What is the Greatest Vietnam War Movie?

What is the Greatest Vietnam War Movie?

  • Total voters
    120
Hard to decide, many on the list are great for different reasons

FMJ is awesome for Boot Camp
We were Soldiers had great action
Platoon for the characters
ECT ECT
 
Platoon, but Hamburger Hill is a closer second than people give it credit for, seriously underrated film.
 
Apocalypse Now is the best film, but I liked FMJ better. Private Pyle's meltdown is one of the most intense scenes in all of film.

Video quality of this clip sucks, but I couldn't find better or full length scene.
 
While I love Kubrick and FMJ is an awesome film, Platoon is a masterpiece. Like FMJ is a bunch of small vignettes put together, while Platoon is a cohesive story. It's a corollary between good and evil, with shades of gray in between. You feel visceral emotions when you watch Platoon. The scene where Elias dies always gets to me.

Basically, FMJ is an entertaining movie, while Platoon is a emotionally moving experience.
 
Platoon is the gold standard. There are other good Vietnam films, but Platoon is out ahead with a fair sized lead.
 
BearGrounds said:
platoon.gif
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Francesco Quinn was a solid actor that deserved substantially more recognition than he got during his lifetime. One of the last things I saw him do was an Old El Paso commercial.
 
It's surprising that a lot of people don't know that Michael Herr who wrote one of the best books about Vietnam, worked on Apocalypse Now and FMJ. I'd recommend anyone who hasn't read Dispatches to go grab a copy. Great book.
 
Goon Dog said:
Apocalypse Now is the best film, but I liked FMJ better. Private Pyle's meltdown is one of the most intense scenes in all of film.

Video quality of this clip sucks, but I couldn't find better or full length scene.
Click to expand...


The way he says FULL. METAL. JACKET. is pretty haunting. Phenomenal scene. R. Lee Ermey and D'Onofrio were really so great in that film. I couldn't help but think (and I haven't watched the film in years) that it lost a lot after this sequence and that the latter parts of the film were not as good as the Paris Island stuff.

That said, I haven't seen it in a long time and there are many people who dispute that. I have to give it another watch because, at this point, my memory of it is mainly of individual scenes- this one, the opening with Ermey absolutely lacing into the soldiers in basic training, and of course the scene with Joker and the prostitute.

I think Apocalypse Now is the best Vietnam war film, but it also is more of an allegory about human nature than a straight up war movie. I'd imagine many people would question it being given that distinction because it is not explicitly about the war but more uses the war as a setting for its narrative.
 
Brom Bones said:
While I love Kubrick and FMJ is an awesome film, Platoon is a masterpiece. Like FMJ is a bunch of small vignettes put together, while Platoon is a cohesive story. It's a corollary between good and evil, with shades of gray in between. You feel visceral emotions when you watch Platoon. The scene where Elias dies always gets to me.

Basically, FMJ is an entertaining movie, while Platoon is a emotionally moving experience.
Click to expand...

Then the worm has definitely turned for you, my friend.
 
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