'd say what the film industry and viewers got was an incisive and brilliant Kubrickian take on man's relationship to war , what it takes to kill and how war gets rationalized. In FMJ, he used the Vietnam War as a backdrop but did his film a bit differently from Apocalypse Now or Platoon which I think were more plot driven.

In any case, Kubrick presents viewers with an interesting question after they see him killing the enemy sniper. There's the question of why did he do it? As usual, always questions after coming away from his genius in creating great films.